1.Stop spending more than you absolutely have to:
One of the easiest ways to cut down the family budget fast is to get cell-phone savvy
Stop spending more than you have to - get cell phone savvy and find prepaid, no-contract cell phone plans where you only pay for what you need. There are plans out there now that offer tremendous savings each month - Boost Mobile is expected to launch a new unlimited plan in the near future that offers a nationwide home calling area for one low monthly fee - that's a great value in today's economy.
Prepaid wireless plans are a great way to save money - they can often be paid by the minute, day or month to let you control exactly how much you spend, and with no contract, you can make changes to your service whenever you need to.
One of Boost's camera phones, the Motorola i776, is only $99. Again, no contracts, just buy what you need.
Also, see www.billshrink.com for an excellent tool that asks you a few questions about your current plan, and then finds alternatives for you.
Another way to save is to comparison shop:
By spending ten minutes or less online doing a little comparison shopping for things like insurance, you can save tons of money.
More than a third of drivers say they never shop for car insurance.
Evaluating your car insurance regularly is a great way to save. If you've moved, gotten married or bought a home, check with your insurance company - you may be eligible for lower rates.
Auto insurance rates can vary greatly from company to company, so shop around to find the best deal. It only takes about 8 minutes to get a quote and check comparison rates at progressive.com.
2007 data showed people who shopped around and switched to Progressive insurance reported saving over $350 on their annual premium.
2. Don't buy when you can borrow:
For the family:
Santa brought Jennifer Jolly's daughter a Wii for Christmas and they were super psyched, until they realized that the games they wanted to play on it cost about $60 a piece. That's where Gamefly comes in.
Rent video games for your kids, don't buy them. Use Gamefly.com, the Netflix of the video game world. Gamefly.com lets you try all the games you want for as long as you want while only paying $15.95 a month. Rent 1-4 games at a time and keep them for as long as they like. Your favorite gamer can try all of Gamefly's 6,000 titles without breaking the bank. Through GameFly, you can purchase used video games at a very discounted price too
On a more decadent note:
Designer Handbags, sunglasses, jewelry and watches:
Bagborroworsteal.com: for about $40 you can borrow a Coach, Gucci or Louis Vuitton handbag that would cost you $1,000 or more to buy.
Frombagstoriches.com: They will rent you a designer bag, best used for special occasions like an Oscar party, your wedding or the prom because the rentals can get expensive and before you know you could have just bought one.
If you want a bag that stands out for a hundred dollars instead of thousands, renting makes sense.
3. Swapping is HOT!
The average consumer spends about $1,750 a year on clothing and its upkeep, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey.
Free Books, DVD's and Videogames:
Swaptree.com: Swaptree allows people to trade used and like-new books, DVDs, CDs and video games with other people online for FREE. Users list items that they are looking to trade, select items that they would like in return, and Swaptree's technology connects users with someone to trade with. It's up to the user whether or not to accept or reject the trade. And, since swapping on the site is free, users only have to pay for S&H. Over 1 million people across the country trade on Swaptree.
Free Clothes, accessories and cosmetics:
Clothingswap.org: Simply bring clean, gently worn and new clothing, shoes and accessories that you no longer wear or use. SWAP and take home your favorites for free. All unclaimed items are donated directly to local non-profit shelters and charities to help those in need.
Swapstyle.com: Swapstyle is an online fashion swap party where you can and lots more with people from all around the world at any time, day or night. You pay the cost of shipping and a small fee to register.
4. When it comes to travel, only rookies pay retail
Leather seats, enough room to cross your legs, free cocktails -- what's not to love about flying business or first class? And it's surprisingly easy to do at coach prices by combining points earned from credit cards and from frequent flier programs on an aggregator site like points.com.
At points.com, you can track, redeem, earn and-for the first time ever, trade your points with other people in order to accumulate enough for a free flight or to do some shopping.
With many airlines, it takes just 10,000 miles to yourself to business or first-class, an easy enough target to reach given the numerous bonus point offers currently available. United Airlines, for example, offers 150 miles for every $250 spent at major grocery chains like Safeway. American Airlines gives you 1,500 bonus miles for trying Netflix.
Second: the airlines are desperate to fill every seat.
There are all kinds of great flight deals out there right now. Go to cheapflights.com to find the best deals - Orbitz, JetBlues, Expedias - they're all there in one place - so you save precious time as well as money. They have flexible booking options that help you to find a good deal to your destination without having to search just for prices on specific dates.
Don't be spooked, we are seeing some of the best travel deals in history right now. If you know what you're doing, you can spend a fraction of what the person sitting next to you on the airplane did.
Third: Just about every hotel and resort has some hot deal right now:
For instance, the swanky Kimpton hotel chain is offering breakfast for a dollar - the very same breakfast that could run well into the double digits each day. Book the "Breakfast for Just $1 More" package and get continental breakfast for two each morning for just a buck! This is good at any of their 44 hotels for stays through March 1st (based upon availability, of course) - that includes any of the Hotel Monacos (Seattle, SF, Denver), any of the Hotel Palomars (SF, Los Angeles) as well as the Hotel Solamar in San Diego. Visit www.kimptonhotels.com for details. Enter "EAT" in the promo code box or request this special package when booking.
5. If you're going to buy, go big, buy a house:
Here's the big ticket item for living large while paying less. If you use a non-traditional brokerage like ziprealty.com, you will get money back in the form of a rebate check.
If you buy a $300,000 house, you'll typically get $1,800 back, enough to buy furniture or pay the closing costs.
On top of that, the ZipRealty offers tons of information and user-friendly tools to help with your search including a new "Foreclosure Search," the ability to rate the agents you work with, and track price reductions for housing you are looking at.
Thinking green? Need a Starbucks in walking distance for your morning fix? ZipRealty features walkscore ratings for every listing that will tell you how "walkable" or "Car-dependent" the house and neighborhood is.
Foreclosure data is cross-checked to ensure homes are bank-owned properties and currently for sale. And if foreclosures aren't for you, the foreclosure search allows home-seekers who don't want to deal with the hassles of a foreclosure house (i.e., more cash needed upfront, having to compete with professional investors, downtrodden properties) to omit these from their search results.
For more information on anything mentioned in this segment, visit the following websites:
>> www.jenniferjolly.com
>> www.boostmobile.com
>> www.progressive.com
>> www.billshrink.com
>> www.gamefly.com
>> www.swaptree.com
>> www.bagborroworsteal.com
>> www.clothingswap.org
>> www.swapstyle.com
>> www.points.com
>> www.cheapflights.com
>> www.kimptonhotels.com
>> www.ziprealty.com
