10 Cheap Disaster Preps

Being prepared isn't something that you can "buy" and be done with it and then you will be all ready for any disaster that may strike your area. Rather preparedness is a series of ongoing tasks which will allow you to be more knowledgeable and more ready when a crisis occurs. Instead of thinking money when you think about disaster preparedness, think of the basics--things that you can do/use/have in the event of any type of disaster that may occur.

To get started, here are ten simple, and cheap, ways you can prepare for a disaster:

1. Make sure you have working smoke detectors with fresh batteries. People are much more likely to die in a fire than in a tsunami, earthquake, or hurricane. Something as simple and cheap as a smoke detector can save the lives of you and your family. Note that some fire departments provide these free of charge.
2. Learn CPR and first aid. Another way someone is more likely to die (considering that cardiac disease is THE leading cause of death in the US) is due to heart attack. The way to be prepared for this, and be able to save a life, is to know CPR, AED use, and basic first aid. The best part is that these classes are often offered free of charge at local fire departments, hospitals, and the Red Cross.
3. Do you have enough food stored to eat for a week during a disaster? You don't need fancy MREs and high tech freeze-dried foods which cost a whole lot. Rather, you can take $21 down to your local grocery store, buy 21 cans of soup, and there you have your food for a week. Simple.
4. Another critical item you need to be prepared for a disaster is water. You can live quite a long time without food but everyone needs water within a couple of days or they will die. Putting aside one gallon of water per person per day for a week is simple and cheap. Five gallon water containers can be purchased at Walmart for a couple of dollars each and there you have your emergency water supply. Just be sure to rotate the water regularly.
5. One of people's first needs after a disaster is information. After many disasters, power is out, thus no TV, no internet, and no charging your iPhone. The remedy? A cheap AM/FM radio can be your connection to the outside world after a disaster and what is even better is the fact that a simple radio is actually very inexpensive.
6. A first aid kit can be bought as one big kit or you can make your own. This is another low cost item that can offer big dividends after a disaster (or even during a particularly bad cold and flu season).
7. Flashlights (and batteries) are a must have during a disaster. Even a simple power outage can be a disaster if your house is pitch black and you have no source of light. Flashlights are simple, cheap items that you can buy for a couple of dollars each. Just make sure you buy one for each family member--having five people share one flashlight would be a disaster in itself.
8. Ten items from the dollar store that will help you out during a disaster: a whistle, a pair of work gloves, a breaker bar, a dust mask, a manual can opener, a bottle of bleach for water purification, a box of matches, a packet of moist towelettes, duct tape, big plastic garbage bags.
9. An emergency evacuation bag is important. Many times people need to evacuate with only the clothes on their backs (think wild fires, chemical spills, etc). A $10 backpack from Walmart into which you put a change of clothes and toiletries can make a simple evacuation bag that you can keep at the ready in a downstairs closet in case you must leave at a moment's notice.
10. Your spare time is a valuable (and free) commodity for emergency planning. If you take the time to make an emergency communications plan, practice regular fire drills with the family, practice stop, drop, and hold earthquake drills with the kids, make back up copies of your computer files and important papers, and do a bit of research (like finding out what your community's emergency sirens sound like, where the closest evacuation shelter is, or what your children's school emergency plan is) you will be much more prepared than the average person in the event of an emergency.

Disaster preparedness doesn't have to be an expensive, overwhelming task. Simple steps, done regularly, can get you and your family prepared in no time and at very low cost.

What If This Happened to You?

By "this" I mean this guys situation. I was browsing through reddit just now and saw this guy's post. He is an independent contractor who just found out his client is bankrupt and he has about $12 in his bank account. And since he is a contractor, he probably isn't entitled to unemployment and all of those other neat little perks that employees get. Bummer.

