c.r.e.a.m. - cutting spending and free services
August 7th, 2007 | Published in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Most financial goals require you to save money over a specified period of time. This may usually requires you to cut your spending. The Simple Dollar suggests 40 ways to reduce your spending including for example this nice “green” tip:
Install CFLs Compact fluorescent light bulbs are receiving a big push right now and their advantages are great: a longer lifespan and significantly less electrical usage. Stick with the name brands for now, even at a premium - my entire house switched to GE CFLs more than a year ago and I have yet to replace a single one. A tip: when comparing bulbs, use the lumens number to compare bulbs, not the equivalent wattages - the lumens indicate the actual amount of light emitted by the bulb. Remember also that under normal usage (4 hours a day) and normal electrical rates ($0.10 per kilowatt hour), replacing a 75 watt bulb with a 20 watt CFL saves $0.66 per month. Multiply that by all the bulbs in your house to see how much you’ll save every month.
We scoffed at this when we first read it but after counting the number of light bulbs used in a few rooms (3-6 on average) this can be a significant savings. Of course, if you are a tortured soul that lives in the dark this won’t help you very much.
Another strategy for cutting expenses is finding free alternatives for services that you now pay to use. For products and services you can get for nothing check out these freebies from Kiplinger.com. The article includes such gems as:
FREE ATMS: A buck or two here and there may not seem like a big deal, but if you’re frequenting ATMs outside your bank’s network, the surcharges can add up quickly. Get money from an ATM that belongs to a surcharge-free network. Allpoint has about 200 participating institutions and 32,000 ATMs. Money Pass has 600 members and 8,000 ATMs.
In addition, if you don’t have a need to deposit a lot of physical checks see if it makes sense for you to move to one of the new online checking accounts. We have heard good things about ING’s electric orange checking account which also offers free ATM usage.
If you have any additional advice for saving money and/or quality free services let us hear about them in the comments. - IM
October 7th, 2008 at 5:07 am (#)
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