Archive for October, 2008

Posted 10/31/08

In my continuing search for ways to save money in the down turning economy I've started to look inward at the household expenditures that we make. After looking at all the external bills that I could possibly shrink, and looking at the dining out food bill, I've managed to cut down on expenditures by nearly $200 a month. That is a huge savings of course, but I want to really tighten the belt and make some serious headway in the next few months.

One of the things I've started to look at is eyeglasses. Lots of people wear them, and they are one of the most expensive items you can purchase depending on your insurance coverage. If you are like me and your employer does not cover vision on the insurance plan there are several ways you can make up the difference and still save some money.

After you've gone through and cut down the savings on dining out expenses, and you've begun to use grocery coupons, you should have enough money left over each month to put away in a tax free medical deduction account that many employers offer (especially if they only offer a base level coverage package). These medical accounts allow you up to a certain amount of money to be put into them for medical/visual bills and the money is tax free. If you take the amount of money you're saving and put it into this account you should by the end of the year have a nice sizable chunk of change to put towards your vision coverage.

Most glasses will run between $300 and $600 per pair. If you've got a family and have multiple eyeglasses wearers thats a lot of money. One of the best things about the internet is the ability to shop around for the best prices. In this particular case, you can find some seriously big discounts on prescription eyeglasses. So before you go and buy that $600 pair of eyeglasses from your doctors office, be sure to shop around and find the best price out there.

Some of the time I find myself idly sitting on the couch randomly surfing the web looking for various sources of amusement. I know I'm not totally alone in this particular idle slacking. If you find yourself in this predicament more often then not then perhaps these sites are for you.

Want to make money while you sit and stare at the computer doing mindless tasks? Of course we all do. These next couple of sites will enable you to make some extra bucks just from surfing the web. Surf the web and make money? Of course it sounds too good to be true, but its not. These sites have tasks for you to do, and yes they are boring, but they add up. And if you've got some free time on your hands why not give it a try.

ChaCha.com - This site i'm not entirely sure will work, but hey why not give it a try. Basically people ask questions and you go find the answers online and send them back the message which goes to their cell phone. So if you're out eating and need to find out who the owner of a restaurante is so you can kick their ass for crappy service then this service could be your answer. This site doesn't pay a ton, but if you answer enough questions you might be able to generate some extra income.

Mturk.com - This is probably the easier of the two websites to figure out and use. Basically people that need things done multiple times post them here and you do them. Simple right? It is to a point, but there are some jobs on there that are very complex and will take some time to complete. I've seen jobs paying up to 20$ per job. Its definitely worth checking out if you've got some time laying around and want to get paid for doing things online quickly and easily. Its a product of Amazon and you get paid to an Amazon account, which can be transferred anywhere or used on Amazon.com.

With the economy going directly into the toilet lately everyone has been talking about what the best place for their money is. For the longest time the stock market was one of the best places to have your money and make it do work for you, but that has changed somewhat in the past few years. The stock market now is a great place for investors who have money to spare and can buy up down stocks and wait a few years for the money to grow. For most people that's not a functioning path that they can take.

One of the best places for your money right now is in a normal plain savings account. Keeping it there is a safe place for the time being. The key to a savings account is of course actually putting money into it. I've recently adopted the plan of taking $20 a week and putting directly into my ING DIRECT savings account.

The Orange Savings Account. Earn 2.75%. Great rates, no fees, no minimums which is a great rate lately. Some of the other features of my savings account with ING DIRECT are:

- A variable 2.75% Annual Percentage Yield on savings every day
- No minimum deposit
- No hidden fees or service charges
- 24-hour access to your account
- A higher earning rate than most CD's or money market accounts without having to change banks!

Taking $20 a week and putting it into this account at 2.75% daily comes out to a savings at the end of the year of $974. Thats almost a thousand dollars tucked away for whatever you might need it for. All for the price of one meal at a restaurante each week. I don't know about you, but I can eat in once a week to save myself an extra $1000.

So with the economy taking a dive, you should take precautions with your money and save where you can. The market will more then likely go back up in the coming years, but wouldn't you rather be sitting on a nice chunk of money when it does?

One of the biggest ways to save money in a down economy is to limit the amount of times you go out to eat every month. While for most people this seems like a no brainer, you would be surprised just how much the average person spends a month on dining out.

I happened to stumble upon this penny pinching product the other day while I was surfing the web for penny pinching ideas for this post. The book is only $10 and it includes a shit ton of great ideas for saving yourself some money while eating out. They also throw in some other tips for around the house.

One of the best tips in the book I found was that dirty dishes cause more debt. Sounds wierd right? Well stop and think about it for a bit, if you have a pile full of dirty dishes hanging out in your sink, you're more then likely to say screw it and just go out to grab some fast food.

I highly recommend this penny pinching book to help you save some money in this crap economy. Its only $10 so won't stress your budget too much and in the end may end up saving money for you. Check out the Dining On A Dime book here.