This is a situation that anyone could find themselves in at some point in their life. There have been quite a few news articles of people going to work one morning only to find the doors padlocked and no more job. Like many things, we think that sort of thing only happens to 'other' people but the truth is, it could happen to you or me. Which means everyone should start today, immediately, to get themselves into a better position so that if such a scenario happens in your life, you will have something better to fall back on than the $12 in your checking account. Here's what to do:

• Have an emergency fund of at least $1000 NOW. Sell things if you have to, even your blood if you have to, in order to accomplish this goal as quickly as possible.
• Get out of debt. A crisis is much easier to handle if you don't have creditors calling your house twenty times a day because you are late on your debt payment.
• Have multiple streams of income. Actually, the more sources of income you have coming into your life each month, the less the loss of one client will affect you both financially and psychologically. If your entire life is wrapped around one employer or one client, you literally have all of your eggs in one basket. Consider a part time job, a side business, selling products online, watching the neighbors kids after school if this fits in with your life style, taking random temporary jobs such as being a census worker, etc.
• Have people in your life that you can rely on. The better your support network, the better you will be able to get through tough times (ie: a friend who would let you live on their couch for a while, a mom who will do your laundry, a friend who will bring you dinner, etc).
• Never stop networking and developing connections in your field and in your social life. The fact is that rumors about businesses heading downhill often are heard around the water cooler prior to something major happening like the doors being locked. Another fact is that should you need another job, most of the best job referrals come through friends and business acquaintances who know you and know your work and will give you a lead on a great job AND put in a good word for you.

Should you do the above and still find yourself in the unenviable position as the guy in the reddit post, here are some things to do immediately:

• Take advantage of resources that are available to you. This can be everything from an employee severance package or unemployment to the local food bank or community job re-training program.
• Give yourself about five minutes of panic and a half hour pity party then move forward. Sometimes this sort of setback can lead people into a lengthy downward spiral. Don't let a temporary setback create an extended problem in your life. Look forward, move forward, and keep doing so until you get back on better footing.
• Ratchet back your lifestyle immediately. Cut the cable and the home phone, stop eating out AT ALL, trade in the weekly movie night at the theater for a cozy movie night at home with a free movie from the library, etc.
• Look for a great full time job but don't overlook some cool part time jobs that could provide you the flexibility to work while also having time to build job skills, develop a business, or go back to school.

An unexpected job loss is never a good thing, but if you are prepared, it won't be a catastrophe and may actually open the doors to bigger and better things.

Is It Possible to Diet on the Cheap?

I am not in the obese category but my blogger butt sure isn't getting any smaller. I waiver between the need for nutritious food and exercise and my love for junk food and surfing the net way more than I should.
The exercising on the cheap part was taken care of in the last post (now all I have to do is actually get out and do it) but many people say that dieting always involves spending lots of money--from the extreme of paying for lap band surgery ($$$$) to joining Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers ($$$) to buying special (read, expensive) food ($$). I have been kicking around the idea of a modified Paleo diet and thought that I would give it a try for a week, both to determine its effectiveness and to see if it really does cost more for food.
I'll update this post each day for a week with the food I ate and the estimated cost just to see what happens.

THURSDAY
Breakfast--Banana 20 cents
Lunch--Tuna salad wrapped in lettuce leaves $1
Snack--Raisins and walnuts 75 cents
Dinner--Lentil soup, salad, chicken in Thai sauce $2
Notes--yesterday my diet included cereal with milk, a burger for lunch, potato chips, almost an entire box of Girl Scout thin mints, and a blended coffee and ice cream beverage. Today's food was like a 180 change. I'm craving a Frapuccino!

FRIDAY
Breakfast--hard boiled egg, boiled apple with cinnamon 65 cents
Lunch--chicken caesar salad $0 (client paid for it)
Snack--banana and strawberries $1
Dinner--tiny piece of steak, corn, salad, sweet potato $1.50
Dessert--two dried dates 20 cents
Notes--feel crappy and rather sick, mostly head cold stuff. I hope this is just my body detoxing.

SATURDAY
Breakfast--hard boiled egg, boiled apple with cinnamon, sweet potatoes 95 cents
Trail lunch--hard boiled egg, raisins and peanuts, grapes 95 cents
Dinner--lentil soup, salad, corn, couple small chunks of chicken $1.25
Notes--felt super energetic early this morning so decided to walk a half marathon with our local Volksmarch group. Afterwords my horrible head cold returned and now my body feels like it has been hit by a truck because I am basically so out of shape. Can't believe I ate healthy for three days in a row, I think this is some sort of record!

