Please help, send me some ideas!!!!

Well... As i am sure you know , money doesnt come out of thin air no matter what u hear. To get money , you need to either work very hard and give it all youve got (which im sure you already do) or invest. Even in making online money , u can hardly ever get any big amounts quickly without investing. I think 25$ a month can get u to earn some serious money :) but about that you should ask the pros (im a newbie) But to save money , you could travel with just one car (if u have 2 , just sell the second and make whoever goes to work later drive the other one to and from wok :) ) Also , fast food costs a lot of money , compard to a good cooked meal for morning and evening =3 Plus you wont have to worry about weight gaining. But most of all , as i said , the best way to earn is investing... just aim for the 100% sure investing oportunities , no matter how little the gain :) Its better than nothing (for example , neobux.com - you invest about 75$ per month , but you earn about 180 in return)

Well what my BF and I do save some cash is... Save your change, I know it sounds strange but we should all know here at myLot is that a little change here and there adds up!!! Coupons are great! Look through your Sunday paper, they always have a great number of coupons! Make a list. When you grocery shop, it is always better that you make a list of the things that you need rather than, going isle to isle. You end up spending more! Just don't go to one store! Some things are less expensive at other stores.. Look through the internet for prices, even shopping online can save you a bundle, that is how I do all of my Xmas shopping, and party decorations! My mother says that unplugging the television when you leave the house saves! I never do it! But give it a whirl! Mothers are always right! I hope this helps you! If I think of any more ideas I will be sure to let you know!

You will get a lot of suggestions and some will suit you, others will not. Cutting your grocery budget: Do make a list, but plan your meals when you are in the store. Buy what is on special, do not rigidly stick to your list. For instance if you marked green beans on you list and they are $1.59 a pound but there is a huge special on cauliflower for $ 1.00 per head switch to cauliflower. Same with meat. If chicken is on special plan some meals around it. Never mind what is on you list. Try and shop on the perimeter of the store. Fresh fruits, vegetables, unprocessed foods, milk products and cheese. Save empty peanut butter jars of the same size. Shop in a bulk food store for oatmeal, raisins. dried fruits, nuts and spices. Store them in those jars. Store the nuts in the freezer so they will not go rancid. There will be big savings on spices. In the grocery store you pay about $ 2.00 for a little jar of spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg. In the bulk food store they will cost you a few pennies and you can buy a smaller quantity so they are always fresh. When toilet paper and paper towels are on sale buy some whether or not they are on your list. I also have little storage space but I designated one clothes hamper to store extra paper towels and toilet paper. Preparing Meals: Do not buy precooked meals. They are bad for your health, full of additives and preservatives. Use those meals in an emergency only. Instead invest in a slow cooker. On the weekend set in a stew, a chili, baked beans or soup in the slow cooker in the morning. Let it cook on low all day. Voila! there is your supper and another meal thet you could keep for Sunday or Monday or freeze to use up during the week. Wasting Food: Never waste anything. Faithfully go through your fridg the day before you go shopping and prepare a meal of what is left as far as veggies or salad ingredients are concerned. Use up any leftovers within a week. If after a meal a cup of rice or a few spoonfuls of veggies are leftover add them to a soup or use up the rice by adding stirfried veggies and chicken strips. Saving coupons: Do save coupons but before using them check out store brand items. Sometimes they are still cheaper than brand names with coupons. Cleaning the house: Cleaning products are so expensive. Use them only sparingly in the bathroom. They give off toxic fumes. Use baking soda and vinegar in your kitchen. Sinks can be cleaned really well with baking sode, counters also. Vinegar is good for windows and mirrors. It saves a pile of money and provides a healthier house. Visit Garage Sales and Flea Markets from time to time. Sometimes you can pick up items really cheaply. A friend bought me a beautiful muffin pan that was brand new never used for $ 1.00 at a garage sale. In the store they are at least $7.00 or $ 8.00 Go to Dollar Stores You can get wrapping paper, gift bags, plastic containers, ribbons. boxes picture frames and cards for all occasions at a cheap price. My cousin bought a nice box there and stocks it up on a regular basis with birthday cards, thank you cards, sympathy cards. The cards are usually $1.00 while elsewhere they cost as much as $ 4.00 Saving on the Electric and Water bill: If you can replace your top loading washing machine with a front loader. It uses much less water and is gentle on the clothes. Wash all your delicates in cold water. Run your dishwasher only when it is full. Make sure you have weatherstripping all around your outside doors. Turn off the lights when leaving a room, unplug appliances that are not in use. If you are gone all day run your airconditioner or heat on low. If you can invest in a programmable heat control, that turns down the heat when you go to sleep, turns it up for a while in the morning, then turns it down when you leave the house and turns it up an hour before you get home. o.k., o.k enough already. I hope a few tips are useful. Good luck and good savings.

