Save Money--Get Financially Fit--Part Two

Get Fit Financially
Tips for saving money in 2008
Put half your raise in your 401(k) or savings. You still get an increase in cash flow, but you start putting money aside.
Select mutual funds in your 401(k). If you don't, your money will go into your plan's default option, typically a low-yielding money market account.
The simplest choice: Pick a target-date or life cycle mutual fund if your company's plan offers them . These funds adjust their holdings to coincide with your expected year of retirement. As you near retirement, the fund will move out of riskier stocks into more conservative ones and into bonds to preserve your cash.
If your plan doesn't offer those funds, select a mix of mutual funds, making sure to have a little bit of everything- stocks(international and domestic) and bonds.
Manage your debt. Work towards paying off your credit card balances on cards with the highest interest rates first or consolidate credit card debt onto one low-rate card.
If you have a house, you could roll consumer debt into a home equity loan that will likely have a lower rate. The average credit card rate is 15.82 percent, according to Card-Web.com. Home equity loan rates are typically a percentage point above prime, which currently is 7.25 percent.
Have you recently paid off your car or will you this year? Keep making monthly "payments" into your savings account.
This should be painless because you are conditioned to pay the bill, and a good way to save money.
Trim your social tab. One big budget buster: eating out. One potential solution: Form a supper club with friends. Each month a different friend or couple cooks dinner and supplies the beverages that quickly run up restaurant tabs.
But you don't have to deprive yourself of the occasional restaurant meal. Look for coupons for your favorite restaurants or find out what nights they have specials (often slower nights like Mondays)
Another money saver: Borrow movies from the public library. It's free!!!
Hope these tips help you get financially fit and start saving money!!!
Personal note:
Grocery day:
Savings as of 1-15-08 $106.97
Savings today $ 31,97
Year to date $138.94
Happy Savings!!!

Save Money-- Turn Clutter into Cash--Part Three

Here's another way to get rid of your clutter and save money:
First go to www.craigslist.org and post items for sale on a local board. Members can also post messages about items they are looking to buy. Potential buyers contact sellers to make arrangements to check out items for sale. The two parties arrange payment, generally cash only.
Draws for sellers:
Posting is free. You don't have to ship your stuff, because buyers come pick it up themselves.
Drawbacks for sellers:
You don't get as much as you would by selling on eBay. Sellers say that sometimes prospective buyers make appointments to check out what's for sale and then don't show up.
Consignment Shops
How they work:
They take your stuff--namely clothes, baby items, toys and furniture--and put it on their store shelves and racks. When it sells, the store takes its cut and writes you a check for the rest. If your items don't sell after a certain period of time or by the end of a season, you either pick them up or let the store have them. Some stores will donate items that don't sell.
Draws for Sellers:
There's a venue to showcase your cast-offs and someone else to ring up the sale. You don't have to take phone calls from potential buyers or post photos of you stuff online. And you don't have to ship your stuff to buyers.
Drawbacks for Sellers:
You sacrifice some of your time and your earnings. The shops get a cut--60percent is standard for clothing. You typically have to make an appointment with the shop to bring in your stuff. And it probably won't take all you have to offer, leaving you to haul it someplace else i.e. to Goodwill or Salvation Army. You also have to get on the shop's inventory schedule.
For example, lots of consignment stores are not taking any more winter clothes now. Some are waiting until February to start taking spring clothing.
Hope this is a help, and as always Happy Savings!!!!





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Saving Money: Little Things Big Savings

Well, I have been blogging for almost a month now. I must say its been an educational experience for me. I've always been interested in saving money. As we say sometimes, "it's the way i was raised". I just really hope I've mentioned something here that can help you save money and be a little gentler with our planets resources. Some days i will post more than others. And some posts may not be as interesting to you as others. But i would really love to establish a group of daily readers. I welcome your ideas, even if they don't agree with mine. There is always something new we can all learn about saving money and saving our world. I do have a habit of paying attention to the little things: how to get the last little ooze of toothpaste out of the tube for instance. (Cut the tube with scissors in as many sections as you need to, then work your brush around in there till you get it all out.) Now i know you're thinking this is trivial, but the point I'm making is...you paid for this toothpaste, its yours. Are you going to just throw it away? If over the course of 5 years you save a tube of toothpaste? Whats toothpaste cost these days? $3.50 a tube? Maybe more maybe less depending on where you are. And $3.50 every 5 years isn't a lot ill admit.. $.70 a year. Ok, but what if you live to be 80 or more?

Well maybe you'll not brush your teeth the first two years and wear false teeth the last 8. so that's 70. Time to get the calculator out now. Seventy years times $.70 cents. Ok that's $49.00. Would you take out your checkbook and write a check to the already-rich toothpaste companies for $49.00?????? See the point I'm getting at. And there are other things too, not just toothpaste. The thing I'm trying to get you to do and get in a better habit of doing myself is actually thinking about the little things we do every day that cause waste in our world and keep us from saving money. Ok enough for now. I'll be back later. If Ive made one person think about their personal saving habits, not just of money but of all the worlds resources, I'm happy. So until next time...Happy Savings!!!