So, you are looking to save money? Awesome. The world needs more people like you!
Check  out my ten ways to save $100. Download the free worksheet at the bottom of the page!

1. Do a budget and really look at your expenses.

If you haven’t done this already, when you do, you will automatically see where you can save money!

In a game, the coach keeps track of the scoreboard to know where his team is at and where they need to go. Your budget is the base of your financial scoreboard. You have to know where you at to understand where you need to go! This month I went through each of our fixed expenses and realized that three of them went up. Because of this, I searched for better deals, made some calls and reduced our bills by over $100 alone!

2. Reduce your internet bill.

Your internet provider probably runs specials all the time to hook people into their service. Did you know that ,more than likely, you can call in and get one of those deals even though you aren’t a new member? I didn’t know this, but we were desperate. I needed to get our bills down as much as possible after we had our baby. I saw that my internet provider was offering specials that were $40 plus lower than what we paid. I called in and they told me that anytime there is a special running (after my yearly plan is up) that I can always call to get the lower deal! I didn’t know! I got our bill lowered by $40 and I got the special that included cable for free.

3. Compare Car Insurance and really read the fine print.

Allow yourself a good chunk of time to really analyze the details of your car insurance. This is also another service where you can call in and ask for deals. They want to keep you, so it is very likely that they will give you better offers than you can find online! We saved close to $100 by looking into what we really need and comparing insurance companies!

4. Check out Ebates

Basically, if you are going to do some shopping already, just go through Ebates and get cash back. It’s simple and easy. I love it. If you want to save a little money here and there on stuff you already buy, then seriously check this out.

5. Check out some survey-reward companies like Swagbucks

I was always a little iffy about those survey taking reward companies but the more I followed other bloggers who did it and sang praises, the more I was open to the idea. I finally caved and looked into it. Swagbucks is great. You basically earn points for doing things you already do and or taking surveys. You can get some pretty great gift cards through it. Check it out here.

6. Take a close look at your phone bill.

I did some research and actually looked into what I was paying. We were basically financing our phones with the “special deal” that was promoted to us in the store! I paid off the phones (I recommend buying an older edition off of ebay instead of buying brand new in the store! This would have saved us hundreds-almost a thousand.) and called in to ask for the cheapest option they had. This saved us $75 a month.

7. Reduce your Eating-Out Costs.

Want to really see how much you are spending eating out? Simply, print out your bank statement last month, take a highlighter and quickly mark every time you spent money on eating out. You can also track this through Mint.com. (I love mint!) You might be surprised. We were! Set a goal for how much you’d like to spend eating out. Maybe it’s just once a week instead of a few times a week. I once had a coworker that bought breakfast and lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY. Holy cow! Imagine what you could do with all that extra money!

8. Make a goal to get rid of your debt and those pesky, added interest rates.

Picture yourself free of the debt you have. Maybe that’s a car, a credit card, a student loan etc. I never realized how big the impact would be once we didn’t have those extra payments. A few hundred dollars here and a couple hundred dollars there on our bill every month added up to so much that when we eliminated all of them, we could live off of one income and I could stay at home and raise our baby. What could you do with a debt free life?

One of the things I did for some of our smaller debt (a few thousand dollars) was get a zero interest credit card, transfer the debt onto the card, paid it off within the zero interest time period and then canceled it once we were done. It was amazing. Now, if you are not good with credit cards, please skip this! But if you can handle the tracking and payment, then it could possibly save you hundreds or more. It did for us and I got rid of those loans for good! Do a little research online and choose a zero interest card that fits your needs most.

9. Consider your “guilty pleasures” spending

How much do you spend on tobacco, alcohol and marijuana? The average person spends over $750 a year in this category!

We love some wine with dinner but when we realized how much we were spending on it and what we could do with that extra cash, we decided to make a change. We made an alcohol budget and started testing out cheaper bottles. As a matter of fact, we found a $2.99 brand of wine at our local Kroger store that we love. One bottle of wine a week for us now totals $12 a MONTH. That equals less than ONE bottle of wine we used to buy a couple times a week!

10. If you are a family with babies, consider cloth diapering, homemade baby food & thrift shopping for clothes.

You will save HUNDREDS. Cloth diapering is no big deal either! I used to cringe at the mention of cloth diapering. But then I did my research and found it was absolutely nothing like I’d thought! If everyone knew how easy and cheap cloth diapering was, they would all do it! The trick is to start off on the right foot. Simply, you need to have the right stuff to make it work, just like you can’t leave out flour when baking a cake.

Homemade baby food is also super awesome. My cousin bought me the Baby Bullet (it comes with a whole feeding schedule and recipes!).  Example: I paid .99 for carrots and made a couple WEEKS worth of food. And your baby will get a HUGE variety of foods that he/she would never get store bought.

With thrift store shopping, I used to hate walking into those stores. But then I met more and more wealthy people who shopped discount and thrift. I found that more financially savvy, wealth building people shopped thrift and poorer income earners shopped brand new. Now when I walk into a thrift store, I have the mindset that I am doing so because I am being financially smart with our money. Plus, I honestly have found the most adorable outfits ever at thrift stores for Mae. It is interesting that my favorite outfits have all come from the little thrift store around the corner! Also check out Facebook Marketplace, Facebook groups selling kids stuff in your area and Craigslist.

Click Here to Download Your FREE Worksheet!