How to save $500 per month: I wish!

My favorite personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly, posted today about ways to cut your spending by $500/month. My brain immediately perked up when I read that headline, because I pay down my credit card debt by $500 each month, and it would be great to either: 1) pay them $500 more per month, or 2) have $500 to spend on other things, because most of my disposable income goes to my credit card debt.

So let's look at the excerpt:

Cut your spending by $500 per month
The Consumer Reports Money Lab looked for easy ways for the average American to save money. They came up with six suggestions and estimated potential savings for the average consumer. Here are their suggestions....

1. Find cheaper auto insurance. By shopping around, the average person can save $65 per month.
2. Optimize your life insurance. Premiums have dropped in the past ten years, the article notes. It may be worth replacing an existing policy. Also, by adopting a healthier lifestyle, you can cut costs. Average savings? $110.
3. Shop smart for food. CR cites U.S. Department of Agriculture data indicating the average family of four can drop its grocery bill by nearly $200 per month though smarter shopping.
4. Stop paying bank fees. The average U.S. household pays more than $25 per month in bank fees. There’s no reason to do so.
5. Call up cell phone savings. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average family spends $90 on phone-related expenses. Consumer Reports suggests checking to be sure you’re not paying for too many minutes.
6. Pay off your credit card. If you can get out of debt, you’ll not only save on finance charges, but you’ll also free up the cash that was going to pay the principal. Estimated monthly savings: $65.

SIGH. I can not comply. That sigh is all I can do. Allow me to explain, point by point:

1. I only pay $65 per month for auto insurance.
2. I have no life insurance (therefore I pay no premium).
3. Look, I bitch about how much fresh produce costs, but I barely spend $200/month at the grocery store on food.
4. I pay maybe a couple bucks a month in bank fees. Too much, but certainly not $25.
5. My cell phone costs $55/month. I could check in to see if I could opt for fewer minutes since I'm not much of a phone gabber, but I wouldn't be able to save more than about $10.
6. DUH. That's what I need to save this $500/month for.

The thing is, I make a decent living. Really. I always blow away the figures for average household income. And day to day, I don't live extravagantly. (I keep my cars for many years, I've never bought a diamond, etc.) There are certainly things I do that cost money (like, I have 4-5 trips planned between now and the end of September, but they're all domestic, and they're short and relatively cheap for vacations).

But the main thing that kills my budget is the cost of living where I do. So over the next few days I'm going to start talking about budgets, linking to other blogs that are doing the same, and analyzing any and every possible place I might start looking to save money that doesn't involve moving or not enjoying life.

Slow down. Save gas. Save earth. Spread the word.

As a follow-up from yesterday's post, The slow down, save gas experiment, I am offering you a way to help spread the word about this simple thing that we can all do to help save gas.

Remember, by using less gas, you will:
1) Save money
2) Use less of a finite resource
3) Stem global warming

So without further ado, I am offering three bumper stickers that you can proudly display to let others know what you're doing to help lessen our use of oil:



A portion of proceeds will be donated to Environmental Defense Fund (see also their Charity Navigator rating).

The slow down, save gas experiment

I am a lead foot.

I like to drive fast, and by that I mean, I always drive fast. I pick the fastest lane and keep up with the fastest car in it (except for those guys who zigzag through traffic at 100mph; they're just nuts), passing cars on the right that have no business being in the fast lane. Friends call my car "Tardis" because when we drive somewhere in it, we always reach our destination faster than anybody previously thought possible. I was pulled over seven times before even graduating high school, so early in life I knew what I was and that there was little use in fighting it. [Sidebar: although one time it was for blowing through a stop sign (a tree branch was hanging in front of it, I swear; I couldn't have possibly seen it in time to stop at the speed I was driving) and another time it was for changing lanes without using a turn signal and cutting off a cop. But I am anal retentive about using my turn signal and there is no way I wouldn't have seen that cop, as my convertible's top was down so there were no obstructions. I fought the cop on that one and won, which is a good thing, because I didn't have my driver's license due to a recent speeding incident. But I digress.]

Driving fast is how I behave naturally, anyway. That's the way my genes expressed themselves. Left to my own devices my favorite speed is 85mph, and I have been overheard asking slower folks if they are actually interested in reaching their destination.

Before you jump down my throat, understand that on the highways around where I live, I am not alone. Not only am I not alone, but it actually does feel a little dangerous to travel the speed limit, which is 55mph. (On I-294, 75 is about average.) And there is nothing worse than the traffic buildup that occurs when a cop pulls onto the highway and everyone slows down to the speed limit. People do not know what to do with themselves when they can't pass that cop. Their right feet twitch. Their blood pressures rise. All you see is a visual cacophony of flashing brake lights ahead of you because each driver is chomping at the bit to get out of the cop-traffic-buildup.

