Today features an AMAZING guest post by my friend Fred Schebesta. Fred writes about saving money at Savings Account Finder, he focuses on helping people  find, compare and apply online for savings accounts to put their hard earned money away. Earning extra interest for people makes him happy!

Saving on your electricity can be as simple as changing a few old habits and with power becoming more expensive and everyone becoming more aware of their carbon footprint, shouldn’t we all be doing all we can to conserve energy. These 72 simple tips are going to be even easier for you and your family to adopt in your home when you realize it won’t cost you a cent to start saving.

1 Turn Off Your Lights
A simple habit to remember and one which can save you a fortune. Turing off the lights when you leave a room and when you go out makes financial sense, and should appeal to your common sense too.

2 Stop Your Dishwasher Drying Your Dishes
Turn off the dish drying function of your dishwasher cycle and boost your savings accounts by letting your dishes dry naturally.

3 Using Table Lamps
Table lamps will light just the space you are using, making them a much more efficient option than turning on all the numerous and larger overhead lights.

4 Shut Off Mains Power
If you are willing to reprogram your alarm clocks and recorders when you return, turning off your mains power when you leave the house can save you a lot of cents when you add up the power used when appliances are on standby.

5 Only Use Lights When Needed
Get out of the habit of turning lights on whenever you enter a room. Often by simply opening a curtain you’ll have enough light for general tasks during the day.

6 Turn Lights Off When You Leave a Room
A habit which is going to save you money on your electricity bill when you do it regularly – plus there is no substance to the myth that turning lights off and on uses more power than leaving them running, so no matter how long you’re leaving a room for, turn off the light.

7 Free Cooling Passages
The air comes into your fridge and freezer through a vent on the inside so make sure you don’t place food or items in front of that vent, as the appliance will have to work harder.

8 Use Task Lighting
If you’re working on the computer or reading a book, use lighting which will light up just the space you need. This is especially important if you are at your desk where your computer, monitor, printer and office equipment is already powered up.

9 Hand Wash Single Dishes
If you have a full load then your dishwasher is more water and energy efficient, but if not, wash the few plates or mugs by hand.

10 Untangle Your Drying
If you separate your washing before putting it in the dryer the dryer will be much more efficient.

11 Indoor Clothes Drying Area
Setting aside a space inside to hang your clothes on an airer will make it easier for you to stop using the dryer and all that extra power.

12 Turn Off Your Home Office
When working from home you need a break from the office too, even if you just close the door to the spare room

and forget about it for the weekend. Well, while you’re forgetting about work, unplug all of your office equipment on the weekend too.

13 Unplug Your Home Office
If your home office doesn’t run at the same pace as an inner-city business then you don’t need to be using the same amount of power either. Therefore, if you’re not printing anything unplug your printer, if you’re not scanning anything unplug your scanner, if you’re not using your audio equipment then unplug your speakers.

14 Turn Off and Turn In
Before you go to bed it will cost you nothing to double check that all lights, TVs and electrical equipment are turned off.

15 Use Your Front Door Not Your Garage Door
Your garage door opener uses power every time you come and go from your house. Therefore, if you’re stopping at home quickly leave your car in the driveway instead of opening and closing the garage door. Plus, if you have an entrance to your home from your garage, use it, instead of opening and closing the garage door for your car, and again for yourself.

16 Turn Off Your Computer
A simple money saving habit to get into and one which will save you a fortune in power you’re just wasting when your computer sits idle.

17 Not a Fan
If you are cooling off in front of a fan, make sure to turn it off when you leave the room. A fan is only going to make you feel cooler when you are in front of it and leaving it on when you’re not there is not going to lower the temperature of your home.

18 Turn Off Appliances When You Leave
If you’re not watching the TV remember to turn it off, same too for your computer and games console. You can turn them right back on when you return.

19 Transfer From Freezer to Fridge
If you plan out the next several meals you can transfer all that food from your freezer to your fridge at once. Opening your freezer less will mean it doesn’t have to work as hard as if the door was regularly being opened.

20 Christmas Lights Light Up the Night
Don’t leave your Christmas lights running during the day – no one can see them. Also make sure to wait until it’s actually dark to turn them on at night.

