Thriftism

You've heard it all before-- "turn down your thermostat and save a bunch of money", but typically the person telling you this lives in an ice box and you're just not prepared to give up comfort to save a few bucks. There are some bloggers who will tell you to wear a hat and coat in your house to capitalize on savings... I am not one of them. You don't need to freeze to save money, but you should be turning your thermostat down. Still don't believe me? Keep reading to see how much you can save this year. The Data Depending on the climate you live in, your savings can range from 1.5-5% per degree you turn down your thermostat. Obviously, the colder your climate, the more you will save by keeping the temperature lower. Energy.gov states that you can save as much as 10% on your energy bill by turning down the thermostat as little as 7 degrees for 8 hours a day. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Engineering Department from Purdue University has put the figure ...

If you're already shopping at Walmart, the phone app is a must have. While shopping in stores, it saves quite a bit of time usually spent searching. The app will tell you the aisle your item is located in or if it is out of  stock. This definitely helps me if I'm looking for something new (like puff pastry for our cranberry brie bites, who knew it wasn't with the pie crusts?). It also has this great feature called "Savings Catcher". You do need to sign up for an account to use this feature. It compares prices of all items you purchased with other stores in the area. If there is a cheaper price elsewhere, you get money back in the form of a prepaid card or for use on walmart pay. Here's how to use it. Download the walmart app and save your receipt.  Tap the savings catcher icon and then hit the orange "Add a Walmart Receipt" button. Scan the bottom of your receipt. You can then see a digital version of your receipt. Plus once the...

Tax day is just around the corner. For some this can be a fun time of year when you get mailed a check, but for many, it's a stressful time that involves paying (sometimes substantially) into the government. While it may be too late to lower to tax bill for last year by selling stocks, donating to charities, or use many other deductions, there are still a few ways left for you to hang onto your hard earned money. Rather than giving your money to Uncle Sam, you can invest in yourself this spring by doing one of these three things: IRA Contributions (traditional, not Roth) Must have been opened in 2014 Must be younger than 70.5 Claim Traditional IRA Contribution Can be done before contribution is made, but the contribution must be in place by the tax return due date (April 18 this year). Self-Employed 401(k) Contributions Must have been opened in 2014 Must be younger than 70.5 HSA Contributions (Health Savings Account) Must have been opened in 2014 Must b...

Now that we've covered the why of budgeting, let's hit the how. To start, grab yourself a pen and paper or an excel sheet or pull up the app/website of your choice. While it can seem more concrete if you write it all down, I find tracking to be much simpler if I use excel or an online application. The photo in the title is an excel spreadsheet. There a tons of different options in excel if you search for budget when you go to open a new workbook. If none of them fit your style, feel free to create your own.   I personally use a combination of Every Dollar  for tracking expenses and an excel spreadsheet to create the initial budget and track annual expenses. Yes, I create an annual budget in addition to the monthly budget. This allows me to maximize savings, predict future habits (such as saving) and best estimate our mortgage payoff date or our financial independence date.  Don't worry, you can choose just one budget tool and focus on monthly expenses. Then...

What is the big deal with budgeting? It seems like everyone is talking about it, but they don't always mention why it is important. Creating your first budget might sound like a lot of work, but we will walk you through it and help you understand the why and how of it. Let's start with the why.   WHY???   Creating a budget is important for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that creating a budget means creating a spending plan for your money. This ensures that you have money for things you need or want. By having a plan for your money, you will be much less likely to go into debt and be able to begin chipping away at your current debt. It also keeps you from spending money you don't have. It is so easy to swipe that card, but if you're not tracking what you're spending, you may end up unable to pay the bill at the end of the month. When you're tracking your spending, you're also more likely to kick those bad spending habits. What doe...

Want to earn money while sitting around in your PJs? This is not a great rich quick scheme as you will not get rich quickly, nor will you be able to quick your day job. This will however get you some nice spending cash pretty easily. You don't have to call, email, mail, etc anything to anybody. What I'm talking about is taking surveys. For the record, I get nothing if someone signs up--no points, no money, nothing but a great feeling that I'm helping someone else earns some extra money. Pinecone is a company that I've been taking surveys through for 6 or 7 years now--they pay you and are legit I promise. For every survey you take they pay you $3 or you can pick from the wide variety of merchandise, charities, or gifts cards to suit your fancy. Seriously loads of options! I have pretty much always taking the cash (paypal) because I can't seem to decide. Plus cash can always be put towards my trip fund. The surveys are fairly quick and very simple survey to fi...

