Keep More Income

I realized a few more ways to justify getting that great home theatre set-up.

When you have a great home theatre, you end up preferring watching your movies at home.  With movie ticket prices around $10 or more, watching just ten movies a year will pay for a large chunk of your home theatre.

In other words, make movie night a social night at your place.  Stop going out to the movies and instead get friends to chip in and rent movies with you, and you’ll have a significant amount of money available to pay for your home theatre set-up.

Now you have no excuse.  Get a killer home theatre and save money.  Seems fair enough, doesn’t it?

I don’t pay for cable or satellite TV, but I do have a great home theatre set-up.  LCD TV, 5.1 surround sound, up-converting DVD player, and more.

In fact, having this set-up is what is allowing me to save money by cutting the premium cable TV.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that, with an HDTV, you can pick up all local channels in full digital high definition quality with nothing but a set of standard rabbit ear antennas.  That’s right, the same antennas that were powering TVs in the mid-20th century are the same beasts that can pick up full HD signals of your local stations.

“Local stations” of course refer to the big guys — ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, PBS, and so on — and include all the most-watched shows in American television.  Big sporting events are aired on the same stations.

In the United States, all HDTVs are, by law, required to have a tuner built-in.  What this means is that, once you have your TV purchased, rabbit ear antennas are all you’ll need to start picking up high definition TV shows.

Because I don’t pay between $600 and $1000 a year in cable TV costs, I can easily justify my home theatre purchase.  One can easily find good 5.1 speakers for around $300, a 37″ LCD TV can be had for $600, great DVD players around $50, and a strong antenna will set you back $30.

My set-up will last me for many, many years.  I don’t see upgrading my speakers or TV anytime soon.  For the one-year cost of cable TV, I was able to get a brand new, high-definition home theatre, and I can still watch most of my favorite shows — including big, live sporting events, like the Super Bowl, all in high definition.

Seems worth it to cut the cable, huh?

This one is simple.  Cable or satellite TV services are expensive and will drain your wallet.

In my area, digital cable TV packages start around roughly $60/month.  This is for the “basic” package.  (Of course, there are always promotions, but they end up with jacked up prices after a couple months.)

Satellite TV is a little more reasonable, at around $40/month minimum.

Of course, many people get tempted into the “premium” channels and end up with $80 to $100/month TV bills.  Many of my friends with debt and smaller incomes — all mid-20-somethings — claim to be paying close to $120 or more a month in total TV and Internet expenses, with promotions included.

That is simply ridiculous.  Considering that the most-watched shows in America are provided on free network television, I can’t see how anyone can justify a minimum of roughly $720/year to have more channels.

The truth of the matter is, YOU don’t need cable or satellite TV.  But there are always shows you want to catch that are only available on paid TV services.  I know that there are a few shows on HBO that I hate to miss.  What do you do then?

Simple.  You have two choices.

1. Many TV shows can be treated as social events.  When I want to see the latest episode of Entourage, I call up one of my buddies and ask if I can run over to see it.  It turns into a group social event and is even more fun than it would have been watching it alone.  Trust me, unless you never talk to your friends, you won’t be seen as “using” anyone, and in fact everyone will be even more psyched to have you over.  Treat TV as social “hanging out” time.
2. Wait for the DVDs.  Paying $30 for a season of a TV show you like is a whole lot better than paying close to $1000/year to be able to watch it on a schedule.  Better yet, if you only need to watch the episodes once, just rent it.  Rent the DVD sets for six shows and you’ve saved tons of money.

Stayed tuned for more ways that cutting the cable bill will benefit you.

My intention with this post is not to upset anyone or rile any feathers. However, your interest is in saving money, so frame this tip with that in mind!

If you are not completely technically inclined and your interest is in saving money, you would best be served by purchasing an Apple computer.

There are the widely-touted reasons:

• Little to no spreaded viruses.
• Little to no spyware.
• Ease of use.

And so on.

But my biggest argument in favor of an Apple computer is the secret that comes packaged with every computer: the Apple retail stores.