Turning Your ac up when your not at home can save. If you have pets its ok they survive is the humid hot temperatures anyways and if you live up north you don't even have to worry about that. Also a great way to save on your grocery bill is to cut coupons and only buy things on sale or if you have a coupon. A great way to save is by going on mypoints.com and singing up a account with them and then you also get points to get gift cards for local restaurants or other places and then you can use that toward food also. When you print out coupons and use them from mypoints you are earnings points to be able to get a gift certificate. Love there site and enjoy saving your money like i do.

Ohhhhhhh...I like this one. These are some of the things that my family has done although some of them may be harder with the colder weather coming but I'm still going to do them for as long as I can. Grocery: - Make a list and stick to the list only (you would be amazed), my husband and I did this and saved up to $ 50.00 on each bill. We also only take one cart (used to take 2 because of the kids) and this has helped too. Buy generic brands (they're just as good as name brands and up to .50 cheaper), Now your sizes and prices and see if buying in bulk is a better idea. When buying meat, we buy the discounted meat, split it up and freeze it. Clip coupons. Electric: Hang your laundry outside (if weather permits), only use cold water on the washing machine (water is water and the temperature does not change the way it cleanses) so your saving on your hot water. Make sure all taps are turned off. Instead of baths have a shower (do you really want to sit in your own tepid filthy water anyway :P Instead of using the stove/oven...BBQ. Propane is generally cheaper and you can do this in almost any weather if you can stand it. Keep the lights off during the day...open the curtains or blinds for natural light. If your not using it, turn it off. Home: We changed our tv/satellite/internet and phone plans. We bundled all together, switched to dial-up (slower but $ 25.00 cheaper), we changed our satellite service to basic (not as many channels but again, a savings of $ 25.00). Our phone was switched to basic service also (no answering service, call forwarding etc) and we switched our cell phones to pay as you go that way we have to be careful about how long we talk. If the minutes are used up before the end of the month then it's basically too bad. That's all I can think of for now but I'll keep thinking

Well I have lots of Ideas for I live on a fixed income of 674.00 and we rent so I know how to squeeze a penny till it crys. LOL. On the electric bill first I would have to ask if you have a normal electric or a rural electric comany for they do different in how to save there. One thing that always helps is to go buy and some elctric comanys will give you so many energy bulbs for they are expensive I know. But they really do cut the bill down drastically but takes about 2 months to begin to see it. Another way is a personel wind turbine which can help they say too. I do not turn off my lights everytime I leave a room for in fact it runs the bill up when they tell you it saves to turn of when u leave wrong. I leave the bathroom on all day from when it gets dark till I go to bed and save. As for grocery savings there is many ways to save there. Bulk is the first thing and I know on a budget it is costly to buy in bulk but a way around that can be start changing slowly like buy 12 bottles of shampoo on sale for $1 and depending on size of your family should last a year. Do similars things with all simple things in your home or combine things to work for 2 or more uses like shampoo can be used as body wash also if you have a bottle dilute is some and you have body wash. aslo works good for shaving your legs instead of buying shaving cream so right there will save you about 20.00 a month or every two months for everyone is different. Then buy beans in bulk along with flour, sugar and coffee those are the things that people use a lot of and can see the savings very fast. Another way to save is buy family packs instead of single packs and repackage that way you save per pound and get more for the money as well. Learn stores that can help save you budget as well and for one that is in a lot of areas is Doller Tree and is also online now that can really help your pocket and soem even take food stamps. Then find a good store for meat and can goods so the savings increase as you go believe me it may take allday once a month to get your shopping down but can save thousand. Another way everyone needs to save is on gas and travel my best things I can say is get a rewards cards like from speedway and use it loyally for it really gets you free gas and discounts on lots of things. I got lots of gas last summer with my points and it was well worth it also using the fountains drink reward almost everytime I went in I got a free drink for there is 5 of us normally going in and it ttakes six to get a free one same with the hot food which also gives you bounus points for the 6th one also. there are otehr promotions you will also get from time to time that will help you out alot. Coupons will also help out if you use your head and check out sales and look for double coupons and see if you can get things free or how close you can do it. It is like a game and rewarding yourself by with savings and free things as well. Then there is the internet with freebie and samples as well. Sign up for shop4freebies.com it is great way to get somethings that can help you out as well everyday.