SUNDAY
Breakfast--strawberries, raisins, peanuts 75 cents
Lunch--potato salad, corn chips and salsa 65 cents
Snack--cashews 50 cents
Dinner--baked cod, asparagus $1.25
Notes--still have the horrible head cold which is why I think I am not eating much (see comment from reader) since I never feel like eating if I am sick. Went to the grocery store today to get groceries and realized that (following the Paleo diet principles) you can't eat about 95% of what is in the store! According to the Paleo diet principles, you should only eat meat, fruit, vegies, and nuts/seeds, no dairy, grains of any type, legumes, or root vegetables. I'm fairly sure I couldn't do such a restrictive diet long-term (also see comment from reader), mostly because I don't really like to eat much meat and my two favorite food groups are dairy and grains! Some modifications are definitely in order but so far my body actually feels pretty good (no bloating or the highs and lows you get from caffeine). We'll see what happens in the next few days of this experiment...

MONDAY
Breakfast--banana, tangerine, potato salad 90 cents
Lunch--baked chicken, asparagus $1.50
Snack--corn chips and salsa 50 cents
Dinner--lentil soup, salad $1.25
Notes--cold is all gone and I feel great, one of the faster recoveries I have enjoyed. Finding that I seriously could not do a Paleo diet for very long--I don't eat much meat and this diet is all about meat (ick...kind of), I've eaten so many eggs this week I don't want to look at another hard boiled egg, and I love fruit and vegetables but when all you have to look forward to is fruit and vegetables and meat forever...no thanks. Obviously this isn't a true Paleo diet because I have thrown in potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn chips just for some solid "food". Think I would rather die happy and well fed at 60 than miserable and skinny at 80...

~~End of Experiment~~

Conclusions: radical diets are just too radical for me. To answer the original question, yes it is possible to diet on the cheap. The Paleo diet is supposed to be one of the more expensive diets to do and I guess it would cost more than I have recorded to sustain the average 1800-2000 calorie a day intake of meat, fruit, and vegies because you have to eat a WHOLE LOT of these items to replace the calories you would usually get when including grains and tuberous vegetables in your diet. However, even though I wasn't thrilled about this this experiment, I realized that over the last five days I have saved a whole bunch of money on junk food, fast food, and treats like a frap at Starbucks. I think when people say they can't afford good, nutritious food, they don't stop to add up the money they spend on junk food, eating out, picking up treats as you pass by the local convenience store, or grabbing a drink each morning at your favorite coffee stand.
I think I will keep some of the things I have learned--like eating three meals a day with a small snack (as opposed to grazing throughout the day which allows you can eat a lot of calories and not even realize it), cutting back on wheat and dairy because I believe I am sensitive to these items, but definitely adding back grains like rice and legumes such as beans which tend to make up most of my favorite foods.
As the comment below states...lifestyle change is the name of the game not restrictive dieting.

Bag the Gym Membership and Exercise for Free

I know people who are still paying for a monthly membership to use the local gym, some actually use their memberships but most don't after the first rush of "I'm gonna get in shape-itis". Anyway, with the economy in the toilet and people having less and less money to spare on something they may not even use, consider these free ways you can exercise and get in shape without all of the expense:

• Mall walking. Simply go to your local mall and walk! It's easy, it's free, it's indoors and out of the weather. Best of all, many malls have actual mall walking clubs, lots of great people to walk with, and some even open extra early so you can walk before the mall stores open and shoppers arrive.
• TV exercise classes. One of my favorite yoga classes actually comes to me via the television each morning. There are also quite a few morning exercise classes on TV that you can follow along with and with cable/streaming video/free exercise videos from the library, you can actually exercise any time you want.
• Weight lifting...with groceries. Yes you can go out and buy a whole collection of hand weights or you can wander over to the pantry and start lifting cans of veggies, jugs of milk, or any other item that is a bit weighty and fits your hands.
• Play outside, either by yourself of with your kids. When you are a kid, you can think of all kinds of things to do outside--kick a ball down the street, play hide and seek, hang on the monkey bars at the playground--basically everything looks fun when you are a kid. If you adopt the same attitude now, you will find all kinds of things to do outside that will give you some exercise and will actually be a lot of fun.
• Borrow fitness facilities. Does your local high school have a great track or a nice set of outdoor bleachers to run? Is there a nature trail near by? Are there community tennis courts nearby? Is there a lake where you can swim? There are usually quite a few community-developed places that anyone can use to exercise. Obviously you will want to use school facilities on weekends when the school is closed and public tennis or basketball courts assume that you have the equipment (tennis rackets, basketball) to use them.
• Volunteer. One way that many people get to exercise for free is by volunteering at the place where they want to exercise. Years ago I volunteered at a dance studio and ended up getting my dance classes for free. Some people volunteer at the Y and in return get free passes to use the Y facilities.
• Participate in community groups. Cultural dance groups, meet up groups, hiking groups, bicycling clubs...many communities have groups of people who share the same interest in various types of exercise activities so why not join one?
• Some more difficult stuff. Parkour is a cool sport which requires nothing else but your bravery and what ever obstacles are naturally in your way. You can also find the tallest building in your city and climb the steps to the top, scramble up mountain trails, or even participate in a fight club (something I highly recommend NOT to do).

