Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A Nod to Frugal Dad from my Google Reader

This is the best list of money saving tips I have read in a while. Frugal Dad is right on the money with a lot of these. I particularly like these ones:


1. Switch to cloth napkins. I’m not sure why it took a down economy for this one to dawn on me, but cloth napkins are a great alternative to paper napkins, which increase waste and add to our non-food budget.

10. Buy a used car, and drive it until the wheels fall off. My grandfather has driven two vehicles in 34 years! Sam Walton drove a twenty year-old pickup truck right up until the time he died. Don’t tell me it can’t be done. Remember, a new car is “used” the minute you drive it off the showroom floor.

28. When eating out, divide entrees in half and save the rest for a second meal. Ask for a to-go box as soon as your meal arrives and save half for tomorrow’s lunch. Restaurants are notorious for piling on portions, so this move will help you spread out the calories and cost of the meal.

34. Plant a tree next to your outside air conditioning unit. By shading your outside unit you may improve the operating efficiency of the overall system by 20%. Take care not to plant to close to the unit to maintain proper airflow.

40. Reuse bath towels. Sounds gross at first, but think about it - you are clean when you get out of the shower. Hang up towels after each use to thoroughly dry, and only add them to the dirty clothes pile after every three or four uses.

55. Divide credit card minimum payments in half and pay that amount twice a month. Interest is calculated based on the average daily balance of your account for the entire month. By making a payment every couple weeks you are reducing that average balance and therefore reducing the finance charges assessed, as opposed to waiting until the end of the month to make a single payment.

I subscribe to about 35 different blogs and you can see links to most of them in the section entitled What's in My Google Reader in my right sidebar.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Number 55 is a really good one that I need to start doing. My bill money usually sits in an interest checking account until the payment is due. My savings in interest is probably greater than what my checking account is earning.