Five Easy Tips to Save You $1,500 a Year or More

Here are five good money saving tips courtesy of ARA Content:

You work hard for your money. By thinking carefully about how you spend it, you can cut down on unnecessary expenses. Here are five easy strategies for making sure more of your income stays in your pocket.

1. Pay Off Credit Card Balances Every Month

According to Yahoo! Finance, each American family carries about eight credit cards, with an average balance of around $9,000. About 60 percent of Americans pay credit card interest every month at an average rate of 14 percent annually, according to www.creditcards.com. If you pay your credit card bills off every month, you can actually save $1,260 annually, instead of paying it to your bank.

2. Dump Credit Cards That Charge Annual Fees

Many credit card companies charge their customers an average of $25 to $100 a year just for the privilege of carrying their card. If you have one of these cards, find one that won't charge you.

3. Avoid Bank Service Charges

Banks charge their account holders a variety of fees. But, you can save money if you take steps to avoid paying them.

First, if your bank charges you a fee for not keeping a certain minimum in your checking account, try linking your primary account to another account to avoid the charge. This can save you approximately $11 a month, or $132 a year.

Second, banks charge an average of $27.04 for every overdraft their customers make. Another source estimates that annually Americans write about 450 million checks that bounce. To avoid charges, keep track of your account so you can avoid writing overdraft checks.

Lastly, carefully look over your monthly statements and make sure your bank isn't charging you fees that you don't owe.

4. Shop Around for the Best Cellular Phone Service

According to www.LetsTalk.com, the average monthly cell phone bill is $60. That means the average user pays $720 a year for the convenience of "staying in constant touch" with family and friends. If you only use your cell phone for emergencies, or use only a small amount of your allotted minutes every month, consider switching to a prepaid cell phone. Most prepaid plans don't require a deposit or service, monthly rental, activation and termination fees. You can pay as little as 2 cents a minute, and you only pay for the minutes you use.

5. Cancel Unnecessary Subscriptions

Are you watching all the television channels you pay for? Consider canceling any cable or satellite channels you don't watch. Just eliminating one premium channel can save you an estimated $50 to $100 a year.

Also, if you don’t read all the magazines and newspapers to which you subscribe, consider reading them online. Canceling unnecessary subscriptions can save you between $500 to $600 a year.

Saving money can be much easier than making more of it. For more money saving tips, and information on many other personal finance issues, visit www.AssociatedContent.com, the ultimate destination site for high-quality user-generated content on virtually every imaginable topical subject.

Comments

[Sree]

On Cell phones front, I just did the following..
I did look into my cell phone bills for the last 12 month, found that I am not using even 10% of my talk time. Dumped post paid service(for which I was paying $45/month for Cingular), bought T-mobile pre paid(1000 min/$100/One year Expiration). Now my cell phone budget is $100/year still I am left with 400 minutes to be burnt before Feb'07.

One word of caution: before switching to a new service, please check with your peers for the coverage of network at your frequent places. Example: I checked with my co-workers and neighbours for T-Mobile coverage before switching

[Sree]

Also I did my internet shared with my neighbour. We both are using wifi, we are sharing internet.(each pay $12/month)
But a word of caution: There is a potential risk of data theft, but in my case, I maintain a personal firewall on all my compters, which allows none into my compters. Also I maintain my own home networking router, which means any one cant reach beyond router into my network..
If you are able to take good security care of your internet, you can try this. :-)