14th Step closer to saving $10,000

Trade off baby sitting.

My baby sitter charges $10 an hour. I pay it because I can absolutely trust her, but it increases the price of a movie by at lease $30, more if we have drinks out. I realize we also have friends with kids of similar age who want to see a movie once in a while so here’s the trade off. While one couple goes to a movie or takes 3 hours out, the other couple or member of the other couple stays at their house and watches their child or children.
For example: Our friends, Couple A, want to catch a movie Saturday afternoon. My wife or I will walk over and keep an eye on their toddler while they enjoy the movie. If timed right it will even be nap time. A 3 hour outing every two weeks is a $60 savings a month or $720 a year.

13th Step closer to saving $10,000

Buy the cheapest product in the grocery store.

Whenever I go to the grocery instead of my wife I ignore the brands we have in our cupboards and I often buy the least expensive version. The peanut butter I buy is $1.00 cheaper, the coffee I buy is less than half of what she opts for and the same goes for pasta sauces canned vegetables, etc. Many times the taste or quality is better when she does the shopping, but for cake mix or veggies which are going to be tossed in a casserole I can’t justify buying the pricier item and it feels good to save money.
If a person can save an average of $1.00 per item and the weekly shopping is 30 items that’s a savings of $120.00 a month. It doesn’t have to be uniform, one trip you can buy the cheap coffee, but the next trip buy the coffee you like but cheaper wine or pasta sauce.
Annual savings is $1440.00

12th Step closer to saving $10,000

Check out your mobile phone bill.

I was reading my mobile phone bill and chanced upon my roll over minutes. I had over 12,000! I quickly checked out the other plans and moved to fewer minutes saving $30 a month. A savings of $30 a month is $360 a year.

11th Step closer to saving $10,000

Grooming services

Women, is there a way you can knock some money off monthly treatments? Men, think about where you get your hair cut. Do you go to a stylist or a barber?
By switching to a barber from a stylist or cutting back on pedicure or manicure services it’s easy to save $35 a month.

That's a savings of $420 a year.

10th Step to saving $10,000 a year

Go out less or free events.

The amount of money my wife and I spend when we go out to a nice restaurant is $80.00 conservatively. If a person or couple were to skip one outing a month or enjoy free entertainment provided by museums, parks, libraries, etc, a savings of $80.00 a month is $960 annually.

9th Step to saving $10,000 a year

Get rid of premium cable packages.

The 5 movie channels at Time Warner will cost $38.95 a month. How important are they to you? Read a book, sit outside, visit friends. I was never impressed with any movie channel offerings.
According to the Time Warner web site the 5 premium channel package is $38.95 a month over 12 months it translates into $467.40.

8th Step closer to saving $10,000

Watch the car you buy.

If you need to buy a new car it’s a good idea to look at how much money you are spending.
A $20,000 financed over 5 years at 9% is $415 a month. If you buy a $25,000 car and finance it for the same 60 months at 9% the payment goes up over $100 to $518 a month. I found cars in this price range on the GM website. If you look at the big boys, Cadillacs, the savings can get very impressive.
The Cadillac STS-V is $79,000. Financed for 5 years at 9% is a $1,639.91 monthly payment. If you buy a more affordable Cadillac, a Cadillac DTS, the MSRP is $42,590 the monthly payment is $884.10 using the same terms.
This is a great web site: http://www.defenselink.mil/mapsite/carpay.html

Many savings gurus scoff and huff at the idea of buying a new car, pontificating “No no, buy a used car with only a few miles on it.” I can only reply, I’m surprised my wife stayed married to me with the thousands and thousands of dollars I invested (no, WASTED) on repairs to used cars.
Most Americans don’t ponder which Cadillac to buy so let’s use the lower end example. A savings of $103 a month is $1,236 a year.

