How to Save Money The Easy Way

A penny saved is a penny earned, is what grandpa used to say. However, saving a few pennies or a few bucks, is not always so easy, until now. Follow my sure fire ways to save money and you will be singing your way to the bank.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Step 1: Make an invetory of your expenses.
   
   The first step to saving money is by first understanding how you spend your money. If you use a debit card to pay for expenses, this is easy...just pull up your bank statement and you will have a full list of all your monthly expenses. If you do not use a debit card for your expenses, your bank statement should be able to give you most of the info of how your spend your money. Otherwise reley on receipts.

2. Step 2: Categorize your Expenses
   
   I don't categorize my expenses by the traditional: gas, food, shelter, entertainment, misc categories like other do. I categorize my expenses as 1) things I can negotiate 2) things I can do without
   The things I can negotiate category includes: Cable bill, internet, cell phone, home and car insurance, credit card interest rates.

3. Step 3: Let the negotiations begin
   
   This is the fun step for me. I negotiate my bills every year. I start by calling the Internet company, in my case Comcast and negotiating my rate. Often, they offer new members price discounts of $19.95 for 6 months of internet service, but then they raise the rate to $50 a month. If you simply call them and ask for the $19.95 internet rate or tell them you will go with a competitor, they will drop the rate. Also many internet providers have unadvertised Basic internet rates. These can be as low as $12.95 a month and I am not talking dial up here. I was able to bring down my Internet bill from $30.00 to $17.95 a month by doing this. A savings of $144 a year. Follow the same strategy when calling your insurance company, cell phone company, home insurance and credit card companies. You will find that they are eager to negotiate with you. I have all my credit cards down to 0%, my car insurance is down to $89 for full coverage and my cell phone bill is $39/ mo and I am still trying to get that lower.

4. Step 4: Reduce things you can do without
   
   Do you buy lunch every day, well a $8 lunch can cost over $2,000 a year. Why not make your lunch? If you don't like the idea of waking up early to make your lunch, do this: buy groceries on your lunch break and store them in your office refrigerator. If your office does not provide a refrigerator, you can usually buy a under the desk refrigerator for about $100. Consider this an investment. Storing yogurt, milk, cereal, sandwich ingredients at work makes it easy to avoid buying lunch. Simply shop for your "work groceries" once a week and you are set.