11 Ways to Save Money

You know that feeling of excitement you get when you reach into the pocket of a jacket you haven't worn for a while and pull out a $10 bill you'd forgotten? I love when that happens. That's the same burst of joy you're going to get every time you discover a new way to spend less. Here are 11 super-simple ideas that are like found money.

Entertain the Family for Free

Bank of America has an agreement until April 2009 with 73 museums across the country that allows you to get in free the first weekend of the month if you show them your Bank of America debit, credit or ATM card. Go to bankofamerica.com/museums to find museums and other attractions in your area. Not a B of A customer? Call or check the website of a museum near you to find out if it offers free days or evenings like the Chicago Children’s Museum does on Thursday evenings and New York City’s Museum of Modern Art does on Friday nights. Show me the money Admission to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, is $46 for a family of four; the Bronx Zoo in New York City, $52. Both are part of Bank of America’s Museums on Us, which saves you a small bundle when you visit.

Get a Good Rewards Credit Card

If you use a debit card to pay for day-to-day expenses (food, gas, etc.), switch to a credit card that has a great rewards program—but be sure to pay your monthly balance on time. Rewards cards carry higher interest, so if you let a balance roll over from month to month, the interest you pay will eat up any rewards cash you earn. Cards vary, so look for one that gives cash back on gas and food purchases, and read the fine print. Go to indexcreditcards.com for a current listing of cash-back rewards cards. Show me the money If your card gives back 6% on gas and grocery purchases, plus 1% on everything else, that adds up—and will be reflected as a credit on your statement. If you buy 40 gallons of gas each month at $4 a gallon, 6% cash back is $9.60. A family of four that spends $400 in groceries for the month could expect $24 cash back.

Gather Your Books

Do you have books in good condition? Go to cash4books.net, type in the books’ ISBN numbers (which you’ll find on the back cover or on the copyright page in the front of the books), and see if you can get cash for them. Complete the transaction online, print out a prepaid mailing label, pack up those books and send them in. In just a few days you will either receive a check in the mail or a deposit to your PayPal account. You won’t pay a cent—not even for postage. Show me the money The first time Emily Towne of Prairie Home, Missouri, tried this system, she sold six books and received a check for $42.30. Your humble columnist has been cleaning out her burgeoning library, pocketing more than $200 so far.

Start a Blog

You can write about nearly anything—from what it’s like to be a mom to politics. It’s free to set one up (visit blogger.com), and once you do, you can place ads using an easy program like Google AdSense (google.com/adsense). Each time a visitor to your blog clicks on an ad, you earn money. (Once you’ve earned $100, you’ll get a check in the mail.) Show me the money You probably won’t replace your paycheck by blogging, but it’s a good way to make extra money. Denise Sawyer, a second-grade teacher from Summerville, Georgia, blogs on how to use coupons and other ways to cut the cost of raising a family. She averages $80–$100 per month in ad earnings, and her best month yet brought in $500.

Do It Yourself

Pick out one item or service you purchase each month, and make or do it yourself. Then pocket the money. For example, make your own laundry detergent with out easy recipe (go to womansday.com/diy); it works extremely well, and boy, will you save. You can make your own all-purpose cleaner and window cleaner, too. Show me the money The cost to make the laundry detergent is about 2¢ a load versus 25¢ a load for a commercial detergent. Do the math and you’ll see how much that can be in a year’s time. Have you checked the price of window cleaner lately?10 cents an ounce! Instead, pay less than a penny an ounce for your own brew, which works even better.

Take Advantage of Online Rebates

With Microsoft’s new Live Search Cashback program, customers who make an online purchase after using Live Search (Microsoft’s version of Google or Yahoo!) are eligible for a cash-back rebate from Microsoft. Once you have accumulated at least $5, you can request a payout by check or have the money deposited into your bank or PayPal account. Go to live.com/cashback to learn more. Show me the money The amount of cash back varies from one retailer to the next. At presstime, a purchase from Zappos will net you 9% cash back. Buy from PetSmart and get 12% cash back. Go to live.com/cashback to learn more and to discover all the online retailers who are currently participating.

Shop Your Life Insurance

In the ’90s, term life insurance dropped considerably in price, and rates have continued to decline since then. If you’re currently paying for whole life or term life, get a few quotes online. Websites such as FindMyInsurance.com, AccuQuote.com, and InsWeb.com can give you plenty of pricing information (all of it will be subject to a more detailed application process and medical exam). Show me the money If you bought a $500,000 20-year guaranteed level term policy in 1994 when you were a 40-year-old female nonsmoker, you qualified as “preferred” risk and have been paying about $795 a year. Today you’re 54, and if you’re still in good health, you should be able to replace the remaining six years of the same coverage for $600 a year and get four extra years of coverage, says Byron Udell, founder and chief executive of AccuQuote.com.

Refinance Your Car Loan

Did you know you can refinance a car? Interest rates are likely lower now than when you signed up for car payments several years ago, so you may be able to cut your payment significantly. Generally, banks require your car to be a 2001 model or newer, with fewer than 80,000 miles and a loan balance of $8,500 or more. Give your credit union or bank a call, or apply online at sites like hsbcusa-autoloans.com or rategenius.com. Show me the money If you started with a 66-month, $19,560 loan at 17.26%, your payments are $461. Refinancing today at 9.29% would drop your payments to $380, for a savings of $81 a month.

Tap into H20

Some people consider bottled water a necessity, even though a great low-cost alternative is available from any faucet in their homes. Try this for just one month: Switch from soft drinks and bottled water to good old tap water, and see how much you end up saving. Show me the money Off the bat you can pocket the $25 to $40 monthly fee if you have bottled water delivered. And drinking tap water is almost free: The average household cost for town water is $2.77 for 1,000 gallons, which would last the average family of four almost three years if they used it only for drinking. And consider this: If you pay $1.50 for a 20-oz bottle of water, you can fill the same container with tap water every day for several years for the same price, says Greg Kail of the American Water Works Association.

Ask for Lower Interest

Call the customer service number on the back of your credit card, and ask to speak with a supervisor. Say that you’re receiving offers to transfer your balance, but you prefer to stay, provided they reduce your interest rate to match the offers. Even if you’re paying a higher interest rate because you were a late payer in the past, Paul Hartwick of Chase Card Services says, “If a customer signs up for automatic payment and makes on-time payments for 12 consecutive months, Chase will reset that customer’s rate to the lower, original rate.” Show me the money If you currently have a $2,500 balance at 18.99%, a rate reduction to 7.99% means $275 in your pocket annually.

Save on Children's Clothes

Possibly the best deals on high-quality, gently worn (often brand-new) kids’ clothes are at consignment and secondhand stores. With more than 230 locations nationwide, the resale chain Once Upon a Child (ouac.com) features name-brand fairly new clothes up to 70% off retail. And as a bonus, you can sell your children’s gently-worn-but-outgrown items back to the store for immediate cash or credit. When you consider how quickly children outgrow their clothes, paying a lot less makes a lot of sense.

Show me the money Rock & Republic Urban jeans for girls are $154 at a department store. You could expect to find those jeans at a consignment or secondhand store for $46. A boy’s Ralph Lauren polo shirt currently retails for $45. But the price would be slashed to about $13 when sold at 70% off retail at a consignment store.

Source: Woman's Day