But as I age into an older, gentler person, I find myself becoming wiser as well. And there is simply no denying the fact that, if nothing else, lead foot driving wastes gas. With Earth's finite amount of oil and with our political barriers to obtaining all that our little American hearts desire, gas is something that we really should be proactively trying to conserve. In addition, gas is expensive already and the faster we drive, the more we use and therefore spend. With today's gas prices, the current factoid you'll hear is that for every 10mph you travel over 60mph, you're spending at least $0.50 more per gallon.

So in my current gung-ho mission of conservation, sustainable living, saving the environment and all that jazz, I decided to try changing my ways. I decided to find out just how much gas I am wasting by driving the way I do. So I've begun an experiment wherein I am tracking my driving and the gas I use, calculating both how much money and how much gas I can save by slowing down to 60mph. (I still ain't messing with 55mph, sorry.)

Of course this has been done before, but not by me. Nobody knows how much gas and money I am wasting by driving the way I do. And I suspect nobody really cares how much I am wasting, but maybe by making this contribution to the blogosphere, I'll help inspire somebody else to try the same thing, and in the end we'll be using a little less gas than we were before.

The experiment will be slow going, as my driving needs are erratic. Some weeks I drive only a few miles through town, and other weeks I drive 95 miles on the highway each day. So I need to compare comparable driving situations when doing the math. I will, of course, post my progress here.

Meanwhile, here are some related links for your educational pleasure:
Slow Down a Little, Save a Lot of Gas
Drive 55, save gas -- get flipped off - This one is great because it's from three years ago, when gas prices were hovering around the $3 mark (which was appalling at the time)
Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel
20 Tips to Save Money on Gas
How to Save Money on Gas - 29 Tips
Ask MetaFilter: Tricks to getting better MPG
Hey lead foot, if you want to save gas, slow down
How to save $0.54 per gallon on gas
Save More Gas by Safely Following Trucks
Gas May Finally Cost Too Much

Increase your stimulus check amount by 10%

In an unprecedented event, I am posting to my blog twice in the same day. I am doing so because I want to help spread this bit of information before it gets any later in the week.

With all the hubbub over the economic stimulus checks that most of us in the United States will be receiving beginning this week, the most underreported news about them is that many retailers are offering additional dollars if you spend those checks at their stores.

Sears is the big one. Give them your check and they'll give you Sears gift cards for 110% your check's value.

I hear Kmart, Lands' End, Kroger (and related supermarkets), Staples and Radio Shack have similar offers.

Wisebread posted about this yesterday afternoon, and I hope their comments will fill up with additional information. If you know of any other offers, please do post them here and/or at Wisebread.

I myself am technically in the market for both a dishwasher and a clothes dryer, but I spent a lot of money recently so I think my check is going to have to go to credit card payments, out of necessity. The dishwasher and dryer aren't dead yet anyway, so I keep pushing that back. Now, if The Container Store were offering money for checks, I'd take them up on it. I have a major purchase coming up there in the next couple months. (Metro Shelving...I've been asking for Container Store gift cards since Christmas, to no avail.)

Free stuff rulz

For a few months I have been subscribed to FatWallet.com's Free Stuff RSS feed. If you're new to FatWallet, just a quick glance at their home page will tell you that the site is about big fat deals, hot deals, and thousands of deals at hundreds of stores ... it's safe to say that the site is about getting you a deal. After fiddling around with the site for a couple days, I personally decided that free deals are what I will spend my time on.

So every day, a dozen or two deals turn up in my RSS feed. Some of it is spam. A lot of it is crap. But there are a few diamonds in the rough, and when I discover one, I sign up for it right away. Since this is still relatively new to me I've been wondering if the effort will be worth it, as I do believe that time is money. (At least, time expressly devoted to saving money is money. If that time is lost, then it's money lost.)

As it turns out: it's worth it! The free booty has been turning up in my mailbox every few days. It feels a bit like what I always imagined the riches of a pyramid scheme would feel like, except totally legal. Items that I signed up for 4-6 weeks ago, previously lost in my memory, are materializing on my front porch. Things I had forgotten I even wanted ... now owned. It's like pennies from heaven.


Look at this photo of what I just received the other day. Some pet effects. A gym bag. And a bottle of Febreze Pet Odor Eliminator. Free. Delivered right to my house for no good reason apart from my having asked. Did I mention, for free?

That's not all I've received. Of note, I've received some yummy garlicky oil and some feminine products. All have already been used and enjoyed.

So if you can take a few seconds to sort through the crap, I highly recommend FatWallet.com. Any ounce of garlicky oil enjoyed for free is an ounce of garlicky oil earned, after all.