21 Turn Off Lights When TV is On
The TV provides its own light if you need to get up and move around the room and you certainly don’t need the light on to see the TV better – in fact it’s likely to look better in the dark.

22 Turn the TV Off When You’re Not Watching
If you’re going in and out of the room getting ready for work or cooking or cleaning, don’t leave the TV on when you’re not there to watch it.

23 Watch Less TV
Turning the TV off when you leave a room may also lead you to watch less TV all together which can save you even more. Plus, flat screen TVs especially, get very hot when on for long periods of time so get off the couch and couple saving electricity with exercise, gardening or board games.

24 Don’t Dehumidify When It’s Not Humid
You will only need a dehumidifier to be running when it’s humid so to avoid unnecessary electricity consumption, turn them off during late autumn, winter and early spring.

25 Unplug Battery Chargers
After your iPod, camera or other device has charged, unplug the device and the charger from the wall. Even when your device isn’t plugged into its charger, the charger is still consuming electricity.

26 Turn Off Appliances
Leave your fridge and freezer running of course, but make sure all other appliances are off when you leave the house – your microwave, stereo and coffee maker don’t need to stay on while you’re gone.

27 Take All Food From the Fridge at Once
If you’re cooking take all the ingredients from the fridge at the same time, or if you’re making a sandwich get all the toppings in one go as opening the fridge door less, means it doesn’t have to work as hard.

28 Clean Fridge Coils
Clean coils means your fridge will take less electricity to keep its contents cold.

29 Use Half As Much Light
Go through your house and unscrew every second light bulb and see whether you really do need so much light in your home.

30 Clean Dishwasher Drain
If your dishwasher is clean, then your dishes will be too and if you allow only clean water to come through the drain, there is less chance you need to rewash the dishes and use yet more power.

31 Keep Dryer Lint Trap Clean
If the moisture can easily leave the dryer through a clean lint trap then it will be more efficient and be able to run for less time.

32 Run Full Loads of Laundry
If you run full loads of laundry you can therefore put more items in the dryer at the end of each cycle, and run the dryer less often.

33 Soak Your Dishes
Soaking off the tough food stains on your dishes overnight means that the following day you can put your pre-soaked dishes in the dishwasher on an energy conservation cycle.

34 Check Your Dryer Before the End of the Cycle
Just because you’ve set the dryer for 90 minutes, it doesn’t mean the items won’t be dry before then. Checking before the end of the cycle allows you to remove the items which are dry and turn off the dryer, or let the items which need more time dry more quickly on their own.

35 Check Your Dryer Efficiency
As your dryer runs it may tangle large items such as sheets. However, if you check their progress regularly you will be able to untangle them so they can dry more quickly.

36 Don’t Completely Dry Clothes in the Dryer
Taking items from the dryer when they are still damp will help them last longer and it also means you can use your dryer less if you hang them up to dry naturally.

37 Can Your Dryer Sense Moisture?
If your dryer has a moisture sensor feature make sure this is activated as your dryer will shut off once it senses the clothes are dry.

38 Do Consecutive Loads of Laundry
When your dryer is already warmed up, keep washing to take advantage of the warmth, rather than making it heat up from cold again another time.

39 Don’t Use the Wrinkle Shield Feature of Your Dryer
If left unattended, the Wrinkle Shield will run the dryer at the end of the cycle for two minutes, every five minutes to stop the clothes wrinkling inside. If you’re out and unaware, your dryer will be running almost the entire time.

40 Turn Off Your Home Office
If you don’t want to scramble around with cables when you’re not using your office equipment, at least turn them off when they’re not in use.

41 Put Scanner on Sleep Mode
This means you don’t even have to remember to turn off your scanner after use, and you can still save electricity.

42 Put Printer on Sleep Mode
Using the sleep function means you don’t have to plug in and unplug your printer each time you stop using it, but you can still save on your power bill.

43 Put Fax Machine on Sleep Mode
Leaving your fax machine on full time in case a fax comes through is unnecessarily using power but putting it to sleep mode can combat this waste.

44 Turn Off Your Games Console
Anything like a Nintendo an X-Box or a PlayStation will keep using power even when you’re not playing so if you’ve finished or are taking a break, save and turn it off.

45 Unplug Your Games Console
Even if the console is off it is still using power so unplug your Nintendo, X-Box or PlayStation at the wall.

