The little things do matter
Posted
Feb 29 2008, 11:02 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Look at these 12 little hacks and think about how simple they are.
Switch your savings account from your local bank to ING Direct. That's the bank I switched to about a year and a half ago in order to get a higher interest rate (then more than 4%). They made the whole thing easy as pie -- it took about five minutes -- and I've never had anything but stellar customer service.
Drink one less coffee a week. Let's say you stop at Starbucks -- or your preferred coffeehouse -- three times a week. Just trim it back to two. That's it.
Call one credit card company and ask for a rate reduction. Just flip over your card and call that number on the back. Ask to speak to a supervisor if the first human you get won't reduce your rate.
Stop by the library and check out some movies. Most libraries have a pile of movies. Stop in and browse the selection, then take some home for viewing with the family.
Replace one light bulb in your house with a CFL. Some people complain about CFLs for general lighting, but they're great to put in places like closets, garages and the laundry room, where light quality isn't that important. Instead of screwing in another incandescent bulb, put in a CFL instead.
Air up your tires. The next time you get your oil changed, ask them to check the air pressure in your tires if they don't already do it. If you're willing, do it yourself. Most gas stations offer free air, and your car's manual explains how to do it.
Drink water instead of your usual beverage with one meal a day. Instead of having a soda, a glass of milk, a beer or whatever you might normally have, enjoy a glass of water with your meal instead.
Switch your checking account to Electric Orange. That's the checking account I use. They pay 2.25% APY on your checking account balance and have a huge ATM network, including any Target in the United States.
Read a book. Instead of filling your time with other activities, curl up with a good book. Pick one from your shelf, get one from the library, or request one from PaperBackSwap.
Write a grocery list before you go to the store, and stick to it. This keeps a lot of unnecessary stuff out of your cart.
Prepare one simple meal at home from the cupboard instead of ordering delivery or takeout. It could even be something simple like a hamburger or macaroni and cheese.
The next time you make a casserole, make a triple or quadruple batch and freeze the rest for later. These meals are great for lazy nights when you would otherwise get some fast food, delivery or takeout. Instead, just pull it out of the freezer, heat it up, and you're ready to eat.
These are all easy steps and reasonable for the average person to do. They're tips that, in various ways, I've often mentioned at The Simple Dollar. You might already be doing some of them.
How much do they save, though?
Switch your savings account to ING Direct. If you have $1,000 in your savings account and your local bank is giving you 0.5% interest, moving it to an account with 3.4% interest means an extra $29 a year.
Drink one less coffee a week. Let's say your average coffee costs you $5 all told -- you get a scone sometimes, after all. You'll save up a nice, tidy $260 a year.
Call one credit card company and ask for a rate reduction. The average American household has $9,000 in credit card debt. Let's say that call reduces your rate by 3 percentage points. That one phone call saves you $270 a year.
Stop by the library and check out some movies. If you do this once a month instead of going out to a movie or renting movies, you'll easily save an average of $10 a month. That adds up to $120 a year.
Replace one light bulb with a CFL. An average light bulb is on four hours a day. You'll save 50 watts an hour with a CFL, equaling 200 watts a day or a kilowatt-hour every five days, which is 10 cents. Over an average four-year period, you'll use one CFL or you'll use eight incandescents, so over an average year you'll save the cost of a normal bulb -- about 80 cents. Remember, this one is easily multiplied because you can replace all of your bulbs. But just one bulb will save you $8 a year.
Air up your tires. An average tire's pressure is about six pounds low. Filled to capacity, that will save you 3% on your gas mileage. If your car normally gets 20 miles per gallon, you drive 10,000 miles a year, and gas costs $3 a gallon, you'll save $46 a year.
Drink water with one meal a day. On average, this saves you 40 cents a day, as that's the average cost of a meal beverage. Thus, water alone saves you $146 a year.
Switch your checking account to Electric Orange. Say your checking account costs $5 a month in fees and pays no interest. If you switch to Electric Orange, you get 2.25% in interest and the fees go away. If your average balance is $2,000, this move will give you $105 a year.
Read a book. If you replace one $20 activity a month (going to a concert, etc.) with reading a book from the library, you save yourself $240 a year.
Write a grocery list and stick to it. I've calculated that a well-executed grocery list saves me about $15 a week for my family. That really adds up, to $780 a year.
Prepare one simple meal at home instead of ordering out. If you do this just once every three months and it saves you $10, you can save $40 a year.
The next time you make a casserole, make a triple or quadruple batch of it and freeze the rest for later. If each extra casserole saves you $5, and you make a quadruple batch once a month, you'll save $180 a year.
This all adds up to $2,208 in a year -- and it's pretty easy to see that some of these are repeatable, which racks up even more savings. That's a car payment. That's a big piece of saving for a house down payment. That kind of money can eliminate a five-figure credit card debt in just a few years.
What's the point of this exercise? It skewers pretty cleanly the two biggest arguments against frugality: It doesn't add up to real money and it's too hard. Few would argue that these activities are hard at all, and I think it's pretty challenging to say that $2,200 a year isn't real money for most people.
Take the little steps. They will pay off.
Other articles of interest at The Simple Dollar:
"Video games and frugality"
"
Preparing your own skillet meals in advance" "The ballad of the rusty bumper"
