If saving money this year is one of your resolutions, then explore these great ways to save money to reach your goals of paying off debt, building a travel fund or creating a Christmas fund for 2014.
I love to travel so my passions for saving money helps fund my passion for travel! What is your savings goal for 2014? Here are some ways that you can save money to help you to reach your goal!
Set a goal
- You need to decide if you want to pay off your debt, save for your family vacation, build a Christmas fund or build an emergency fund. I find that it is a lot easier to save money when I define a goal and I can watch the savings grow or watch my debt shrink!
- It is easier to reach your savings goals when you can watch it grow. It is also less tempting to borrow from your nest egg when you have your funds separated. Be sure that you shop around to find a FREE account so that you can hold on to all of your savings. It is even better is you can find an account that pays interest on your money!
- How much can you really save? According to an article from the Wall Street Journal from March 2010, you can make $86.40 per hour clipping coupons. $86.40 is a great wage for part-time work! You can read the full article HERE.
- Extreme couponing can save you 90% or more on your monthly grocery bill, but if you are not ready to rush out and build an addition on to your home to store all your spoils, you can still save money with every coupon you use. Recently one of my favorite stores had a sale on Tillamook Cheese for $3.99 (2.00 off regular price), then I stacked it with a$1 off any cheese coupon to save even more. On this one transaction I saved 1/2 price on one of our family's food staples. Imagine how this saving snowballs as you use more coupons each week! Saving just $25 per week adds up $1200 per year!
- Combine sales with store coupons. I clip coupons from the Sunday paper inserts or print them from Coupons.com and other on-line sites. I then watch for a great sale to find items I need at 50% to 90% off retail. I try to only purchase items that I know I will use in a 3-6 month period which is the typical sale cycle for most products.
- Take advantage of double coupons to find free or heavily discounted items. Combine high value coupons to find items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, pasta, personal care items, cake mixes, diced tomatoes, cereal, cocoa mix and even pizzas for free.
- Find catalina offers to save even more money. Catalinas are coupons that print at checkout that can be used toward your next purchase. They usually have a value like $5 off toward any future purchase. Stores like Albertsons and Fred Meyer often combine catalina offers with sales. Walgreens has catalinas called register rewards while RiteAid calls their catalina system UP rewards. You can usually apply coupons to these purchases and still receive these catalinas, adding up to huge savings.
- Where can you find coupons - Sunday papers usually include coupons inserts. You can buy multiple Sunday papers to have extra inserts. My favorite free way to get extra inserts is to have friends and family save their coupons for me. You can also often find great coupons on-line so you can print only what you need from sites like Coupons.com, Pillsbury, Box Tops and product web sites like Huggies. For big promotions, you can order multiple coupons at Ebay.com.
- Apply the amount your saved using coupon toward your debt or deposit it in your travel or Christmas fund to watch it grow!
- To learn more about saving money using these techniques check out my Couponing 101 series.
Save Money Through Rebates
- Many stores like RiteAid, Staples and ShopKo offer monthly rebate programs that offer free or discounted products after rebate. You can usually apply coupons to your purchase to reduce your out of pocket expense. You can receive rebates on everything from electronics, personal care items and toys to wine. Last year I earned over $300 in rebates!
Save Money Shopping On-line
- If you shop on-line, you can also save and earn extra money toward your goals. Sites like Ebates and ShopatHome allow you to earn cash back at thousands of on-line stores including Staples, Old Navy, the Gap, Home Depot, Macy 's and many others. You also earn a $5 bonus just from signing up and using either rebate site for at least one purchase. I joined both sites and use the one with the highest rebate for each on-line store. I earned over $100 last year in rebates through these sites. The key to earning money with either of these sites is to remember to log in to your Ebates or ShopatHome account before each on-line purchase so that you receive credit for every purchase.
- If you have a little free time and a desire to have your opinions heard, you can earn money taking surveys. There are many different survey companies to choose from. Last year I completed surveys for Mindfield, Mysurvey, Opinion Outpost and Toluna. I earned an average of $50 per month spending 4-5 hour per month completing surveys.
- Swagbucks awards you points for using their search engine. Instead of searching through MSN or Yahoo, you would use Swagbucks for your Internet searches. You can also earn extra points through swag hunts, referrals, special offers and shopping through their site. I earned $120 in Amazon gift cards last year just by searching a couple of time per day using Swagbucks. I traded my swagbucks for gift cards and saved the Amazon gift cards to help me fund Christmas last year! Sign up HERE to see how much you can earn with Swagbucks.
If your New Year's resolution includes finding ways to save money, learning to save and earn money is as easy as clipping a few coupons, watching sales and checking back at isitreallyadeal.com to find some of my favorite deals.
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/isitreallyadeal or"Like" me on Facebook so you never miss a deal!
What is your favorite tips for reaching your savings goals this year? Please leave a comment with your favorite savings tips or tell us what you are saving for in 2014.
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