The bottom line is that you don't need to spend a lot of money or obligate yourself to expensive plans in order to exercise and get fit. With a little creativity and just by getting out and actually doing stuff, you can enjoy a wide range of free exercise activities.

Good Things About the Bad Economy

Yes the economy is in the pits and people are broke and jobs are being lost at an amazing rate but there are some good things about this situation that people often overlook:

• People aren't spending like crazy and living beyond their means anymore, mostly because they can't get the credit to live this way these days. This is a good thing. People are coming back to reality.


• Families are spending more time together (mostly because parents are working reduced hours or are out of work and they can't afford to send each family member off to do their own thing). This is also good. Working together as a family, especially during hard times actually raises self esteem, teaches problem solving, gets rid of the "I'm entitled" attitude, and forces you to learn to work together and enjoy time together...mostly because you don't have any other options.


• Prices are lower. People are willing to make deals because business is much slower than usual. Restaurants in my area are offering some pretty significant discounts. Houses are selling at super low prices (like 1/3 off what they were selling for only a few years ago). And, I am getting new flooring installed in my house this week (of course cash only) because the home improvement store had a great sale on the linoleum AND business is so slow for flooring installers that a guy I know offered my a "can't beat this" price to install the flooring.


• People are learning how to do things for themselves. When our kids were growing up, we had plenty of money for all kinds of things--designer coffee, meals out, shopping for whatever looked interesting at the grocery store. This wasn't so good. They missed out on lots of lessons that I learned from my Depression-era grandparents like how to shop within a budget, how to cook, how to pack a lunch for work the next day out of leftovers...basically all of the frugal living skills that practically died out during the '90s and early 2000s.


• People are learning what it means to live within their means. If you don't have/can't get credit then you can't buy/can't charge the new TV, laptop, or car that just a few years ago was as simple as signing on the dotted line. Now you can only buy what you can afford. Whatta concept!

If you turn this current financial situation on its head, you can find all kinds of things to be thankful for while most people are only looking at the down side. And, if you need more convincing that money won't buy happiness, check out this article where a guy gives away all of him money so that he can be happier.

What Would You Do for $10,000?

Well, I'll tell you what I would do. Today I applied, for the first time in my life, to enter a "reality" type contest where the prize, if you can vanish for a month, is $10,000. I saw this contest advertised a couple of days ago and thought "I could actually do that" as opposed to say Survivor (I don't eat insects) or Amazing Race (I don't go face first down a 25 story building no matter how many ropes are tied to me). But could I actually disappear and evade a small army of people trying to find me? Me thinks yes. So I downloaded and filled out the application, rounded up a few (not so great) photos of myself, and spent hours trying to figure out how the video camera works so that I could make a two minute video of myself as part of the application (I'm hoping they put more weight on the written application as opposed to my oh-so-unprofessional video). There is probably a one in a million chance that I would actually be selected and then, if selected, a one in a million chance I could evade some of the best techies in the US trying to hunt me down but it is so worth the opportunity to try. Plus that $10,000 would really come in handy to help me reach my 400 goals!

El Cheapo Weekend

We generally spend our weekends doing fun but inexpensive activities. During our spending heyday, it would be nothing to spend hundreds of dollars over the course of a weekend on eating out, getting a manicure and pedicure, buying clothes and shoes, going to the movies, buying new "toys", etc.