46 Unplug Your Phone Charger
Even if you’ve unplugged your phone from its charger, the charger is still sucking out power if it’s left plugged in.

47 Manual Gardening
Use manual shears to trim the bushes and hedges in your garden rather than powering up your electric trimmers.

48 Manual Can Opener
If you have an electric can opener, you probably still have a manual one so get it out of the drawer and stop using an electrical appliance when you have a manual one which works just as well and for free.

49 Have Bread Not Toast
Choosing to eat your bread fresh rather than toasted can save a lot of power over breakfast, especially if the whole family gets onboard with bread.

50 Rotate Cordless Phones in One Charger
Instead of having several cordless phone handsets charging at once, use just one charger base on a rotation basis.

51 Computer on Standby
This is a setting you can easily change and you can chose the time-out period before your computer powers down after inactivity.

52 Air Dry Your Hair
Before you blast your hair with the hair dryer, consider whether you really need to – are you going out, are you going to catch a cold? Probably not, so where you have the opportunity to air dry you hair, do – try washing your hair at night and when you wake up in the morning it’s dry, for free.

53 Light Free Day
Get into the habit of using no lights for just one day a week. You can make it into a game or challenge for your family, or simply start a romantic candle-lit dinner tradition – all while saving on your power bill.

54 Don’t Dispose of Garbage in the Sink
If you have a garbage disposal system in your sink, think before you use it – do you really need to or can you just take your rubbish out to the bin?

55 Fill Up Your Dishwasher
Don’t run your dishwasher unless it’s full as you’re going to do more loads in the long run and waste all that power and water on a half load.

56 Unplug the Second Fridge
If you have a second fridge in the laundry or garage for beers and food and other drinks for parties, it doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time. If you can, even try to get rid of it all together.

57 Disconnect the Microwave Light
Your kitchen is likely to be quite well lit so when you (responsibly) unplug the light bulb in the microwave to save on electricity, you probably won’t even miss it.

58 Raise the Fridge Temperature
Don’t raise the temperature so far that your food spoils, but just check the setting now – is it on the coldest setting? Probably. Well it doesn’t need to be, turn the thermostat just a few notches warmer and your fridge won’t have to work so hard.

59 Raise the Freezer Temperature
The same electricity saving idea can be applied to your freezer too because unless your freezer is packed to the brim, it doesn’t need to be on the absolute coldest setting to keep things frozen.

60 Remove One Light Bulb in Your Garage Door Opener
While it’s convenient for your garage door opener to light up when you’ve just entered, most systems will have two light bulbs, so try it with just one and see whether there’s enough light.

61 Turn Off the Porch Light When You Get Home
If you’re the last one home at night, who are you leaving the porch light on for? This is a simple habit to get into when you get home.

62 Leave the Porch Light Off
Chances are your street is lit with street lights so do you really need to leave the porch light on at all? Moonlight, coupled with the street lights or even the light of your mobile phone should be enough to help you find the right key at night for free.

63 Use a Single Power Board
You can use one power board in the lounge, one in the office, one in the bedroom, one for the kids…once you connect all appliances in a room to one power board you can quickly and easily turn off everything at once so you can be sure you’re not wasting any standby power.

64 Separate Your Fridge and Stove
If your fridge is next to your stove, your fridge is going to have to work a lot harder to keep cool with all that extra hot air around – especially if you open the fridge while you’re cooking.

65 Paint Light
Choosing light paint colors can help minimize the need for more lighting as light paint naturally reflects light into dark spaces.

66 Give Your Electronics a Holiday
When you go away on holiday, give your electrical appliances a break too and unplug all the clock radios, DVD players, game consoles and TVs. If you’re leaving for an extended period even try and empty out the fridge so you can unplug that too.

67 Fill Up Your Fridge
If your fridge isn’t full, place some (full) water bottles inside as this leaves less space that your fridge has to work on to keep cool, and the cold items will keep the fridge itself cold too.

68 Collect Leaves Manually
Use a rake instead of a leaf blower and take the opportunity to get a little exercise as you save some electricity.

69 Clean Your Light Fixtures
If your light fixtures are clean, you will probably find you can get away with turning on fewer lights, as there is more light coming from the ones already on.

