Search Results for: blog ways to spend less in the new year

5 Ways to Spend Less on Halloween

The cute costumes, the Martha Stewart decorations, the bags and bags of candy…the cost of it adds up. Just like the dark monster in the corner, you are afraid to take a good look at how much your are actually spending. Halloween has certainly become a big holiday. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent more than $8 billion last year celebrating. Eight billion! Seriously. It doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, brandish your own bag of tricks to spend less this Halloween. You’ll be able to make it a magical holiday and leave the bills … Continue reading →

Europe for Less

If your bucket list includes a trip to Europe, now is the time to make your dream a reality.  A number of reputable European hotels are offering deep discounts just in time for the busy summer travel season.  According to popular travel aggregate sites, such as Expedia and Hotwire, several five-star properties are slashing prices to entice visitors to spend part of the summer across the Pond.  Lodgings in some European cities are going for less than $100 per night. Among the most amazing deals are properties in Berlin, a city that has added more than 3,000 new hotel rooms … Continue reading →

Less is More: How Not to Feel Deprived

Buying less not only means saving money, but it can also be freeing in other ways. For ten years of my life I gave up coffee. This was mostly because of two factors. My new (then) husband could not stand the smell of coffee brewing, and during those ten years, I was either pregnant or nursing or both, and choose to stay away from the caffeine. I didn’t actually miss coffee much after a little bit, and I could knock that expense out of our budget. I no longer felt I needed coffee, had desires for coffee or felt deprived … Continue reading →

Four Ways to Reduce Your Heating Bill

If the weather INSIDE is frightful because you are afraid of home heating bills, you won’t spend a very pleasant winter. A better solution is to stay warm by finding multiple ways of reducing your heating bill and then combine these strategies to reduce your heating bill to the lowest cost possible. Selective Heating Only heat the rooms you are actually using. Are there any rooms that can be closed off temporarily during the coldest part of the year? Even if your home isn’t zoned, you can make it warmer in the rest of the house by isolated unused rooms. … Continue reading →

Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions and Save on Insurance

What was your New Year’s resolution for 2013? The popular ones include losing weight, quitting smoking, and saving money. You might be struggling to keep that promise to yourself right now. Hang in there! Keeping some types of New Year’s Resolutions could save you some money on your insurance premiums. No matter what your insurance premiums cost, you probably would be happy if they were lower. This is true for auto insurance, life insurance, and health insurance. Fortunately, there might be a few ways to convince your insurer that they should lower your rate, or, at the very least, not … Continue reading →

Five Ways to Afford Video Games

Are your kids asking for the $70 Skylanders game or a new video gaming device that costs more than your first car did? Video games can get expensive, and because new and hot games are constantly emerging, and the old technology can become obsolete in a year or two, many parents feel like they are spending quite a bit of their budgets keeping their kids up to speed with video games. To reduce the cost of video games, try the following options. Consider an Older System The newer the gaming system or computer, the more it will cost. Consider purchasing … Continue reading →

According to a New Report, Household Debt is Increasing

Maybe it is because basic things required for living costs more these days. Food, healthcare, utilities and clothing have all seen a rise in prices. Maybe it is because we simply haven’t learned from the last economic crash. While home prices are slowly rising, so are sales of the latest electronic gadgets that sell out hours or days after being released. At the same time, U.S. income has fallen overall by 1.5 percent. Whatever it is, a need study has confirmed what may be surprising to some: household debt has seen the largest rise since 2008. How much household debt … Continue reading →

Five Unconventional Ways to Save on Everyday Expenses

You use coupons at the grocery store, combine errands to save gas, and watch your spending to save money, but is there anything else that you can do to save on your everyday expenses? Probably. Take a look at the following unconventional ways to save. You just may be able to save hundreds in just a few hours. 1. Cut your property tax. With the economic downturn home values have decreased by thousands of dollars. However, your property tax assessment probably doesn’t reflect this new value, which means that you could be paying taxes on a home value that isn’t … Continue reading →

Four Ways to Save Money on Children’s Clothing

According to cost of living tables, a family can spend anywhere between $50 and $90 per month per child to cloth him or her. I don’t think my family spends much more than that per year, or at least we try not to. The numbers go up from there for teens and adults. The one exception may be shoes, since the kids tend to go through several pairs in a year, and although I can get the cost of shoes down quite a bit, they have less pricing wiggle room than do other types of clothing. Outlet Pricing Yesterday we … Continue reading →

Ways to Savor Summer Nights

While some parents are busy belting out “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” I am desperately trying to squeeze as much outdoor fun into what’s left of my daughter’s summer break. Classes resume next week and neither one of us is ready to say so long to the season. My family spends a ton of time outside during the summer months, and this year has been no exception, despite the record-breaking heat. Now that the new school year is about to start, we are trying to get in as many outdoor adventures as possible. Since I telecommute, I … Continue reading →