Every Apple retail store comes packaged with something called a Genius Bar. It’s a bar staffed with Mac experts, who will diagnose, troubleshoot, and solve all your problems (except for out-of-warranty hardware repairs) absolutely free.

That’s right, with every Mac comes free technical support.

Again, if you are not technically inclined, you would be well-suited to purchase a Mac. I have been in the tech support business, and trust me, I know how much money you people are throwing away at Windows machines.

(Also, if you are trying to justify the initial price of entry for a Mac — which is not bad at all — consider that Apple has student and developer discounts as well. See The Apple Store Online for more information.)

After selling my first textbook on half.com, I panicked: how am I supposed to ship this out?!

I was suddenly realizing that boxes and shipping supplies were going to rob me of all my profits.

But a light bulb went off, calm settled in, and my dreams of profit soared right back.

Most of us have free shipping supplies all around our house.  If you’re like me, in fact, you have a closet full of free wrapping for shipping that you didn’t know what to do with.  Combined with a little tape, you have everything you need.

Of course, what I discovered was that all you need to wrap up textbooks were paper shopping bags from the grocery store.  Simply cut the bags so they fold open, put the book in the middle of it, and tape the whole thing closed.  This will securely hold the book so it does not get damaged in shipping, and it will be nearly free for you to prepare.

Take advantage of the paper shopping bags you get at the grocery store — they are some of the best packing and shipping material you’ll find!

I graduated college a couple years ago, but for some reason held onto all my textbooks.

In trying to declutter my apartment, I discovered the textbooks and realized that they had to go. But before tossing them out, I thought I’d maybe try listing them online.

Many of my books were about three to five years old, editions behind the latest copies. But I didn’t let that stop me.

After a bit of research, I saw half.com as my best bet and set forth listing my books. The advantage of half.com is that, if you have an eBay account, you have a half.com account.

(That’s right, although I do not recommend selling your stuff through eBay in most cases, I highly recommend using eBay’s half.com service for selling textbooks. Aside from using your same eBay account, it is almost completed unrelated to eBay.)

Within a half hour, I had my collection listed online. Each book took roughly two minutes to put up for sale.

Within three weeks, I had sold four of the books. My net profit, after half.com fees: $70.47. And I’m still expecting more book sales soon.

Even if you’re not anywhere near college-aged, see if you know anyone who is and help them sell their textbooks online. Take a small cut of their profits.

Stayed tuned tomorrow for how I saved on shipping my books

I’m a nerd.  Being a nerd, I brag about things that I know are dumb.

One of my most common nerdy bragging rights?  I first discovered and used eBay back before it was called “eBay.”  Back then, it was “eBay’s Auction Web.”

Being an eBay veteran probably leaves me well-versed in its intricacies, you’d guess.  I probably know all the best eBay selling tips.

In fact, you’re right!  I’m feeling generous, so I’ll share with you the biggest, most important eBay selling tip I know:

Don’t use eBay to sell stuff!  Use local listings, like craigslist.org.

That’s the simple truth.  Don’t get me wrong — there are lots of people that benefit greatly from eBay.  It’s just that you likely are not one of those people.  (My apologies if you are — ignore this article and jump to any of my other money-generating tips.)

I’ll give you a very simple example.  A buddy of mine and I came across two identical computers.  They were being closed out at a super-low price by a local university.  We both bought them with the intention of just reselling them.  His route was eBay; mine was craigslist.org.

His $400 net profit was cut by about $60 when eBay and PayPal fees kicked in and his shipping rate turned out to be a little higher than expected.  He also had to wait in line to ship a big, heavy box, and worry about whether or not the shipment went through safely.

I, on the other hand, listed my machine on craigslist.org for a little more than his went for on eBay.  I had a response within the day and the guy came to me, paid in cash, and left pleased.  I ended up with roughly $160 more than my friend did, all for the exact same product.  I had less headache dealing with it and was done with it sooner.

In other words, avoiding eBay results in less stress, quick cash, and easy transactions.