70 Keep the Pool Pump Clean
Make sure the strainer baskets in your swimming pool pump are free and clean, because when they start to get blocked, the pump has to work harder and use more electricity.

71 Keep Your Freezer Full
If your freezer is full, the frozen items will work to keep the inside of the freezer cold and allow the freezer to use less electricity.

72 Shovel Snow by Hand
Get out there and put your back into shoveling snow by hand, rather than using your snow blower. It might even help you work off those extra winter kilos you put on over the holidays.

Photo by urbanwoodchuck

A friend told me about a different type of auction website the other day and I have to admit, I am intrigued.  The site is called Swoopo.  I am sure some have heard of it, but for those that haven’t, here is the run down.

Their auctions are run auctioneer style, meaning there is no fixed ending time for most of their auctions.  For example, you place a bid with 15 seconds left in the auction and are now the winning bidder.  However, a short amount of time has been added to the auction to allow others to bid.

There are some amazing deals to be had on this site.  For example, someone won an Apple Macbook Pro for $287.88.  That’s an INCREDIBLE steal!

Savings on high-end goods are to be had here, but please READ THIS before heading to their site.

It costs $.60 to bid on an item, even if you DON’T win.

That means you could bid 100 times on a Macbook and shell out $60 and still have nothing to show for it if you don’t actually WIN the auction.

This site intrigues me, and I can see it getting more and more popular.  There appears to be some internet regulation issues as it’s viewed as a form of gambling by some.  That said, check it out, but be smart before you think about spending on any item on their site.

Photo by craigmdennis

I am excited to kick off a new weekly series today called Friday “Financial Foul Ups”.  The series will be here every week and will outline financial mistakes that myself or other bloggers have made (with their permission, of course).  If you have a mistake you would like others to learn from, please contact me to write a guest post for this series.  It should be fun – or painful!

My most recent screw up, and yes, it was a grand daddy screw up that cost me the opportunity to earn $2788.80, happened just last week.  As my readers know, I totaled my car about 3 months ago.  In turn, I bought a new car a couple weeks ago.  This was not the mistake.  The mistake was what I did with the insurance money from my totaled car.

The Situation

I financed my new car, and put no money down.  This left me a big windfall of $4,200 (the money I received from the insurance company from my totaled vehicle).  I had big plans for this $4,200.  Almost all of it was going to go into the market somehow.  So I started to analyze where I should put it; my brokerage account, my Roth IRA, etc.?  My Roth IRA needed about $3,000 to be maxed for the year.  I was on pace to max it out by April 15^th next year anyway, but I wanted to speed up the process.  I put $3,000 of the insurance money into my Roth.  Like that, *poof* its gone!

Where I Fouled Up

I didn’t see the big picture and I sure as hell didn’t think outside of the box.  I didn’t look at how my money flows from account to account.  Let me explain.  Currently I have an incredible 401(K) match from my employer.  Unfortunately, I can’t take advantage of all of it because the 401(K) limit is unattainable for me at my current income level.  The match that they offer is $.50 on the dollar up to the maximum allowable contribution.  For those that aren’t in the know just yet, that means I can put in $16,500 pre-tax and my company will put in $8,250.  That is a sweet deal.

Before, I digress too far (and I am sure some of you can see where this is going), I will say that I currently put 20% of my income from my employer into my 401(K).  Now, if I would have used that $4,200 of insurance money as income for 4 pay periods (which is about what I would have earned) I could have upped my contribution to 100% receiving a HUGE boost to my 401(K) as my employer would have matched 50% of my entire salary for 4 paychecks!  Just take a look at the chart below.  Not seeing the big picture, not taking an extra few minutes to analyze the situation cost me $2,788.80 of employer match.  Almost $3000 of free money!

Yeah, I messed up.  I am ashamed to say it, but a bit of shame never killed anyone.

What I Learned

This situation was an oddity.  For those that are in my situation and can’t afford to fullly contribute to our 401(K) but have a great match offer from your employer, I hope you can learn from this.  Please, think about how to use those windfalls to improve your financial situation for today and for tomorrow.