Now our weekends consist of free or cheap activities such as:

• Volksmarching. The cost is $3 per walk if you want to get credit and patches for your accomplishments. This is a great group of people who meet every Saturday and walk 10k routes together. We did this yesterday and had perfect weather, a wonderful group of people to walk with, and some strenuous hills to tackle, overall a great walk!
• Library. This is a wonderful free option which entails hanging out at our local library, reading, then maybe borrowing books or DVDs on my way out.
• Working at home. Sometimes we do a major cleaning. Other times we do projects such as cleaning out the garage. In the spring we will have yard work and gardening. Actually staying at home is the best way to both get needed tasks done AND save money. If you aren't out and about, you don't spend money.
• Movie marathon. One lazy Sunday we were nearly out of money for the month and it was the middle of winter so there wasn't much to do around the house. We ended up watching 12 HOURS of Lifetime movies (we're paying for cable so we might as well use it). We called it our 'movie marathon weekend' and now when there isn't much to do we occasionally consider having a similar marathon weekend.
• Making money. A couple of times during the summer we hold garage sales which take up the entire weekend and instead of spending money, we end up making money. Other times I will get busy and post ads on Craigslist for items we want to sell which is easier to do if we will actually be home in order to meet the buyers.
• Baking and cooking. Another occasional activity we do is have a cooking and baking weekend. Generally we clean out the fridge and the cupboards then get busy processing food by baking cookies, banana bread, and regular bread for the upcoming week. We cook up a pot of stew or chili, make egg rolls, tamales, or other items that take a long time to produce, and sometimes even invite friends or neighbors to enjoy the bounty.
• Low cost fitness activities. Some weekend when we are looking for something to do, we will choose low cost fitness activities such as bike riding, hiking, swimming, racquetball (free at our military base gym), kicking a soccer ball around a local field, etc. This is a great way to get outdoors, get some sunshine, and get some exercise all at the same time.

Weekends need not be money drains on your budget. You can do relaxing, out of the ordinary things that mix up your routine a bit but still don't cost a whole lot of money.

Cash or Debit Card?

When people go 'cash only', one of the first things they consider is if they should literally switch to using cash (greenbacks) only. Or can they still use plastic, as long as the money is coming from their bank account via a debit card transaction?

The argument for the papery green kind of cash: when you run out of money you will have to stop spending, when you spend actual cash you can literally feel your money leaving your pocket, you won't risk overdrafts because you don't involve the banks at all, you surprise people who hardly ever see cash transactions any more, you are more aware of how much money you have when you can actually see it in your hands, and you will never be stuck without funds on those rare occasions when you go somewhere that only accepts cash.

The argument for debit cards: you still retain the consumer protection that a debit card with a Visa or MasterCard logo on it provides, it is safer than carrying around a wad of cash, you are still technically using cash because you are debiting money from your account, and you can still "swipe" your purchases just like "normal" people do.

Unless you have a serious issue with overspending if you use a debit card (ie: you overdraft your account because you can't stop spending with your debit card), I would suggest a combination of the two. For a real eye-opener, you may want to use the first month of two when you switch to the cash-only lifestyle as a cash-only living experiment. Simply cash your paycheck and divvy up the money into each of your budget categories. Pay your bills in person with cash or buy money orders for bills that can only be mailed, then use the rest of your cash for all of your spending throughout the month. This is generally a real shocker, I know it was for me. With a debit card, when you aren't looking at the cash you have, you have a sense of having money that will come from 'somewhere'. So you spend accordingly. This means you spend every last dime because you just know that more money will somehow magically appear in your account any day. When you are using only greenbacks, there is no magically appearing money and when you have $50 in your gas envelope with two weeks left of the month, you do two things--you either drive less to conserve gas or you come up with a way to make some more money to add to the envelope. This is how real economics works--you can only spend the money you have so you either need to spend less or earn more. No magically appearing money, no "maybe I can spend more than I have in my account and somehow get money into the account before it overdrafts".

So after cutting up all of my credit cards, paying off and closing all of my credit card accounts, and the eye-opening experience of spending only cash for a couple of month, I settled back into using a combination of cash and debit card. Now I'm not afraid to use debit cards like I used to be since I am always aware of the balance of my accounts. I have three separate bank accounts which all have debit cards. One is for my emergency fund, one is for savings (such as what we use for traveling), and one is for regular expenses. I still like using cash for most of our spending, and I use checks to pay bills by mail. I use debit cards for larger purchases (mostly for the consumer protection), and to purchase things online (like airline tickets or the rare Amazon purchase). I think a combination of cash and debit cards works best but have known many people who seem to do really great using ONLY cash. Which ever route you choose, the bottom line is that using either cash and/or debit cards will save you money AND keep you out of credit card hell.

