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10 Tips to Get You Started

By Stephanie Appleton

• Don’t Go Out to Eat
  Pack your lunch. Eat your leftovers. Cook at home, even if it is something prepackaged. Save even more by cooking from scratch.


• Drive Less
  Walk when you can. Consolidate your errands. Carpool. Use public transportation.


• Adjust Your Thermostat
  Turn it down 2 degrees in the winter, and bundle up. Turn it up two degrees in the summer and use a fan. This could save you up to 20% in energy costs. Save even more by purchasing a programmable thermostat set to use less energy when you are not home, and to bring the house to a comfortable temperature when you are home. Save up to 12%.


• Bring Your Own Beverage
  How much do you spend buying a coffee here, a bottle of water there and a pop at the checkout of the store? Beverages are way over priced. Make your coffee at home. If you must have your Diet Coke, buy it by the case at the store (stock up when it is on sale), not at the vending machine. Wean your self from pop, and drink iced tea (made at home) or water.  If you want filtered water, buy a filtering pitcher or buy water from self serve machines by the gallon, then fill your own bottles to go at home. Either option is considerably cheaper than purchasing individual water bottles.


• Turn Off the Lights
  And any other appliance you aren’t using. If you aren’t in the room, you don’t need a light on. If you aren’t watching a show, do you really need the television on?


• Pay the Bills On Time
  Getting charged late fees is only prolonging the agony of debt. Pay them on time. If you use electronic bill pay, sit down at payday be sure to pay all the current bills, and schedule all the bills due on the next payday too.  This helps you be sure they are paid on time, and helps you have a more realistic view of the state of your checking account. Just be sure the money is in the account before the bill is scheduled to be paid.


• Use the Library
  Browse the internet with a high speed connection, read the newspaper or your favorite magazine. Borrow movies, books, and music. It’s all free, well as long as you bring them back on time!


• Downgrade or Eliminate Services
  Look at your non-essential services: phone, cell phone, cable, internet, movies, music, periodicals, and the like. Could you do with out any of these? Eliminate them. Can’t bear to do with out? Could you downgrade the service? Get the basic cable instead of the premium service.  Do you need cell and land line phones? 


• Control Your Impulses
  Do not buy on impulse! I know, easier said than done. When you are tempted to buy something, stop and think! Do you really need it? Do you have cash to buy it?  No matter what the price, it is not a good deal if you won’t use it or have to use a credit card to buy it. Wait a day or two, and then if you still think it is a good idea, buy it.


• The Best Things in Life Are Free
  You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a good time. Enjoy the time with your family and friends, or even by yourself. Look for things that are free. Enjoy a nature walk, a festival, a museum, a book or movie borrowed from the library, a game, a park, a workshop at your local home improvement or craft store, or a million other things that are free. Watch the newspaper, check local parks and municipality web sites, and keep your eyes open for free events. Just remember #1 and #4. A free event quickly becomes costly when you have to purchase food and drink.
  
  There are 1000’s of little things we can do everyday that will help us save money to use for debt repayment. Once you start looking closer at your spending, you will probably see many ways you can trim your budget to find more to use on debt. This is just a quick list to help you get started. Try a few, make an extra payment, and enjoy the feeling of taking a big step to becoming debt free.

About the author: Stephanie lives with her husband and four children in the hills of West Virginia where they are learning to live simply and getting out of debt. See more at her blog, Stop the Ride.