Great Ways to Save

Car tips:

1. Buying a car at the end of the month is the best time because businesses are scrambling to make sales quotas.
2. Gasbuddy.com! This is a website in which drivers can use to check local gas prices. It has also gone mobile so you can use this as an app on your phone!
3. Be sure that your gas cap fits correctly and is twisted tight. 1 in 6 cars do not have caps that fit properly. A gas cap that doesn't fit properly can reduce a car's mileage by up to 10%.
4. Cut your costs by choosing the right credit card when getting gas. Some cards with cash back credit offers high rewards for purchasing gas.

Financial Tips:
1. Many jurisdictions give property tax relief. If you are an older homeowner, you can receive this based on your income. However you might have to submit documentation on your income and social security benefits.
2. Prepaying can dramatically shorten your mortgage life and save you a lot of money in interest.
3. BillShrink.com analyzes your everyday costs. FindABetterBank.com compares your checking account plans at banks and credit unions. BrightScope.com compares your financial advisers and your 401(k) plans.

Health Tips:
1. See if a local health club offers a pay-per-visit plan. By paying for a monthly membership, most people overspend because they are able to go to the gym only on an average of once a week.
2. New healthcare provides free preventive tests by medicare providers. Wellness checkups much of the time require a 20% copay. Check with your medicare participating doctor.

Utility Tips:
1. You can save up to $200 a year by insulating your electric water heater and its outgoing pipes. Pipe sleeves start at $2 for 12 feet, and heater blankets run about $20. Check with a plumber for the safety.
2. Install a programmable thermostat, and a homeowner can save up to $180 a year in heating and cooling bills.
3. Replace your incandescent bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs. By replacing a 60-watt incandescent bulb with a 15-watt CFL, you can save $69 over the life of a new light bulb.
4. You can save 6% on power consumption of your refrigerator if you keep your coils dust free.
5. If you are buying an oven, consider a convection model. This can cut oven energy use by 20%. Why? This is because it is continually circulating heated air around the food.
6. Only use bathroom and kitchen vent fans in the summer and winter. By using regular fans, it costs money and will blow your heated or cooled air outside. This forces your furnace or air conditioner to make up the difference.
7. Inflatable fireplace dampers keeps the warm air in your home from escaping through the leaky metal damper. You can save $50 to $200 a year if you pay $50 to $200 ONCE.
8. Turn off radiators or close heating and cooling vents to conserve energy in vacant rooms. Maybe invest in heavy drapes because it lowers energy bills.

Travel Tips:
1. Buy an airline ticket on a week day instead of a weekend when prices are often the highest. Tuesday is the best day to buy because many sales are launched on Monday nights. Competitors then typically try to match prices by the next morning.
2. Instead of paying for a day's fun around a Caribbean Island, invest in a day pass to an island resort. Or you can book your own excursions before sailing to avoid these high-prices outings which are offered onboard.
3. You can find senior discounts through clubs such as the Over the Hill Gang International and the 70+ Ski Club.
4. Find great rental car one way rates. In the spring, rental car companies move their fleets north from Florida.
5. Bring your ATM card. Use an ATM if you need a foreign exchange currency. This helps to avoid fees by using the machines which are affiliated with your home bank's global network.
6. Many credit card companies add 1-3% when you are overseas. Cards at sites like CreditCards.com and Cardhub.com makes sure that benefits aren't outweighed by interest rates or high annual fees.
7. To avoid rental car damage charges, take pictures just in case you are blamed for someone else denting the car.
8. If you are on vacation, shopping at thrift stores are the cheapest way to find well priced souvenirs or even a bike.
9. Instead of renting a car, you have the option by using public transit or a shuttle.

Shopping Tips:
1. Compare prices online. PriceGrabber.com, Nextag.com, Bizrate.com, and Pricewatch.com are good price comparing sits.
2. Wholesomewave.org brings affordable, fresh, local produce to american homes.
3. Devote 20 minutes a week to finding coupons to saving more money.
4. Join groupon, livingsocial and buywithme for daily deals to show up in your email. This promises local discounts on everything you cold ever need. Dealfind and Dealon feature deals on food, local events and services. Dealery.com and Yipit aggregate offerings from multiple sites for one-stop e-shopping.
5. Organicconsumers.com for bulk-buying co-ops is a good way for lower shipping costs for fruits and vegetables and to find farmers' markets in your area.
6. Before eating out, find dining bargains online and look at the menu.
7. Pay your bills online for free instead of buying checks, envelopes, stamps, and late fees.
8. 20-40% of shoppers never collect their rebate. Prove merchants wrong by saving all receipts, forms and packaging needed to apply for your rebate. Be sure it doesn't expire!
9. Many merchants will give you replacement items for free if something breaks, so don't rule out that nothing is returnable.
10. Buying homes, exercise equipment, and buying TVs is best to do in the winter time. Spring is the best for buying computers, digital cameras, and carpeting. Summer is the best for buying indoor furniture, camcorders, and snow blowers. Fall is the best time to buy lawn mowers, gas grills, and GPS navigation systems.
11. Ask if you can keep the hangers when you buy clothing at a store. Most clerks will say yes.