For most items, don’t bother with eBay.  Use craigslist.org or any other local site

I am a big advocate of buying and preparing all your own food. I honestly feel that this is how I save a lot of my money — by largely abandoning eating out.

For most people, buying and preparing almost every meal of every day is a huge hassle. It was for me, too, until I learned the trick to properly managing my food preparation.

This trick is actually widely touted in health circles. Professional dietitians swear by this method. If you ever see the refrigerator of a celebrity trying to get fit for a big role, they swear by this method as well.

So not only do you save tons of money by using this simple trick, but you get added health and body composition benefits as well.

What is the trick? It’s simply to dedicate one day to buying all your groceries and then preparing them.

Most people have two days off every week. First thing after you get up one of those days, run to the grocery store. Buy all your groceries for the next week.

When you get home, instead of simply putting them all away, leave them out and start cooking with them. Put each meal for each day in plastic tupperware, and store it in the fridge, clearly labeled.

You should be spending about one hour total driving to the grocery store, shopping, and getting it all home. From there, if you mass cook everything, you could spend as little as two hours preparing an entire week’s worth of food.

Not only will you save tons of cash because you won’t have to eat out at work every day, but you’ll also save tons of time in food preparation. Small dinners will already be ready for you to eat. Snacks and other meals will require little to no preparation time.

Take just three to five hours one day a week to purchase and prepare all your food. You’ll save money by not eating out, and you’ll gain more time to be able to do the things you want to do with your life.

If you’re interested in saving lots of money, limiting how often you eat out will pay you in strides. You’ve heard it before, and I’m going to reiterate it for you right now.

I’m shocked when I observe how much my friends and family spend to eat out. Many of my coworkers, for example, buy their lunch at work every day. Where I work, this will set them back a minimum of $5 a day, and at an average of probably about $7 a day. On the low end, they’re dropping $25 every work week for just lunch alone — or $100/month.

I, on the other hand, have my lunch prepared ahead of time every day. My lunches average a maximum of about $2 a meal, and are frequently less than that. At my maximum cost, I’m spending $40/month.

A lot of people I know scoff at the idea of saving just $60/month. But the trickle down effect results in so much more in savings than that.

After one month of practicing something, it generally becomes a habit. Once preparing your food ahead of time rather than eating out becomes a habit, you will find yourself eating out less and less. You won’t be heading out to eat dinner — you’ll just eat what you have prepared yourself. The $60 you save on monthly lunches will turn into an extra $40 that you save on dinners. That $40 you save on dinners will slowly turn into an extra $20 you save on snacks throughout the day. You get the idea.

Having food prepared saves you when you have to meet friends for food, too. I hate that our society equates “hanging out with friends” to “going out for food,” but such is life. Since I always have my meals prepared ahead of time, I can eat a quick snack and go into restaurants without being starved and just order a small side dish, rather than a full entree. I save money, and I save the embarrassment of not having anything to eat.

I’m shocked when I read reports of people spending upwards of $200/month eating out. Wouldn’t you rather cut that food spending down to $40/month, and pocket the extra $160? Combined with other tips and techniques I provide, this will add a hefty chunk of change to your monthly savings.

Stay tuned tomorrow for tips on how to prepare your food efficiently.

A lot of us do small transactions with cash every day. I know that if you’re anything like me, at the end of the day, your pockets are rattling with change.

I used to ignore the build-up of small coins, usually either letting them sink into couch cushions or just simply losing it all around the house or in the outside world. Growing up, my parents even had a bucket of loose pennies they collected. They never deposited it, but I would guess there was at least $50 in pennies in there!

Now I know better. At the end of every day, I have a small cup that I dump my change into. At the end of the month, I take that change to the bank and have them deposit it into my account. Most banks have automated change-counting machines — no need to run to a CoinStar.

Now, I’ll be honest. I am a very frugal person and don’t buy things very often when I’m out. But, even so, I net a solid $20 to $40 at the end of every month, just from the pocket change I would have otherwise ignored.

$20 to $40 a month, just from emptying the change from your pockets every day into a cup or two? Sounds good to me.