100 Ways to Lower Your Expenses

Thinking back on the wild spending '90s, I seriously am appalled by how much money I frivolously threw away. If I could only get that money back, I would be out of debt and probably fairly well to do right now. If you are playing catch up, like me, here are 100 ways to hold on to more of your hard earned money.

1. Color your hair at home. It's easier than you think.


2. Find a lower cost place to get your hair cut. You may need to try a few places until you find a great hair cutter.


3. Do your manicures and pedicures at home.


4. Eat at home instead of restaurants.


5. Brown bag your lunch and snacks every day.


6. Skip the fancy coffee and make a pot at home.


7. Switch to lower cost makeup (ie: Maybelline or Cover Girl) instead of the pricey department store variety.


8. Use cloth diapers instead of disposables.


9. Clean your own home instead of having a housekeeper.


10. Do your own yard work instead of having a gardener.


11. Pay off your debts and stay debt free.


12. Refinance your home to a lower interest rate (and a shorter term if possible).


13. Buy your clothes at thrift stores.


14. Cancel garbage service if possible, and process your own garbage (compost, recycle, etc).


15. Walk instead of driving, if it is too far, take the city bus or carpool.


16. Choose the minimum cable package you can live with. Better yet, cut out TV all together.


17. Cancel your home phone and use your cell.


18. Lower your electric, gas, and water bill by reducing the amount of these products that you use.


19. Use coupons as much as possible (but only for things you absolutely need).


20. Haggle for items you are going to buy, even in big box and department stores.


21. Try renting instead of buying if this works out better financially.


22. Share larger purchases with friends and neighbors (everything from 50 pound bags of rice to lawnmowers).


23. Use the library instead of bookstores and movie rental places.


24. Trade like for like items with friends and relatives (everything from clothes to videos to babysitting).


25. Rent out a room in your house.


26. Always ask for discounts (ie: AAA, Costco, military, senior, etc).


27. Take advantage of free stuff (ie: free smoke detectors from the fire department, free flu shots from the health department, free lectures at the library, free entrance nights at the museum).


28. If you have a bad habit (smoking, drinking, etc), quit.


29. Switch to cheaper hobbies (instead of golf, try walking; instead of skating, try swimming).


30. Annually, review all of your bills and look for ways to reduce them (ie: drop the comprehensive coverage on your old car, compare cell plans and choose the most cost efficient one).


31. Rent movies instead of going to first run shows. Better yet, wait until they are free on TV or cable.


32. Hang your clothes to dry instead of using the dryer.


33. Do your own repairs instead of hiring out the work.


34. When grocery shopping, skip the over processed stuff and buy basic food (grains, meats, veggies, fruit).


35. Switch to being a one car family. It can be done.


36. Instead of funding the entire family reunion, make it a BYOB and potluck.


37. Put the kids in public school instead of private school.


38. Repair your clothes instead of tossing them (polish shoes, sew ripped seams, etc).


39. Play poker for free online instead of going to the casino.


40. Shop for--and stock up on--items when they are on sale (ie: school supplies in August, summer clothing in the fall).


41. Make the kids earn their own spending money as soon as they are able to.


42. Plan--and do as much work as possible for--your events such as parties, weddings, etc.


43. Reduce the number of animals you have.


44. Research, and sign up for) all of the benefits you are entitled to (military, unemployment, social service, etc).


45. Combine your errands and only do them once a week.


46. Shop monthly instead of weekly or every few days.


47. Ditch the expensive designer perfume for fragranced lotion (a la Bath and Body works).


48. Make your own baby food.


49. Use a Diva Cup or similar device instead of tampons or pads.


50. Buy party items (cards, wrap, bows, etc) at the Dollar Store.


51. Shop garage sales instead of mall sales.


52. Reduce the number of toys you buy for your kids and encourage the use of their imagination and creativity (big cardboard boxes and "forts" built out of blankets can be just as much fun as expensive plastic toys).


53. Wash your own car instead of taking it to the car wash.


54. Make your own treats (cookies, cake, popcorn) instead of buying these items.


55. Use rags instead of paper towels.


56. Make your own cleaning products (vinegar and baking soda based) instead of buying expensive cleaning products.


57. Look for ways to get the things you want free (ie: be the bowling league secretary in exchange for free bowling fees, be an usher at the symphony so you can watch the show for free).


58. Use Freecycle!


59. Minimize the number of items you have/use (five good shirts instead of 20 so so shirts, two hair products instead of 10).