I will say, I didn’t fail entirely.  I didn’t spend the money on frivilous goods or unnecessary luxuries.  Maxing out my Roth was one of my goals for this year, and I accomplished it in September.  However, that goal was to be accomplished regardless of me finishing it early.  I failed to recognize the opportunity to receive an additional $2788.80 and I am still struggling with that fact.  This was a royal mistake for a personal finance guy, but I have already learned from it and I can promise you, I won’t let an opportunity such as this pass me by again.

How many people do you know with an iPhone? I would guess that I know 20 people that I communicate with often have them (including myself).  There are probably 100 people that I know who have the iPhone.  With the average plan being around $100/month, I wonder how everyone affords to own the phone.  Well friends, I have taken advantage of a solution in my own life that you can implement in yours to save you and a couple of your select friends a bunch of money.  The solution is the Family Plan.

The Friend Plan (i.e. The Family Plan)

Most people think they have to sign up for a family plan with their family.  This is not the case.  It is simply a multi-phone bundle that anyone can take advantage of.  There is money to be saved by taking a few of your closest friends that are iPhone users and committing to one another to share a family plan.  Of course, be sure these are friends you can trust and rely upon.  It’s similar to a roommate situation, you don’t want to make any commitment if you fear someone could be a deadbeat, but if you and your financially stable friends want to save some money, take a look below.  (Please note that you can save money with your actually family as well, but some people are averse to having mom or dad foot the bill and later be reimbursed)

Show Me the Savings!

Below are three examples of iPhone plans.  Each assumes that each participant uses around 700 minutes a month and will be actively text messaging.  These are the middle of the range plans for most people, especially us 20somethings.  You will see the first plan is for one phone, the second plan is for two phones and the third plan is for three phones. The second two plans are enrolled in the family plan and thus can save you and your friends/family a significant amount of money per phone.

As you can see in the third example, if you and two close friends took out a family plan together for a year, you would each save about $300 or $900 amongst the three of you.  I don’t need to tell you what to do with that $300 (can you say, airfare to Vegas?)

To see how this strategy is broken out per plan per phone, please click here.

Note: I am not being paid to endorse Apple, the iPhone or AT&T.  I actually use these products and take part in a family plan as a means of saving money.

When looking for an employer or while at your current employer there is value spent at looking into your full benefits package.  There are the obvious benefits, health insurance, 401(K) matching (which isn’t a benefit unless you take part in it… so get on that if you haven’t!), paid time off, etc.  However, there are other benefits that some employers have that may have been mentioned in an interview and you forgot to sign up for, such as discounted gym membership, discounts on computer purchases via the IT department, etc.  There are also some unwritten fringe benefits that you can use to your advantage.

Each one of my jobs, and if you have read my blog for a while you know that I currently have four of them, has a unique benefit that I am reluctant to give up.  Other than my paychecks, which pay off my standard expenses and investment accounts, I consider these benefits to be a legitimate part of why I do each of these jobs.  Each one saves me money or provides with an opportunity.  Let me go through each for you.

• My Career: My company is great, it has great people and great benefits.  One of those benefits is that I receive SmartBenefits.  For those not in DC, this is basically a monthly credit to my Metro card.  My commute from home to work costs $9 a day roundtrip.  An average month will have about 22 workdays, that is close to $200.  Now, the SmartBenefits won’t cover all of that.  But I did mention the people at my company for a reason.  There are other people at the company that only use 25% of their SmartBenefits (and if you don’t use them, you lose them).  A few individuals have offered to switch cards with me from time to time so I can use their benefits up.  This is creating maximum utility for all parties involved (I owe the people that have allowed me to use their cards a drink and dinner).  I now pay $0 to commute to and from work.  Oh, I should mention that the benefits I receive here are pre-tax, please add another 30% to the monthly benefit.  Monthly savings: $200 post tax.

• My Concierge Job: This job is customer service based, therefore it offers two unique benefits, networking, and free time.  While I have additional tasks, my primary role in this position is to be polite, courteous and friendly with residents in the building.  That often times comes with conversation.  A lot of resident’s have become friends and some have created networking opportunities.  Additionally, when its slow (first thing in the morning) there are no people around, and this provides with me with an opportunity to read, write or do research.  I even can do work for my career to get ahead for the next week.  Monthly Savings: $0, Return on Investment for my Future: Unknown.

