Money Saving Tips - The big ones

Below are some money-saving tips that I use everyday. I've listed the major ones in this posting that will actually show you real results. I've saved the smaller-ones for a follow-up post. The biggest theme here is to be conscience of your spending. If you're not already aware, you'd be surprised how much money goes unaccounted for on coffees, meals, drinks, and impulse buying.

• Make a calendar of all your bills. This helps me budget our money each pay period. I use a Google calendar to record all our recurring bills. Then, every payday, I calculate how much money will be coming out till next payday. This lets me know ahead of time if we need to be a little more conservative in our spending over the next two weeks.

• Act like you're poor. If you have a 'poor-man' mindset, you'll think twice about going shopping or eating-out excessively. Spend only what is in your checking account or if you decide to charge something, make sure you have enough to pay it off at the end of the month. And always be aware of your money and upcoming bills!
• Move all your cash into savings each payday. Every Thursday before payday, I check to see what the leftover balance is before we get paid. We have scheduled our bills evenly throughout the month, so that every payday can cover all the bills during that two-week period. (sending bi-weekly mortgage payments have helped tremendously, not to mention we send an extra payment each year without ever noticing) Then on payday, I either move over the carried balance into savings, or make a big payment to one of our debts. That way, we don't splurge the next pay period because we had leftover money and blow it on mindless crap.
• Coupons/Groupons/promo codes. Sometimes I feel like a cheap-o whenever I pull out a coupon, but oh well. Most of the time, coupons and Groupons dictate where we go for dinner. Groupons can obviously become dangerous, but I only tend to buy them if it's for a place we go regularly, or have been wanting to try. You can also sign up for a restaurant's mailing list and get free coupons sent. Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, and fast-food places usually have promotions they send out. Finally, when purchasing anything online, always do a google search for promo codes to apply at the checkout. Very rarely do I not find one promo code to use.
• Start a SmartyPig account. I don't care what your excuse is, everyone should have one SmartyPig account. The biggest reason why people can't save, in my opinion, is they always think about saving after they have spent all their money. You're thinking the wrong way. Pay all your bills, set aside some savings, then you can spend the rest of your money. The best part about SmartyPig is it withdrawals from your checking on a recurring schedule and you forget about it. We have ours set up to withdrawal every payday. We have three funds set up: Home Improvement, Vacation, and Juicer fund. There have been several times where something broke in the house and we needed extra cash. I just make an instant transfer to my SmartyPig debit card and then ran to Home Depot. We've set up a Car fund in the past to pay for insurance, vehicle tags, and other vehicle-related expenses which was nice. SmartyPig will get you excited about saving money. If you want to know more, or want an invite, message me. It's totally free and you earn interest.