the most important this is knowing just what is truly important, and what is not. it is society's fault we even feel the need to buy more and more: more cloths, more things we don't truly need. bigger house, better car, expensive cloths. even foods we don't need. cutting on eating out and buying the truly useful helps a lot :)

I have a 'budget buddy' - one of my friends and I email each other to write about what we did to save money and how we resisted temptation. This kind of makes things easier because we praise each other for little things - it makes it not feel so hard. I talk with my friends a lot, so we exchange things if we need them. Ie. One of my friends likes to do scrapbooking and wants more scrapbooking things, and my mother in law was cleaning out her crafts cupboard. I try to meal plan so that no food gets wasted. We eat simple meals with few spices, so it's pretty easy to just stock up on a few basic ingredients. I go online and search for coupons every once in awhile. We removed lightbulbs - some of the rooms in our apartment have clusters of lightbulbs. We open the curtains to let natural light in whenever possible. I think a lot of the other things I do have been mentioned by other people.

If you shop a lot through internet, you can log on ebates or fatwallet to save money for your shopping. If you want, give me your email address, so I can give you a reference.

I tink it is better to try to earn more earnings by any small business. It is good to save money by less expenses but only tis is not enough. The good way is also to try to have some more earnings. Thank you.

Hey hey below is my two cents: 1) make a shopping list before go to super market to avoid buy useless groceries. 2) make a budget at the beginning of every month, you and your husband have to control yourselves, never spend exceed the budget. 3) eat less, or eat two meals a day instead of the normal three meals. 4) cook by yourselves rather than take meal from restaurant. 5) ... good luck.

Hi jodylee. It seems to me that you are encountering a financial crisis. What I have in mind is to just try and save. You cut cost. If you like to watch movie and eat on a fancy restaurant, you can eliminate those stuff and cut the cost. If you are using computer 24 hours a day, you might as well use it only 6 hours a day. You should also see to it that all your appliances are not plug in. they consume electricity that way. You can also save water by recycling it. You don't have to flush your toilet all the time especially when you just go urinate then someone's gonna follow you. You can flush it all together after he/she is done urinating. You also might want to consider the fare and the food on your budget. You can always walk. You also have to refrigerate left over food so that it can still be consume on your next meal and all you have to do is to place it in the microwave. I guess that is all.

My strategy is not having "spending money" available. Make a budget, and on payday immediately move any excess money into a savings account. It's hard to motivate moving money from your savings account and use it to buy fastfood :)

I read through all your brilliant responses and thought wow - some people are so savvy when it comes to saving. I thought I would share a website with you that I use for cleaning products which seem to costs ridiculous dollars these days. I have nothig to do with site, I'm just mum like you trying to save money. All the best. Whoops because I'm new I cant put the site in - but if you type natural homemade cleaning products into your url you will get the picture.

There are some pretty savvy savers in this crowd, and it seems they have covered most of the basics. There are just a couple more ideas that I can add to the mix - 1. Cut down on meat purchases, they are very expensive. You don't have to be a vegetarian, but try to have vegetarian meals at least every other night. I have a friend that will make stew one night (with meat), and then just add more veggies and have it again a couple of nights later. You still get the beef flavour, just without the expense of adding more beef. 2. When you are using your oven, think ahead. For example if you are roasting a chicken for tonights meal, throw in a lasagna (or whatever) to have the following evening. I do this with three or four items at a time. Bonus - you don't have to cook for the next couple of nights, just heat and serve. 3. Pick a reasonable amount of money when you go grocery shopping and only take that much with you. A small calculator will keep you on track so you don't go over budget. Without the actual cash in your pocket, you are much more aware of what you are actually buying and spending. I do this in all areas of shopping, not just with food. 4. Don't be totally turned off the idea of take-out food. With family specials, coupons, and so on, there are still a few deals out there that are actually less expensive than eating at home. Plus, the family gets a treat, and you don't have to cook and clean up.