• Dominos Pizza:Another customer service job that offers multiple benefits outside of the paycheck.  I have made friends with some of the guys that work with me, and we have a lot of fun when on the clock.  It becomes “guy-time” where we talk about sports and a host of other things.  The only difference in “guy-time” is that we are holding pizzas instead of beers, and hopping into our car every few minutes.  Another benefit, like most retail establishments is the discounts.  Yeah, Dominos may not be healthy, but please tell me you wouldn’t eat a large pizza over the course of a weekend if it was only $5.  This job keeps my weekend food costs down which can surely be expensive if I ate out a lot. Monthly Savings: Estimated $150.

• Scorekeeping: My last position is as a scorekeeper for the hockey league that I play in.  This job is ultra flexible and allows me two great benefits.  One, I get to scout a lot of different players throughout the league.  This can be valuable information for when I play a specific team, or I could find a guy that may be willing to join my team and improve our roster.  Either way, this is a win-win.  Also, I don’t get a paycheck here, I get league credit.  My league credit is tax-free and allows for me to play hockey for free (which is hard to do in the DC area).  Yearly Savings: $1300.

Above are the side-benefits to all of my jobs. Please leave a comment and tell me what the benefits are at your work place that go above and beyond the paycheck?

Start Saving – Get $100 Free

I was forwarded a link over the weekend that I wanted to share with everyone.  TD Ameritrade is offering a unique promotion that will give its customers a Free $100 for signing up and continually depositing money into their non-retirement savings account.  You can see the promotion details here.

The Fine Print

In essence, TD Ameritrade wants to promote the concept of savings, so if you deposit $100 a month into your account for 12 straight months, you will be given $100.  The account also has a small interest rate of .50% .  The interest rate is kind of weak, but if you are only going to deposit the minimum, you will still earn over 8% on your money for that first year.  For those that don’t mind opening an extra account to take advantage of a promotion, I say this is a worthwhile option.

My Credit Score Update

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Liz Pulliam Weston’s discussion with Jim and JD on the Personal Finance Hour.  Since that discussion I have signed up for MyFico just to watch my credit score (with a free trial) and to see how things change.  I was shocked to see that my score was in the high 600s.  Last time I checked it was around 730 or so from one of the credit bureaus, but maybe that wasn’t my “real” score.

Having a score of  692 was a bit of a shot to my ego, but that is a decent score for someone who doesn’t have more than a few credit cards and is only 24 years old.  I also had a ding on my report for a late payment or two from before I figured out how to handle my student loans and my finances in general.

The Decrease

About two weeks ago I received an e-mail that my score had dropped by 17 points.  I was flabbergasted! The only thing that had changed was that I had built up about  $2000 in credit card bills over an extended period (I changed the billing date of my Amex and it basically meant that my bill was due 24 days later, almost a whole month!).

The Increase

Just as Liz said, my credit score will adjust itself quickly.  I paid off all of my cards in full, and sure enough my balance jumped back up 18 points to 693.  An almost 20 point swing, both positive and negative, seems quite large, I will be watching for as long as I can to learn more about credit scores and I will report my findings here.  Take a look at the chart below to see how MyFico tracks your score.

My Credit Score Tracking from MyFico

I am debating about buying the MyFico service to watch my score and report.  I probably don’t need it, but it would provide some interesting perspective over the course of a year.  Has anyone else used these services for an extended period and has anyone seen such large fluctuation within one month?

Earlier this week a friend forwarded me the popular New York Times article by Ron Lieber where he outlined a 10-12 hour day he spent improving his financial life.  10-12 hours is a big time commitment for all of us busy young folks, but the message he sent to us should not be lost.

In the spirit of Lieber’s “Fiscal Health Day” I will give you some examples of how to save money and how to earn more by spending only ONE hour thinking about your financial health.  Take your lunch break today or tomorrow and focus on these few things.

Time is ticking, so let’s go!

For the Just Getting Started:

• Set up a High Yield Savings Account. I know a lot of friends that have been meaning to do this, but just never seem to get around it.  I wrote about setting up one of these accounts here.  It takes almost no time to set one of these accounts up.  If you go with ING Direct (where I am set up) send me a comment and I can send you a referral to net you an extra $25 bonus (the $10 bonus that I receive will be donated to a charity of your choice).  This should take no more than 15 minutes.