Are gas coupons worth it? YES! The number one argument I hear is that you don't really save that much for all the hassle you go through to use a coupon. That is pure laziness talking. How often do you buy gas? Whether it's once a week or once a month, those savings can really add up--Think of getting a free tank of gas every year. Or maybe hit up the dollar menu once a week since we don't eat out much while following a tight budget. Possibly it still doesn't sound like much, but those little savings (gas, groceries, survey earnings,etc) are really what keep my budget alive some months. When you're set on saving or paying off loans, a couple dollars goes a long way. Gas coupons are awesome because they are fairly easy to come by as well. Coupons really aren't that difficult to use and walking into the gas station, well that can be an excuse to move around a bit. No one gets enough walking in these days anyway. :) I've listed a few places that you can obtain...

Budget! Budget! Budget! I always have to watch what I'm spending on things to make sure we can still afford to go on our big trip every year and to keep socking away money into savings for the future. This means I jump at the chance to get something, or anything, for free. Samples are amazing and they can have some pretty good ones too. Just last week I got a 7 week supply of Align probiotics. That's over $40 in savings. While most samples are not nearly this high in value, every little bit helps. There are a couple of sites I follow to find out about samples: Sampleaday and Freebiesfrenzy . They send you an email every day listing the samples available. Free things vary from stickers to coffee mugs to food, you just have to keep your eyes open for the really good ones. I found a few good samples offered today: Free PediaSure after rebate @ pediasure.com Huggies Diapers and Natural Care Wipes   2 Lipton Ice Tea K-Cups and $0.75 coupon  There are quite a...

I've come to realize that there are only so many ways to make extra money while holding down a full-time job. I don't always know what time I'll get off work which pretty much rules out getting a second part-time job. I have a few friends that do this and I don't know how they have the energy to keep up with it. I feel dead by the end of most days and couldn't imagine losing another 3 hours of sleep most nights. I used to donate plasma, but the last time I went in they suddenly decided my veins were now too small. So I started looking into participating in a study.  There a lots quite a few different companies that run medical studies around the country. We have two located in my area- Novum and Axis. Axis hadn't yet opened when I was looking which left me with Novum. From what I've seen so far they do a ton of dermatology tests, meaning no blood draws. Not that blood draws are the worst thing in the world, but I wouldn't pick to do them if I di...

Just earned $20 on Mysurvey.com and am only 100 points short of another $10. I'm also less than $1 away from being able to redeem my inboxdollars money ($30). For those of you thinking taking surveys isn't worthwhile, how can an easy $30 not be worth your while? I'm hoping to catch up on some of my other survey sites later today as well so I might be able to make even more today after I catch up on cleaning and other not so fun chores. The best part of the morning was that some of my surveys had trailers that I had to watch and I was able to complete the baby hat I was knitting- double bonus! I had a goal of earning an extra $10/week with surveys. This isn't a lot of money obviously, but it definitely adds up. If nothing else, you can use it to eat out a little more often or by the end of the year take a short trip. Vegas anyone? That's almost always under $500/person. Anyway, today I more than doubled my weekly goal and didn't even account for surveys I took ...

This year my birthday celebration started early and lasted quite a bit longer than one day. I started signing up for every restaurant club that I could find which resulting in receiving a multitude of offers for my birthday this year. I live in the Midwest so these offers might not be good everywhere/restaurants might be not located everywhere, but this should give everyone an idea of just how much free food you can get just for having a birthday. Thursday: Supper at Moe's: Burrito, Drink, Chips, & Salsa  $2.04 After Tax -- This definitely feeds 2 people. We were stuffed when we walked out of the restaurant. The coupon they email you is good for a week or two after you click on the link. Hint: You can wait to click on the link for a couple weeks after your birthday to make it last even longer! Full Price Value: ~$9.91 After Tax (9.18 before) Saved: $7.87 Friday (Birthday): The following places must be visited on your actual birthday. Grand...

If you have an individual phone plan, you've probably noticed your phone bill is hugely expensive. Unless you can add lines and shares the costs of the plan or get a company discount, it is a lot of money to pay every month. I faced this dilemma earlier in the year and noticed that contracts cost more than a monthly prepaid month. In fact, at AT&T if I had stayed on a contract plan, my bill would be about $25 more than it currently is on a month-to-month and with a contract I wouldn't have unlimited minutes. With the monthly plan, I get unlimited minutes, text, and since I have a basic phone, I get unlimited internet as well. I believe it is also cheaper to do a month-to-month for a smartphone. Sprint might be better because it has unlimited everything for $80. This includes unlimited data on a smartphone, which is the better option for those who watch tv on the phone. Many of the contract plans continue to have a limit on minutes, which is not very viable in this day and a...