Big amount of money can be saved if you can hold back the consumer in you. Instead of saving money by cutting down on little things, it’s quite important to recognize things that can save big money. Quit Smoking Obviously this isn’t for those you don’t smoke. But for those who smoke, it’s a huge money saving opportunity. If you are addicted to smoke a pack each day, quitting smoke can easily help you to save around $5 per day, which equals to $1,800 every year. Along with gaining this amount, you also save money that you probably would have spent on health issues like insurance, medicine costs, etc. This is one of the best ways to save money. Purchase used items You can reduce your overall expenses by around 25% merely by purchasing used items whenever possible. Various things like [...]

Sometimes there arises a situation when the item you bought by borrowing (generally a car or house), is worth much less than the money you owe. This may happen due to fluctuations in market situation or due to depreciation of the item. Sadly, we cannot individually fight recession or pathetic financial conditions, but we definitely can avoid depreciation of the purchased item. I will help you to do it. Commonly, depreciation depends on market demand of a particular product. If the product soon becomes obsolete, depreciation is inevitable. On the other hand, high demand can avoid downgrading. There are carmakers like Ferrari, which are known for cautiously choosing their procurer and limiting the number of manufactured models to keep the demand high in the market. Such cars don’t seem to depreciate [...]

The world of electronics is so very similar to the showbiz world! In both these worlds, something new comes up almost everyday, people go crazy over the new and the old is shunned off in no time. What a pity! Last Christmas, I presented my niece with a brand new expensive mobile phone but this year she was crazy after another model that her friend picked up from the market. According to a 2007 study of ISupply, there are over a billion used cellphones in America of which 10 % are being relegated to landfills and 37 % to household redundant drawers! Not only cellphones, but household electronic gadgets like tape recorders, electronic watches, kitchen and laundry appliances, also find themselves in old garages or in the attics. They gather cobwebs there! You keep them there where they get damaged [...]

A new year has come once again and once again it’s the time to start working on the resolutions that you might have probably made by now. In all possibility, owing to the financially not so happy times, a firm resolution to improve your financial status must be top on the agenda. Improving financial status to most of us means curtailing our expenditure or improving our bank balances. Though, improving finances essentially involves these two activities, just these are not enough. There are more activities that you’ve got to do in this year which will help you in improving your finances. Here are some of them: Postpone your plans to buy property- Don’t buy a house now. The housing markets are not really encouraging and mortgages are really high. Wait for a more favorable time. If you’ve [...]

Did I just ask you to stop accumulating funds for retirement? Yes. Or maybe the precise sentence should be “Don’t accumulate funds for retirement at all.” I don’t blame you. The federal government and finance industry, consciously or unconsciously, have initiated and protracted the retirement con. They generated several retirement schemes like IRA’s and 410K account along with financial investment benefits like index funds and mutual funds, which induces every individual to save funds and lock it in safety (some unsafe) boxes and lug it out when you aren’t quite fit to enjoy the wealth you have created. The finance industry will, of course, promote saving for retirement. Till the time you are 60-65, they have generated fortune using your funds for several years. For them, it’s [...]

Every day you come across hundreds of articles on budgeting your expenses. Financial advisors also give you numerous strategies to budget your expenses. You make your own plans for spending money and call it a budget. What does this word called ‘budget’ which has assumed colossal importance in the present economic times mean to you? Different people use different tools to make their budgets. I simply jot down my money plan in a notebook, but my friend uses Mintblog financial tools to make his budget. Ultimately what matters is not the tools that you use for designing your budget but what you have intended to spend on and what you have actually spent on. Spending without budgeting is like eating without keeping a track of how much you eat. Just like a diet plan, you need to create a budget [...]

Christmas is just round the corner and I hope you must be all geared up to make the festival a big hit! One of the prime features of Christmas is of course the Christmas tree and most families try to spend quite a bit on that. This year the sale of the Christmas tree seems to have bounced back from the low sales of last year owing to the economical depression. So what’s your budget for the Christmas tree? Are you spending the usual $100? Well, you could also do with some cost trimmings. You could save up to 50 % even though there are just a couple of weeks left. If you’ve been observing market trends, you can find that as the date of a festival nears, the retailers slash the costs of their wares more and more. Settling for a Christmas tree at half the usual price does not mean that you’re [...]

With online shopping being as popular as store shopping with the holiday shoppers, today one has no dearth of alternatives to the conventional method of going to a retail outlet physically and buying the things he/she wants. Either you visit a shop, select goods and buy from there or otherwise order whatever you want to from an online store and get it delivered at your doorstep. Many big stores are offering to ship your goods free of charge. Wal-Mart, Borders, Radio Shack, and Payless Shoe Source are some of the big stores that are offering to ship your goods for free to your house after you order them online. Your online orders get delivered to the stores from where you collect them. Naturally you may wonder why stores like Wal-Mart and Borders are being so generous? What have they got in [...]

Christmas is just round the corner and you must be busy shopping around to fill Santa’s bag. It’s not only you, but the retailers too who are eagerly trying to push things into Santa’s bag by promoting themselves to their hearts’ content. Apart from print media, they are using internet technology to the maximum to entice you with compelling offers! One of the most widely used methods to draw your attention is to send sale mails to your inbox. Nowadays, when I open my mail box, I usually come across dozens of mails with attractive discounts suggesting that I buy this and I buy that. Though in one way, I like these mails as they keep me informed about the best deals without my having to physically visit malls to find out on my own, at times these tend to get on my nerves- owing to the [...]

Thinking of relocating to a new city for a better paying job? The Mintblog’s city-wise infographic has a list of 80 careers and the best and worst paying cities for the careers. If you are in a city that pays you less than the national average for that career, it’s better for you to pack up your luggage from that city and move towards the city that pays the best. Relocation involves a lot of expenditure and you should know the expenses that you can claim and those that you can’t from your new employer. Your employer will have a policy for funding your relocation and make it a point to know them before you plan shifting. Don’t shift at your own expense first and then think of claiming the finances because you don’t know the terns and conditions of relocation payment set by your employer. [...]

In all my articles I suggest ways to save money by shopping smartly. However, I keep getting mails from people about how they got into a bad deal and what they can do with a product purchased unwisely. They have tried returning it, but not every retailer is that courteous. I know it’s quite disappointing to repeatedly come across the clothes in your cabinet with tags not even touched or a crockery set not used since 11 months because you don’t like the design. So what do you do with these items? Try swapping If you own a gift card that you hate even watching at, try to sell it or swap it on websites like cardavenue.com, certificateswap.com, and swapagift.com. Here, you can list your card for free. However, you it sells, you have to pay an amount starting from $1 to some % of the cost [...]

Economical shopping is not only about slashing down your expenditure on non-essential goods and services, but also about cleverly understanding the loopholes in your style of shopping and molding them for a more economical experience. So here are certain aspects with respect to your shopping style that you could focus upon to come up with more frugal alternatives. Shop With Cash, Not Cards Although credit cards come with a lot advantages when it comes to shopping, try to use cash. At least that way you can limit your spending. Credit card processing might also take a longer time than cash processing, especially when the stores have older processing machines. Make a Planned Shopping When I go shopping, I go with a predetermined plan to buy certain things and come back home with those many things [...]