Another 7 Easy Ways To Save Money

In our last article we focused on a few ways to save money. This time, you'll find a few more ways to save money and maybe a couple that you didn't think of. As always, it's not my intention to make you a cheapskate, but rather to give you the choice of where to spend your money instead of wondering where it went.

I mentioned this in the previous article but it's so important that I have to repeat this again. The first thing you should do after reading this article is grab a notebook, PDA or some other way to keep track and start recording your spending. Write down every purchase you make, even a soda or snack from a vending machine. Keep it up for at least a month and then look at where your money goes. You may start to see a trend that you want to stop before the month is over and by all means, change it. You may also want to do this more than once. It's a great way to keep from falling back into or developing new bad spending habits.

Here's a pet peeve of mine, ATM fees. Not only do you pay 1-3 bucks for the ATM you're using but another 1-3 bucks to your bank. If you stop at the wrong ATM for $20 for dinner then you may be paying $26. Take a look at your bank statement and see how much you could've saved by planning over the last month. Personally, I saved almost $100 when I stopped using other ATMs.

Bank fees Depending on your bank, you may have free checking or pay a fee each month. If you're paying a fee, then you really should think about how much it is and if it's worth changing banks. You should pick a bank that has a lot of ATMs that are convenient to you and free checking. If you pick the correct bank, you can easily cut down the number of ATM fees that you incur simply by having your bank's ATMs on the way to your destination.

Gas prices Use a search site like Gasbuddy.com Prices can vary by as much as 25 cents a gallon in the same city. It's not worth your time to drive across town for a penny a gallon but if you can detour a few blocks for 10 cents a gallon then it's worth it.

Prescription drugs According to a recent study, the prices can vary widely between pharmacies so unless you have drug coverage from your insurance, you should call around to different stores and check. You can also use a mail order pharmacy but be careful on those.

Pay down your mortgage Unless you have a loan that doesn't allow this, you can over pay each month and that money goes directly to principle. Depending on your loan and the amount you over pay, you may save thousands over the life of the loan. Incidentally, some auto loans also allow this.

Pay your bills on time. A little known bit of fine print in many credit contracts allow unrelated companies to increase your rate just because you were late on a different account. Not only that but some companies will raise your rate to 29-31% interest if you're 1 day late.

Free cycle is a group of people that choose to give away items instead of throwing them away. Not only does it save the receiver money but it keeps it out of the landfill. Do a search for your area and see if there's a group in place.