7th Step closer to $10,000

Watch your drinking

My friend asked why I was attacking beer since she thought I liked beer. I do like beer and I’m not attacking beer I’m attacking careless and wasteful spending.
I was at the grocery store and saw 12 packs of Labatt Blue and Bud Light both going for $9.00, these are great beers at great prices. Down the isle I saw beers at a higher end of the scale for $14.00, Land Shark, for 12 and finally the craft brewed stuff at about $16.00 for 12. If I go through 12 beers a week and switch from craft brewed to Bud Light I will save about $7.00 a week, even a $5.00 savings is nothing to sneeze at. So the savings can be about $30 a month or $365 annually, but look at what happens when we go out.
A draft of Guinness is about $4.50, more depending on local sin tax or in about every other country in the world. A domestic is about $1.50 during happy hour and I can’t remember when I have ever seen anything other than domestics on special during happy hour. If I have 3 Guinness in an evening compared to 3 domestic brews I can save around $9.00 before tip. If I go out 4 times a month with friends I’ll save $36.00 a month drinking a domestic beer. Couple the $36.00 savings with the savings from my take home beer and you are looking at about a $66.00 a month savings or $792 a year

6th Step closer to $10,000.

Stop smoking

People who smoke are sick of those of us who don’t trying to tell them what to do, but how important is smoking to a smoker. It not only takes away from your bank account, but also your health. The worst part is the health issues show up later in life when a person’s income is mostly fixed. So let’s look at a pack a day. Here in Ohio a friend of mine told me a package of cigarettes cost $4.50 so at a pack a day a smoker is spending $136.87 a month or $1,642.50 a year. Double that if you and your significant other are smokers or if you smoke 2 packs a day. A cost of $3,285 out the window every year, but for this exercise let’s keep it at $1,642.50.

5th Step closer to $10,000

Stop eating lunch out

If a person spends $7 a day on lunch out on average that’s $35 a week, $140 a month or $1820 a year. What is stopping you from packing your lunch? Your coworkers are not going to laugh at you for packing your lunch and you get to control your diet better. Again, to go out and buy your lunch takes time away from your break when you could be reading a magazine or book.

4th step closer to $10,000

Stop your home internet access.

This is drastic. How can people possibly live without internet access? Strange we got along in this country since 1776 (we weren’t a country before that) without it and had some pretty great successes: General Motors, McDonalds, Pepsi all became international companies without the internet. I’m not talking about giving up the internet all together. The public library has free high speed internet and if you have a laptop free WiFi is available all over Panara Bread, the library and many other public places have free WiFi.
Annual savings if you cancel $30 a month internet access $360.

3rd step closer to $10,000

Quit the gym membership

You know you want to and here is an excellent excuse. Do you really use the gym? Do you use it every day or 3 times a week? Even if you do a great alternative is to look at your local park recreation center. Many have workout rooms, various workout classes, running tracks, etc. A simple phone call or a visit will answer all of your questions.
Do not forget about the social aspect of exercising at your local park rec center, your neighbors are probably there also.
Some of the local fitness centers charge $60-$70 a month not including enrollment fees or parking.
At the low end the annual savings at $60 a month is $720.

2nd step closer to $10,000

Walk more.

With gas officially at $4.00 a gallon it is no longer an ancillary expense so let’s take a real look at what a short trip costs you.
I want to go to the mall to meet friends or shop.
I really don’t, but many of my friends who are more exciting and better dressers do.
Let’s say I spend 25 minutes in my car with driving there, waiting at lights and looking for a space to park. That is about a gallon of gas or $4 or $8 if I want to get home again.
We can take that same 25 minutes and go somewhere closer. If we drive smaller trips to the grocery, library, tavern, post office, etc, those trips can quickly add up to 25-50 minutes or $4-$8 in gas.
If we add up small trips which are not related to work and walk we could have a savings of $8 a week or $32 a month.
An annual savings of $384 a year.

1st step closer to $10,000

Saving $10,000 would be easier if one were to win it in the lottery. Let’s look at that.
I can't think of anyone who doesn't know someone or know of someone who has won an amount as impressive as $10,000 in a lottery game if not more. The lottery players and those who try to emulate them also spend a large amount playing the lottery & most never win that much money if any. The games would close up if that were not the case. So it is best to resign one's self to never winning the lottery. If a person spends $1 a day on a ticket that is an expense of $30 a month or $365 a year. It is also an amount of money a person could save. What to do with that money? Buy coffee and make it at home instead of buying it out is one idea.
Value Time coffee in Columbus, OH is $5 for 34 oz can. If you go through two cans a month that's $10 to make coffee yourself.
To buy coffee out at a coffee house will cost about $1.65 a cup. Two cups a day is $3.30 multiplied by 30 is $99 a month. Add the additional $20 and you have just won $119 a month not playing the lottery. If someone promised you a lottery ticket worth $119 every month you would take it right? There it is.
An annual savings of $1,428 a year.