There are an infinite number of small ways in which you can save money and stretch your income. In the long run, developing the discipline to consistently take advantage of small methods of saving and cutting costs will result in building real wealth.
Of course saving money when purchasing a home or auto is a great idea too, but how often do you buy them? It’s just as important, if not more important, to save on the things you consume daily such as food, gasoline, home energy, water, and so on. You are going to consume them every single day of your life.
When figuring out how to save money on every day things, just think "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Purchase Things that Last." Here's a few examples.
Reduce - Buy Potatoes, not Potato Chips
You know the drill:
- lower the thermostat in the winter
- buy potatoes not potato chips
- plan your travels so you minimize travel and save gasoline
- get your books from the library not the book store
- eat more meals at home
- wait for the movie to come out on DVD and save the high cost of the theatre with its $5 bucket of popcorn and a 25 cent soda you’ll pay $3.00 for
- better yet, borrow DVD’s from your library
You can reduce your energy costs by:
- adding insulation to your home
- making sure the weather stripping on your door and windows is good
- replacing your light bulbs with CFL low energy use ones
- buying energy star compliant appliances and so on...
Recycle – My Favorite Was How She'd Make a Ham Last
The term recycling wasn’t used much when I was younger, although it was practiced. When I was quite young, my mother would cut down my pants and make shorts out of them after I wore out the knees. She’d darn the holes I put in my socks so they’d last a while longer.
My favorite was how she’d make a ham last. She’d bake the ham and slice it and we’d have it for a main meal. Next she’d cut and scrape the meat off the bone, grind the leftover ham with pickles, and add mayo to make ham salad to spread on bread. Then she’d make bean soup, add the bone, and slow cook it for 8 hours. That ham added a lot of flavor to the soup. She wasn’t quite done yet, because next she’d give the bone to our dog, who would gnaw on it until it was completely gone. Now that’s recycling at its finest.
Purchase Things that Last
Purchase things that last. Twenty five years ago, my wife and I decided that we would only purchase items that we would want to keep for the rest of our lives. For that reason we waited until we could find and afford to purchase what we wanted.
We bought a beautiful leather couch and chair 15 years ago that we like just as much today, if not more. We’ve have a 20 year old bedroom set that we wouldn’t trade for anything. We have a patio table and chair of wrought iron and tile that will last forever and look just as good 100 years from now. Some things just get better with age. If you buy with a lifetime purchase strategy in mind you won’t jump to buy the first thing that is acceptable, and then in a few years grow tired of the item and want to replace it.
Reuse and Restore
Reuse whenever it's practical. My wife wanted to replace our three outside patio lights and our ceiling fan. She no longer liked the colors. The replacement lights she liked cost $90 each and the ceiling fan a little over $250. This would have amounted to a total of $550 after sales tax. She decided she didn’t want to spend that much, so she asked about repainting them.
I took the lights down, removed the glass panes and cleaned them and lightly sand each metal fixture. I did the same with the ceiling fan. She found a color she liked at the local hardware store and purchased two cans of spray paint for $14. She painted them and the end result was we saved $536 and she is just as pleased with the new color of the refurbished lights and fan as she would have been with new ones, maybe even more pleased since she restored them herself.