Home Tips:
1. Netflix! This is a movie streaming website which costs $8 a month. You can also see free TV shows at Hulu.com, TVClassicShows.com and TVLand.com. Redbox movie kiosks also cost $1 a movie.
2. Use your pantyhose to scrub dishes, shine shoes, train shrubs, or to store onions, flower bulbs and paintbrushes. This can also protect squash and melons from garden critters.
3. Cut your dryer sheets into two because each has has enough of an active ingredient for a large load of laundry.
4. Free music online. Internet radio stations like nuTsie, SeroMood and Jango offer music to fit your taste.
5. Do not brush your hair over a sink. Also, discard cooking grease into cans and not the drain. Pour a kettle of boiling water down each sink monthly so you can dislodge grease and soap scum before it clogs and hardens.
6. To control pests, spray simmered water near baseboards because cockroaches hate that. Also, to repel mosquitoes, dab lavendar oil on your skin or drink two teaspoons of cider vinegar in a glass of water for a pore-emitted repellent. Otherwise, check out the commercial products on the market if this repels you.
7. Some stamp dealers will sell you bulk quantities of old regular stamps at a discounted face value.
8. Cheap textbooks. Cut the average cost of textbooks for college by checking at Bartelby.com or Gutenberg.org for free downloads of selected textbooks. You can also rent books and Chegg.com, BookRenter.com and CampusBookRentals.com
9. Pet Meds. Walmart, Petsmart, and Petco offer lower-cost generic versions of products such as Frontline flea and tick protection. Ask these local pet shops and animal shelters also about lower cost vaccines and neutering clinics.
10. Hair cuts are cheaper at barber and salon training programs.
11. Sciddy.com lists discounts in your area for people 50 or older.
12. Home Spa- your kitchen has natural beauty products. If you want to soften your skin and exfoliate, pour a gallon of whole milk into a warm bath. Add honey or lavender oil for scent. Or you can wrap whole oatmeal in a cloth, immerse in warm water and squeeze out several times. Splash your face with this and make it into a scrub my mixing 4T cornmeal with the juice and pulp of half an orange.
13. Freephone2phone.com lets you call 10 minutes overseas for free.
14. Gather the free fireword which drops in your yard over the course of the year.
15. Use the water from your fish tank on your garden instead of throwing it out. This is great fertilizer.

Makeovers for your Backyard- Four low-cost-do-it-yourself projects!

While fixing your frontyard may improve curb appeal, fixing up your backyard can improve your life. By doing this, it will draw your family outdoors for everything from dining alfresco to tending a kitchen garden to playing lawn games. Here are four do-it-yourself projects which can help you out there.

1. Create natural screening. Skip getting a wooden fence, and plant a row of evergreens. Choose a naturally slender variety. This won't eat up land or need much pruning.

2. Quiet the din. Drown out the noise of your neighbor's parties and that barking dog. Invest in a water fountain. Get a self-contained model which requires no excavation work or piping.

3. Control the sun. Build a simple pergola if you have basic carpentry skills. Build this with a few hundred dollars' worth of cedar or redwood timbers.

Add attractions! Put in an easy to grow fruit bushes like blueberries or grapes. Invest in a fire pit! Or invest in a hammock!

Three Ways to Save on Home Costs

1. Negotiate on repairs and upkeep! In a survey in May by consumer review, 81% of contractors said they would negotiate labor costs. Some of them will drop their price at 10%. They will do whatever it takes to strike your business. Be sure to get multiple price quotes, because then you will have the most bargaining power while being flexible about your project and its timing.

2. Trim the Cost of Borrowing! The average rate on a 30-year mortgage was 4.7% in May. Next year it is expected to hit 5.8%. Some borrowers will pay more when loan limits expire in the fall. Last year's rate was 5.1%. Since it has lowered, this has opened up another refinancing opportunity. Request a good-faith estimate before applying. You can negotiate fees that the lender charges.

3. Get a deal on furniture! When sales are slow in the summer, this is your opportunity to ask for 20% off. Why? Many "mom-and-pop shops" will make deals to move inventory. Also as a tip, gently used floor models can sell for 25% off.

Cool it now! Smart ways to save on AC!

1) Set your thermostat at 70 or 75 degrees when you are home. When not home, set it at 80 degrees. Don't turn it off completely because it can cost more to cool the house back once it is overheated.
2) Place room units on the north side of the house. An AC unit which operates in the shade operates up to 10% less electricity than one that is in the sun.
3) Know when to upgrade. You might want to consider a new AC if yours is more than 10 years old or 12 years old and it is not cooling as well as it is used to.

-More tips: Move indoor plants outside because they produce a lot of airborne moisture. Also, invest in a dehumidifier. It zaps humidity! Last, run bathroom exhaust fans for about 20 minutes after a shower or bath to dry the air.
-Be sure to insulate areas from the rest of the house. Attics can reach temperatures of 150 degrees.