• Head on over toBillShrink and let them optimize your life (credit cards, cell phone bill, etc.).  This service does the hard work for you.  You will be amazed at the kinds of savings you can find on this site.  It won’t take you anywhere near 30 minutes to take advantage of their free service, but you may enjoy their site and want to stick around.  Its also worth checking out their blog titled “Shrinkage is Good”.

• While you have 15 minutes left in the Fiscal Health Hour, head on over to Vanguard and open up a Roth IRA.  I have outlined the benefits of opening a Roth IRA at a young age here, and since you have some extra time today, there is no excuse not to open yours up and start investing for your future.

For the Fiscally Healthy Looking For a Bit More Savings

• If you are already fiscally healthy, I still have a way for you to spend your hour, however it won’t be as fun for you as it was for the “just getting started” people.  You need to call up Comcast (or whomever your cable provider is), and sit on hold until you get to someone in the Billing department and negotiate! Tell them, “My plan is just too expensive, I don’t know if I can afford it being this high, and XYZ company is coming into the area with promotions on internet, television, etc.  I would hate to have to cancel my subscription, is there anything you can do for me?”
  • It is likely that you will get forwarded to their retention department immediately.  They will work to knock your plan down $20 or more a month, saving you money.  Unfortunately, this may take a full hour to accomplish.  Don’t get frustrated; if it costs an hour of your time to save over a few hundred dollars a year, it was well worth it, right?

Spending just ONE hour doing each of these tasks will pay great dividends in your future.   Think of how much better you will feel once you are fiscally healthy!

Please also take a look at Ron Lieber’s mini-documentary on his Fiscal Health Day.

If you liked this article, please leave a comment and tell me how these methods worked for you.

Since Groupon started a few weeks ago in the DC area, I have been excited to get their daily e-mails.  Groupon has already saved me money at some of my favorite locations around town, allowing me to go out and have a good time in style, without having to spend a fortune.

I will let the Groupon people themselves explain how it works.

Groupon isn’t only in DC though.  They offer great deals in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Here are just some of the deals they have had lately around DC.

• $20 off a $40 Coupon at Sushi-Ko in Georgetown.
• $30 for an Hour Long Massage at Lunar Massage
• $20 for a $45 ticket on All-Star DC Tours
• $60 for either 2 Manicures and Pedicures or a Rejuvenating Facial at Hela Spa ($240 Value!)

If you don’t subscribe to this free service, you are missing out.  Head to Groupon’s site and sign up.  I have already taken advantage of some of their deals and plan to do so in the future.  Go and enjoy saving money while having fun!

Statistics vary, but regardless of which source you look at, there is over 40% of working adults in the US that are living paycheck to paycheck (these numbers get up as high as 70%).  That is a lot of people that are one emergency or job loss away from being in financial disaster.  Now, if you are here on this blog, it means you want to do something about your financial situation, and you want tactical tips on how to improve your financial health.  I am not going to give you the standard “paycheck to paycheck” advice which is, “spend less than you earn”.  Even if true, the concept is tired, and not very actionable.  Below are some tips on how to maintain your lifestyle, but free up some cash that will help you build your savings, your emergency fund, or increase your debt repayments.

Avoid fees: We are surrounded by potential fees, fines, penalties that end up hurting our pocket book.  If you are going out, don’t use an ATM to get spare cash that charges you a fee (some of these can charge around $3.00 a transaction.  Ouch!)  Pay your bills on-time; don’t incur late fees by being lazy, or by hoping your bills will take care of themselves without you having to open them.  Pay your bills, it’s the responsible thing to do.  Don’t risk a parking ticket, even if you can’t find a spot near your destination; I am as guilty as can be about this.  I used to park wherever I wanted and hope that I didn’t have a surprise at the end of the night.  Most nights I didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t throw away $500 over the past couple of years by not walking an extra few blocks or taking 10 minutes to find an “actual” parking spot.

Get rid of subscriptions: There is a ton of free media out there for everyone to consume.  Do you need all of those magazine subscriptions when most of the articles or similar articles can be read online?  Do you really need that ESPN Insider subscription for $50 a year?  Do you watch enough movies on HBO, Showtime, etc. to warrant both your premium cable subscription AND Netflix?  Get rid of one of them and you will still have an endless supply of movies.

