Online Coupons, Sunday Inserts, and Gas Prices

This is a great website if you don't get the Sunday newspaper and all the store sale circulars/inserts that come in the Sunday edition of the paper. The online versions of the sales circulars are here. www.sundaysaver.com/

This website is a great place to go if you want to print out coupons for your favorite store. www.dealcatcher.com/printable-coupons

This website has saved me lots of money in the past, helping me find savings on electronics and computers. Detailed comparisons of specs and prices. Invaluable. www.salescircular.com/

Even though this site is called www.pennsylvaniagasprices.com you can find your local gas prices by entering your zip code. Great money saving (and time saving) idea!

Dell Coupons

Check out this link for some awesome 20 to 25% coupons from Dell for a new computer. http://www.dell.com/coupons?~ck=pn

Your Cash Saving Insider Strategies - Keep What You Earn!

Whether you make $120,000 a year or $37,000, you only have so much money coming into your bank account per year, so you want to do everything that you can to limit what is going out from it. Why spend more than you have to? You work hard for your money, and every time you distribute your money somewhere, you are distributing the fruit of your labor. So it pays to watch what you spend. This site is a budding work in progress, so please bookmark it and check back often for more real money saving advice.

Having been without work twice in the last six years and when I am working as an editor, making barely an average salary, I have over twenty-five years amassed a lot of experience in saving money. Following are sure-fire, effective ways to save big bucks in your daily life. Dollars you can then use for something else, like investing, or for hobbies, or a night out. Some of these money saving solutions are common sense techniques that you may already be doing, while some are tricks you may not have thought of. Any of these ideas will save you money, and the more of them you use, the more you will save.

