How To Save Money

The Internet is a great tool to help you save money in many different ways. You can use the Internet to look up your local grocery store's weekly sales so you can plan your shopping list before heading out. You can comparison shop. You can purchase items from online stores which can be cheaper and also save you gas money. You can use the Internet to find printable coupons, free samples, free trials, and many other such things. There are literally hundreds of website dedicated to helping you save money, you just need to know about them.

One of my favorites is My Savings. This website offers printable coupons, free samples, free trials, and a forum of other people who have wonderful information about new ways to save.

Free samples can also be found on Walmart's website.

Mypoints.com is an excellent website for saving money! Mypoints is a reward based website that basically pays you to shop through them. You'll earn points for shopping through the merchants listed on the website, and there are plenty of them like Walmart, Target, Old Navy, Gap, Overstock, and many many more. There are other ways of earning points too, such as clicking a link in your e-mail, although those are obviously considerably less. Once you accumulate enough points, you can exchange them for a gift card to a store or restaurant of your choosing!

There are other sites similar to Mypoints that offer cash incentives for shopping through their website, TreasureTrooper and Cash Crate are websites such as this, and they are trusted.

Another way to save money is by using coupons, and this is probably everyone's most favorite way to save. I especially like the coupons found online. They usually offer a greater savings than the ones you clip in the newspaper, and you can usually print off more than 1 coupon (my limit is usually 2).

But you don't want to go to just any site in order to print your coupons. Did you know there are websites that will actually pay you to use coupons through them? They're the same exact coupons you get from other sites such as Mysavings, only you're offered a reward! Mypoints actually offers points for printing coupons through them, but you have to print and redeem 10 coupons a month to get the reward, or you must redeem the "featured" coupon.

Personally the website I prefer to print my coupons from is QuickRewards. This website pays you 1 penny everytime you print and redeem a coupon from their website (these are the same coupons you find on Mypoints and Mysavings!). The only catch is it may take 30 days for the penny to show up on your account balance through this site, but I like the fact that you get 1 penny per coupon. If I use 1 coupon a month, I still get my reward, I don't have to make sure I use 10 in order to see the reward. If I use 50 a month I get 50 cents, unlike with Mypoints if you use more than 10, you still get the same reward.

QuickRewards does have a few other ways to earn money, such as clicking links in your e-mail or on their website, and online shopping which helps you earn your money faster. Your money accumulates in your account until you choose to withdraw it. There is no minimum payout to withdraw your money to Paypal, which is great. If you have 50 cents and want to send it to Paypal, you're able to.

To join QuickRewards, click the banner below:

I must say that I am quite guilty of being an impluse spender. Actually my weakness is food! When my family and I go out anywhere, we tend to end up eating out. Regardless if we pack a picnic or not, we just love to eat out, and can't stop ourselves. It's our vice, we hardly ever say no to ourselves!

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with eating out once or twice a week with your family. However, for my family, it is a serious no-no! We rarely have the money to eat out! If there's $100 in our bank account and we know we have a $400 bill due next week, so we should save that $100 for that bill...does that stop us? Not usually, no! We spend that money anyways, then the following week we have less money to play with because of that $400 bill. So then do we stop ourselves from eating out? Not always. Sometimes we'll spend the money anyways, knowing darn well it will overdraw our bank account. But since we have overdraft protection the bill will be paid and we'll just face a $30 penalty.

Now to those of you reading this, you're either thinking this is incredibly stupid, or you're thinking it sounds rather familiar. Sadly far too many people are in the same boat as I am, although for you it may not be with food. Perhaps your vice is shoes, or clothes, or cigarettes, or a daily coffee and the local Dunkin' Donuts. Regardless of what it is, I'm going to tell you how to make it stop!

First, make sure you have at least two seperate bank accounts. Preferably drawn on two seperate banks. One of the accounts will be a savings account, while the other can be a checking account. The savings account should be drawn on the bank that's open the fewest amount of hours, preferably not open on Saturdays either. Make sure you do not have an ATM card or anything of that nature to your savings account.

