Going to the food court alone costs $30 for us, and if we bought junk at a store that would be another $30-$100. Now we never ever, ever, ever go to the mall. It drives me nuts just thinking about how much money I have thrown away in that place.

Now I only go to the mall if that is the only place that carries an item I must have to get by.
I figure not going to the mall now gives me an annual savings of around $2,500.

Have a cell phone? Do you need long-distance service on your home phone? Canceling one line could mean one less bill every month. Many people have phone packages that are too expensive for their needs, so read your bill carefully.

If you have a mobile phone but rarely use it it might be more cost effective to switch to a pay-as-you-go phone. These types of mobile phone services can cost you as little as $10 a month if you are not a frequent talker.

Here are several options:
Make a budget; keep a spreadsheet of all spending; or buy a computer program designed to help manage your finances.

We can use basic household items to make our on homemade Fertilizer. Just look around, you probably have everything you need to get started.

Homemade Fertilizer Ingredients: # Lawn Sprayer # One part ammonia # One part Epsom salts # One part beer

1. Mix contents into a container.
2. Pour into sprayer.
3. Spray lawn equally with mixture.
4. Wait at least 4 weeks and reapply.

This mixture will fertilize an area of about 500 square feet, depending on the water pressure through the sprayer. You should wait at least 4 weeks to determine if you need to increase the amount you spray on your lawn.

Take a look around online to see the number of DVDs listed on sale or at discount prices and you will understand. A person looking for cheap software or discount DVDs need look no further than the online surplus being posted everyday on websites across the world.

Of course, a person looking for discount DVDs needs to be wary of Region coding, when looking at purchasing outside the US, and also of the reputation of the seller on popular sites like Half.com or eBay.com. With a little searching though, the coveted box set from a series can be found at deep discounts.

As we look for deep discount dvd, we need to find the sites that cater to reselling DVDs or simply buying at wholesale prices. Outside of the obvious solutions, there are legal opportunities out there to download entire DVDs to a computer. These services, like cinemanew. com, offer customers a way to download entire DVDs on more than one device, like a laptop, desktop, and portable device without paying any extra. The downfall of these services is that they use DRM technology, limiting the users access to the deep discount DVD without authorization. So a user could not burn the disk and give it out to friends. Who wants to do that anyways? Other popular services like the iTunes also offer television series downloads and DVD downloads.

Whether you are buying deep discount DVDs to expand a home library or purchasing a piece of software to improve your productivity, the solutions can be found online at starkly different rates than brick and mortar stores. For the scoop on the best deals, roam the savings sites that monitor either cheap DVDs or cheap software sites. With a little research, a person can save upwards of 50% on their next purchase.

The reason that these institutions can afford such a high interest rate is because, since all of your banking is done online, they usually don’t have pay the high overhead costs associated with operating a bunch of actual brick-and-mortar bank branches.

After doing some research. I googled for “high yield savings account” and “ING direct” and “HSBC Direct“. I followed promising links (and ads) from the search results. Here are the offers that I was able to find with minimal digging. All of these accounts are FDIC insured and, unless otherwise noted, can link to other bank accounts (your local credit union, for example).