Find deals online: There are coupons or specials for nearly everything online.  One thing a friend turned me onto last year was Restaurant.com.  Here you can by $25 gift certificates for $10. There is usually fine print, like you need to spend $50 to use the gift certificate, but you can easily save $15 a date by using these deals.  Also, there is a promotion right now through UPromise where you can get $25 gift certificates for $2.  That is great savings if you don’t know what you would do if you didn’t eat out every night of the week.   For specific stores, type into Google the retailer name and the word “coupon”.

Transfer a balance: Take advantage of new credit cards’ specials and transfer your balances to avoid paying interest for a few months.  If you have a high balance and are high interest rate, transferring to a similar rate but with an introductory 0% APR for the first six months could save you hundreds of dollars and allow you the freedom to start savings or building an emergency fund.

Boost your income: Take a part time job.  Knowing how much I work, you can sense I am a big proponent of this.  However, this is the best way to get out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle.  If you are making more money and you don’t change your spending habits, you are going to have a surplus. Furthermore, when you are working more hours that means there are less hours to spend.  Sounds like a win-win, right?

Work from home: In today’s age of technology, this is a legit option for most people.  Working from home has several benefits.  You aren’t paying for transportation to get to and from work (I pay $9 a day in metro costs, that is sizable), and you are less likely to go out to eat for lunch.  This could save you close to $20 a day each time you work from home.   See if your employer has a telecommuting option.  Doing this one day a week can save you anywhere from $50-$100 a month.

Budget: Most people roll their eyes at budgeting, but this is an effective way to cut your spending and build up a solid financial system that works for you and hits all of your goals.  If you are thinking about doing this, I would suggest you take a look at my post about tracking your spending.  Trent at The Simple Dollar had a great post about his one month challenge that can be found here.  Trent’s idea really takes two months, but is a simple way at looking at where your money goes, and at altering your behavior.

I hope these ideas are helpful and provide you with some motivation to cut spending or to find ways to save money while spending that will leave you with a surplus of cash at the end of each month.  Getting started is the hardest part, but if we each work hard enough, anyone can get off of the paycheck to paycheck merry-go-round.

How would you like to save nearly 8% of your income a year without changing any of your behaviors on a monthly basis (except for filtering money into your savings account)?  The process sounds simple, and the process is simple.   All it takes is thinking about your paychecks differently.

Most people get paid bi-weekly.  For example, I have three jobs, and all of them pay me bi-weekly.  That means 26 pay checks per year, or 2.167 pay checks per month.  If your paychecks are like mine, it means that 10 months out of the year you are only going to receive two paychecks a month.  The other 2 months of the year you get three paychecks.  If you have been living 10 of 12 months on two paychecks, what should you be doing with the third paycheck that arrives on the other 2 months.  Save it!

Most people receive paychecks bi-weekly

Personally, I look at my finances as a monthly battle.  Net income vs. net spending.  The weapons for me in this battle are my paychecks.  If your monthly battles have the same outcome as mine, your net income beats your net spending consistently and you are an ideal candidate for adopting the two paycheck method.  That third paycheck is superfluous, and shouldn’t be necessary to maintain your current standard of living.

If you don’t absolutely need that money to survive, think of all the other things you can do without comprising your lifestyle.  You can siphon that money into an emergency fund, or you can pay off debt or put it towards other savings goals.

Another reason to plan on living off of 24 paychecks a year vs. 26 is the likelihood of changing jobs in your mid twenties.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median job length for people with a bachelor’s degree between the age of 25 and 34 in 2008 was 2.6 years.  These statistics were before the US economy tanked last fall and several of our peers found themselves out of work.  When the data is recalculated later this year, it is likely that the 2.6 year median will have declined.

There is a tendency amongst young adults to job hop as they settle into the workforce.  You may find yourself without any income for several cumulative weeks over the next five years.  This may be the case even if you were never laid off. You could want to take a few weeks off before changing jobs or you may not have the opportunity to start a new job on your time frame.  This would be an ideal time to have those third paychecks waiting for you to use to make sure your bills are paid for the month.

Try this method for two years, and you will have  four paychecks saved.  Think of what you can do with four paychecks.  A trip to Europe for two weeks with money left over sounds like a possibility, even on a 40K a year salary.