60. Use natural air fresheners instead of chemical air fresheners (better yet, just open all of the windows each day).


61. Look at all of your birth control options for both effectiveness AND cost effectiveness.


62. Pay your bills online instead of using checks and stamps.


63. Shop ethnic stores--prices on staples, spices, and vegies are often cheaper.


64. Exercise and eat right every day to keep your medical costs down.


65. Switch to cost saving vacations such as camping instead of jet-setting.


66. Send gift cards for presents instead of bulky, expensive to mail items.


67. Pay your bills annually (insurance, etc) if you can get a discount.


68. Process your own food--freeze, can, dry, jelly--if you can get it in bulk at a good price.


69. Switch to lower cost pet food instead of the premium stuff.


70. Treat your own basic illnesses with old fashioned common sense (lots of rest, soup, Vitamin C, lots of liquids).


71. If you see a better advertised deal for new customers such as for cable or cell phones, call and ask for the same deal even if you are a current customer (stress your long history with the company, etc).


72. Stay home as much as possible. Leaving home often equates to spending money.


73. Sell your house and buy something smaller (McMansions are so passe).


74. If you really want to cut your housing expenses, look for options to trade your services (caring for the elderly, yard work, etc) for room and board or even just room.


75. Cancel subscriptions (newspapers, magazines) and read these items online.


76. Barter for services you would otherwise pay for (plumbing work for dental work, car work for landscaping).


77. Never drive drunk, do drugs, or anything else that will put you at the mercy of the court system. If this has already happened, pay off your court fees/fines ASAP, using community service if possible.


78. Skip the gym membership and walk around your neighborhood/mall/park.


79. Skip the high priced counselor (if possible) and join support groups (AA, Compassionate Friends, etc).


80. Skip the beverages and drink water, both at home and in restaurants.


81. Buy products that fit your needs, not the latest styles (ie: if you only need a music player and not all the bells and whistles, buy a MP3 player instead of an iTouch).


82. Heat only the room(s) you are using. Turn the house heat on 55 when you are in your bedroom and use a small space heater to heat only your bedroom.


83. Participate in activities at discounted times (ie: our skating rinks have $1 night and 'cheap skate' nights, if you must go to a movie go during the matinee instead of paying full price).


84. Instead of expensive gifts, give services and experiences. Take your nephew skating, give free babysitting certificates to new parents, etc.


85. Dress classically with a bit of flair instead of following every single trend (you'll look better in pictures 20 years from now too!).


86. Look for free education opportunities: scholarships, grants, free community classes, colleges that offer free tuition, etc.


87. Instead of organized tours when you go on vacation, strike out on your own by taking public transit, eating in hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and asking the locals about things to do.


88. Have one stay at home parent to save on childcare, transportation, work-related expenses, etc.


89. Choose where you live based on how much money you can save (near to work reduces the commute cost, in an area with good schools reduced the need for private schools, in a safe area will allow you to walk/exercise outside instead of worrying about your safety, in a safe neighborhood means you may not need bars on your windows and a security system).


90. Decorate your home with thrift stores finds, home made items (your own artwork), and stuff on sale from Ross or TJ Maxx or Big Lots.


91. Skip things that may have a negative effect on your body (tattoos, tanning beds, junk food, etc).


92. Reduce stress which can induce illness. Do some stretches, yoga, deep breathing, journaling, etc.


93. Set boundaries with people if necessary (boyfriends that are perpetually sponging off of you, siblings that take advantage of you AND take you money, friends that need everything from a place to stay to bail money, etc).


94. Skip the enhancements: fake boobs, fake hair, fake tan, botox, face lifts, a new nose when your old nose is fine, fake nails...


95. Re-do instead of buying new: reupholster your couch, paint a dresser to match the new decor instead of buying a new one, tune up your old bike instead of getting a new one, etc.


96. Drop the drama--divorce, affairs, hiding financial problems, having a bunch of kids with random women--all cause you to lose money, not to mention create a massive amount of stress.


97. Buy store brands when possible (they are often cheaper and taste the same--sometimes even better--than name brand items).


98. Pay cash for your cars, NEVER get on a payment plan. If you can only afford a $1000 car then you can only afford a $1,000 car. You can upgrade when you save more money.


99. Tax shelter you savings by investing in a Roth IRA, 403b, 401k, etc.


100. Be happy, be a minimalist.