* Washington Mutual offers 3.75% APY on a special savings account that requires a $1 minimum to open. This account must be opened in conjunction with a WaMu Free Checking account. The accounts must be linked. If you close the checking account, you lose the 3.75% rate.
* HSBC Direct offers 3.50% APY, no fees, web interface. $1 minimum to open. Named “best online savings account” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. GRS readers have mixed experiences with HSBC Direct. This is a temporary rate through September 15th — after that the rate is variable.
* ShoreBank offers 3.50% APY with no monthly fees and a $1 minimum balance. ShoreBank bills itself as a community development and environmental bank.
* FNBO Direct offers 3.50% APY, with no monthly fees, no minimum balances, and “no strings”. $1 minimum to open.
* E*TRADE Bank offers 3.30% APY, no fees, an automatic savings plan. $1 minimum to open. GRS readers do not like E*Trade, but my cousin loves them.
* WT Direct offers 3.26% APY, no fees. No minimum to open, but your interest rate drops to 0.50% if you don’t have a $10,000 balance after 60 days.
* Savings Square offers 3.05% APY, no fees. $1 minimum to open. Electronic interface only. I’ve had a couple readers tell me setting up an account at Savings Square is a nightmare.
* ING Direct offers 3.00% APY, no fees, an automatic savings plan, web interface. No minimum. GRS readers love ING Direct.
* GMAC Bank offers 3.00% APY, checks, ATM card. $500 minimum. Fees on balancs below $500. GRS readers like GMAC Bank.
* Emigrant Direct offers 2.75% APY, no fees, web interface. No minimum. GRS readers like Emigrant Direct.
* Citibank Direct offers 2.65% APY, no fees. No minimum. To earn this rate, you have to meet certain bill-payment requirements, otherwise your rate is 1.92%. GRS readers do not like Citibank Direct.
* Countrywide Bank offers a variable rate, from 2.65% to 3.55% APY. $1,000 minimum to open. Rate is 2.65% on balances below $10,000.
* Presidential Online Bank offers 2.60% APY, no fees, ATM access, web interface. $5,000 minimum to open. Rate applies to balances up to $35,000. Any portion above this amount earns 2.40%.
* Capital One offers a variable rate, from 2.50% to 3.50% APY, no fees, free checks and ATM card, an automatic savings plan. $1 minimum to open. Rate is 2.50% on balances below $10,000. This is a money market account.

Usually on the outside of the jars, they are labeled using varying levels of wit. In these jars, you can set aside money you’d like to budget for “kids’ education,” “retirement,” “dreams,” or the “Harley fund.”

Just put them in a place in your house that you frequently pass throughout the day and it will almost always compel you to toss that spare change or dollar into a goal jar.

It doesn’t matter if you spend $100 or $800 a month on groceries, you probably wish you could save more money on your food bill. Food coupons are a good way to cut down on costs. You may think it is not worth it to clip that “35 cents off” coupon, but coupon users save anywhere from 5 to 30 percent on their annual grocery bills by clipping coupons. If you use the product or eat the food, that “25 cents off” coupon is like having a quarter in your hand. That quarter could increase to 50 or 75 cents if your grocery store doubles coupons.

If you look hard enough you can find coupons on almost any product you use if you just know where to look. More than 80 percent of consumers will find grocery coupons in their Sunday newspaper. The newspaper often advertises that you can save a certain amount of money by buying the newspaper, but that is only if you use the coupons for the products included. Most consumers will only see a few grocery coupons for items they actually use.

The majority of grocery stores and pharmacies have in-store coupons with discounts on food, health and cleaning products. Often, a store’s competitor will honor the in-store coupon to keep you shopping at their store. Check with your store for its policy on competitor’s coupons.

Once you get the hang of using those coupons you will be pleasantly surprised at how much more cash will be left from you budget at the end of the month.

Well of course, if you are successful with this request, any additional income you receive should be assigned directly from direct deposit to your savings account or investment like 401(k). Also, you should be prepared with work-related justification of why you deserve such a raise. Just wanting to save more money won’t cut it.

This method can be used whether you have curtains or shades covering your windows you can adjust them throughout the day to help adjust your homes temperature. Open up your window coverings on the sunny side of your home in the mornings and it will help bring the temperature up and also help jump start your body for the day ahead. Sometime it will cut back the time your heat comes on by as much as 30%.

During the summer keeping those shades on the sunny side drawn closed slows down the heat absorption in a room and really slows the heating process. Its O.K. to get the indirect sunlight from a shaded window because your floors and walls aren’t soaking in that heat from the sun.

Using this practice in a smaller home on a daily basis can make up to a 25% power saving say some experts.