More Cash For You and Your Family in 2010

Are you looking to save money in 2010?  It’s not surprising that there are many families looking to reduce spending and get more bang for their buck. Everyone is looking to stretch their dollar a few more cents to cover unpaid bills, upcoming expenses, grocery shopping and still have enough money left over to enjoy day-to-day life with with the kids, your partner or enough to reward yourself for a small vacation.

As a way to help you get started with 2010 on the right foot, here are a few brainstormed ideas on how to save additional money this year, leaving more money in your bank.

Common Day-to-Day Ways to Reduce Your Spending:

1) Reduce your Grocery Bill – Coupon Clipping through your local newspaper is great, but there are more convenient ways of gathering coupons.  Try using sites like Coupons.com

2) Reduce your Retail Bill – If you haven’t jumped on the online coupon bandwagon, where have you been?  There are plenty of ways to save  by using sites like Retailmenot.com. Sites like these, display the most current coupon codes to save on things like shipping or give discounts for minimum purchases and help you save quite a bit. You’ll be a different shopper after you start using online coupon codes.

3) Bring a Sacked Lunch –  When you’re at work, stop spending money at restaurants. Make your lunch. You’ll be amazed as to how much you save in just one week. If you feel alienated from friends, try having a competition on who can bring the best home cooked meal.  That way you can all pack a lunch and eat together.  Sounds corny, but try it…it may be fun.

4) Stop Buying Gourmet Coffee – For all gourmet coffee drinkers…You can save a hecka of a lot of money in one week.  Maybe you don’t have to quit cold turkey, but you can reduce the number of times you visit Starbucks or Coffee Bean.  If you must get a daily jolt of caffeine from Starbucks, you can buy Starbucks gift cards at Costco.  You can get $100 worth of Starbuck gift cards for $80.

Uncommon BUT Efficient Ways to Reduce Your Spending:

5) Reduce your Credit Card Interest Rate – Look at your credit card interest rates. Even in this economy, it can’t hurt to call your bank or credit card carrier and see if you can get a reduction in your interest rate, especially if have a good history with them.   If they won’t reduce your rate, research new credit cards that have a low balance transfer. Make sure to read the fine print to see if they will charge an initial fee transfer based on the dollar amount transferred. That’s something you probably don’t want.

6) Research Auto Insurance Costs – When was the last time you’ve done a cost comparison with your auto insurance to see if you’ve got the best deal?   You could be missing out on saving some more money if you ignore car insurance costs. Do your homework. You may be able to get a cheaper plan with the same customer service as your current auto insurance provider.

7) Be Green – Helping the environment can also help out your wallet. Turn off lights in a room that no one is using to save on electricity. Reduce your shower time and reduce how long you water your lawn. Purchase energy-efficient products and recycle your cans and bottles for extra cash.  If you have kids, the kids may love getting the extra cash to put into their piggy banks.

Kids Eat Free – Visit restaurants that have special deals for kids to eat free.   Check out: Mykidseatfree.com  This neat site helps you find places to go at any time during the week (of course low traffic days like Tuesday and Wednesday are the most popular for these types of deals)

9) Search the Internet – See how people like you, are saving money.  Find articles such as “30 Ways to Save Money“.

Good Savings in 2010!