Now if possible, speak to your employer about setting up a direct deposit. If you're capable, split up the direct deposit into both seperate accounts.

Here's what we did: we budget ourselves for 4 weeks per month, and each week we put $200 into the savings account. That's our bill money. When a bill is due, we go to the bank and withdraw exactly what we need for that bill, and buy a money order with it.

The remaining money goes into our checking account, which I have a debit card for. This is the money I'll use to buy my groceries, my gas, and any non-essential bills like our Netflix membership or our gym membership, the ones that aren't all that important if they don't get paid. Then, this also ends up being our spending money.

Now here it is Sunday afternoon and we want to go out to eat. We have $30 in our checking account. We have $500 in our savings account, but we don't have a way to get that money out! So what can we do? Well, we could take our $30 and go to the store to buy something that's easier to make for dinner instead of the pork roast I had planned. Or we can use it to buy a snack at the store to get us through until dinner is ready!

See how that works? Because we don't have access to our money, we're forced to make smarter choices, and our money isn't being touched so it's actually there once it comes time to pay our bills. Not to mention, whatever is left over after the bills are paid is just sitting there collecting interest! Some day you might look at that account and there will be $1000 there that isn't being budgeted towards a bill! Forget eating out, you could take a weekend trip with that money!

I have a large family of 7, and feeding all my kids can be quite expensive. Along the way I've learned many new tips on how to save money at the grocery store.

We used to be the type of family who ate fast food on a regular basis. We also did a lot of "nuka meals" and boxed dinners. Well all of this has changed now. I've found it is much easier to make foods from scratch, and it's cheaper too. Fast food or going out to eat is now a treat instead of a habit. Boxed dinners are still prepared, if I have a good coupon, but I've found ways to make almost everything from scratch and cut my costs a lot.

Many people will find excuses such as not enough time. That's not good enough! The crockpot or slow cooker is one of man's greatest inventions for those short on time. Your meal can go from freezer to crockpot to table with minimum effort. Throw your ingredients in the crockpot in the morning and it will be ready at supper time!

Other ways I'm saving at the checkout:

Only use coupons when necessary. Often you'll see a coupon for save 30 cents off 5 items. Then 4 of the items go to waste. Not really worth it. Clip coupons that you will actually use, and that will actually save you money!

Buy off name brand when possible. Many of them are just as good, but the cost is a lot less.

Buy in bulk and freeze! Bulk is by far cheaper, and by freezing it you'll have something to serve when money is tight.

Grow your own! I have planted some vegetables and herbs in my yard. You can save the seeds from the foods you eat and plant them in the early spring/late winter. Start indoors and transplant outside when the weather becomes warm.

Almost anything can be done from scratch to save money. Bread, pasta, baby food, pizza, the list goes on. Look up recipes and give it a go. You may have to buy the initial ingredients, but most of them go a long way and are used in multiple recipes.

That by "going green" you are also saving money, if done correctly?

Shopping at thrift stores or second hand shops are not only a great way to recycle clothing and other items, it also helps a charity (in the case of the Salvation Army or Rescue Mission shops), and saves you money! You'd be amazed at the treasures you may find at such low prices. I almost always do my kid's shopping at these stores. It seems pointless to buy them brand new clothing when they are only going to stain or destroy them before they grow out of them in a few months.

Many areas of the world pay you to recycle! Here in the states we are paid 5 cents per soda or beer can when we recycle them. Other countries offer cash incentives for other aluminum cans or newspapers.

Compost: Instead of trashing your food scraps, start a compost bin and use the soil in your garden to grow new vegetables. This eliminates the need to buy new soil every year.

Using cloth diapers not only saves our landfills from all those disposables that do not break down, but over the course of the child's diaper years, can save you thousands.

I have recently heard of a cloth sanitary napkin for women. I am now 28 years old, and could spend an estimated $1,200 on maxi pads before I hit menopause. Or I could buy or make some cloth pads and spend a bit initially, but have a lifetime supply.