1. GET AN ENTERTAINMENT COUPON BOOK. An Entertainment Coupon Book can realistically save you hundreds of dollars a year, and with some effort could save you thousands. They are specifically created for your region or town. There are coupons for local restaurants and national chain restaurants. There are also coupons for entertainment like movies, amusement parks, and driving ranges. Clothing, electronics, and home improvement stores are also represented, as well as hotel discounts, airline and other travel deals. For example, this year I will have kept $70 of my money from just TWO ½ off synthetic oil changes for my car. More than double what I paid for the book ($25). Add to that a free movie ticket ($12 value), a free burger from Burger King ($4.50 value), bowling savings ($11 value), and those are just the savings I can think of off the top of my head for this year. This is number one on my list because it definitely has the potential to save you some real dinero. But you have to use a coupon from this book when you were definitely already going to buy that product or service. Keep it in your car so it’s always handy for saving you money! I keep value: hundreds of dollars a year.
2. MAKE A COUPON BOX. Staying on the topic of coupons, you get coupons from other sources too. And you should use them. Valpack may send them to you every month, and other community coupon books and mailers may come every other day. The grocery store or drug store may hand you coupons too. And don’t forget the Sunday edition of the local newspaper which is chock full of savings. You should use as many of these as you can, IF it is something that you need and are going to buy anyway. Get a shoe box, recycle the lid and put every coupon that you think you may need or use in this box. (If it’s open you can always see what’s inside and it will be a constant reminder to retrieve a coupon before you go to the store.) Place the box on the counter or hutch in the kitchen, or on your desk in your home office. I keep value: tens to hundreds of dollars a year.
3. SIGN UP FOR ONLINE DAILY DEALS E-MAILS. This is big! Websites like Groupon, Living Social, and The Customer Advantage, send you huge discounts of 50 to 90% for products and services from local businesses. It’s a win for the customer because he and she keep more of their money. It’s a win for small business because they get customers. What kind of products and services? Hair salons, day spas, music lessons, summer camps, restaurants, museums, theaters, and bowling. Literally any product or service that can be sold in your area. The discounts are always significant. I keep value: tens to hundreds of dollars a year.
4. USE DISCOUNT/CLUB CARDS. These are the little cards from stores that attach to your keychain, or in some cases are the size of credit cards and fit nicely in your wallet. Just using these when you grocery shop and buy from the drug store can save you hundreds of dollars a year, and you don’t need to clip one coupon to do it. I keep value: hundreds of dollars a year.
5. BUY REGULAR UNLEADED GASOLINE. Unless your vehicle’s manufacturer expressly forbids it, or your engine knocks when you use lower octane fuel, buying super or premium (92 octane), or even mid-grade (89 octane) fuels just needlessly distributes more of your hard-earned capital to gas stations and oil companies. I keep value: $150 a year if you fill up every week.
6. BRING YOUR OWN COFFEE. Maybe this should be number one on the list because the savings are so significant. Making and bringing your own coffee to work instead of stopping at a convenience store or coffee shop every morning is a smart way to save a lot of money. If you want to keep more of your money, you have to do this. I keep value: $450 a year.
7. LINE DRY YOUR HEAVY LAUNDRY. Cotton blue jeans, bath towels, and rugs hold a boatload of water, even after the washing machine spins much of it away. They account for most of the drying time and gas or electricity used by a dryer. Drying jeans, bath towels, and rugs in the dryer taxes the machine (and your wallet) unnecessarily, causing it to run much longer than it would otherwise. In the winter, dry blue jeans, bath towels, and rugs on a drying rack inside the house, and gain the benefit of the added humidity in the dry winter air. In the summer, dry the jeans and towels outside on a line, or on a drying rack. Better yet, line dry ALL your clothing for really big savings. As a rule of thumb, it generally costs 50 cents to operate the clothes dryer for each load. So everytime you don't run it, you keep 50 more cents. I keep value: $66 a year ($200 if you line dry everything).
8. USE LESS AIR CONDITIONING. This admonition is made in every book and website on saving money and for good reason. It is potentially one of the largest causes of cash outflow from your checkbook. If you have central air it could easily cost $10 a day to cool your home. Check out Michael Bluejay’s super detailed website which goes into the nitty gritty of the hows and whys of saving big money on your electricity bill by limiting your air conditioning usage. The main thing to remember is “less is more” money in your pocket. Keep the AC completely off whenever possible, don’t ever use it while your away at work or anywhere else, and keep the temperature as high as you can while maintaining comfort. Remember winter and how much you wanted these warmer temperatures? Soak 'em up while you can, man. Use more ceiling fans, floor, and window fans. Don’t cool rooms you’re not using. Keep the curtains closed in sun-facing rooms. Change or clean the system filter. Oh, and close windows if you're using an air conditioner. This seems like a no-brainer but I've seen many instances of open windows and operating air conditioning. I keep value: hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.
9. USE RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES. This is one of the best and easiest things you can do for the environment as hundreds of millions of alkaline batteries a year end up in landfills. Charging your own batteries costs just pennies too. Literally! And with the economy the way it is, saving some green can be very "green." I keep value: tens of dollars a year.
10. FILTER YOUR OWN WATER. Filtering your own water is much "greener" AND cheaper than buying bottled water or having water delivered to your home. If more people filtered their tap water, less trucks would be delivering bottled water or jugs of spring water and hence using less gasoline or diesel fuel. Pollution would be reduced as well. It's also less of a hassle because you don't have to lug heavy jugs or cases of water to and from your car.  I keep value: hundreds to thousands of dollars a year (Source).
11. DON'T SHOP AT HIGH-END RETAILERS. This may seem like a strategy that need not even be mentioned if you are trying to save money, but it's apparently not thought of by some people. Saving 20% or even 50% at Lord and Taylor, Nordstrum, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, or Saks Fifth Avenue is like paying full price at Kohl's or JC Penney. You are throwing your money away on fancy decor and high employee salaries if you buy clothes from these sorts of places. If you shop at high-end, big name stores you can truly save big by changing this habit and get clothing which is just as well made. I keep value: hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.