Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog

You may think that you’ve done all the budgeting and saving and cutting and minimizing that you possibly could ever do, and there’s nothing left to squeeze. Start squishing, cause here are a few more ideas…

1. Cancel that daily newspaper subscription, most newspapers now are online anyway and you can get all the information you need there; if you’re a coupon clipper (and you should be) you can get Sunday-only delivery (and then you won’t have to miss the funny pages, either).

2. Don’t dump your coins in the for-fee coin counter at the supermarket, they charge about 9 cents on the dollar (though they call it 8.9%, and what is with that? It always rounds up in their favor!). Choose instead, the option (if available) to print for free, e-certificates and e-cards to several online retailers, including Amazon and Old Navy; combine those with free-shipping deals that you can find online with a little bit of searching.

3. Save money on stamps and shipping; you can buy stamps at their regular prices with free shipping through the U.S. post office website; they’re usually delivered a day or two after ordering. If you’re shipping packages, print your postage online and save a portion of the shipping fee and then drop the package off at the post office, or with the mail carrier.

4. Consider switching your regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. Yes, they’re a bit more expensive at the onset, but within about 3 months, the energy savings has paid for them, and they last on average 10 times longer than the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs.

5. Unplug, not just turn off, all of the appliances that you’re not using. Even plugged in, they still draw a tiny bit of electricity, and that all adds up.

6. Rethink your cable television package; you don’t need the super-duper deluxe 7,000 channel package deal if the 20 channel deal works because you only watch 20 channels anyway.

7. Consider VOIP to save money on your local and long distance telephone calls. Look, you’re using the computer anyway, buy yourself a headphone-mike combo set, and sign up on Skye or some other VOIP carrier and talk to your hearts content.

8. Make the dry cleaner persona non grata. Despite what the label says, not every garment must be dry cleaned. If you use a clothes dryer, you can buy those dry cleaning kits to “freshen” your clothes up; you can do more than one garment for the price of a pair of pants. Hand-wash those garments that can be (check the fiber content, then check online for confirmation), and dry it flat. And speaking of clothes dryers, do you really need yours? Remember the old-fashioned lines in the back yard? Is it doable for you? Make solar power work for you.

9. Get out or create a sewing box and sew or patch those seams, pockets and holes before they get out of control and have to be brought to a tailor (or worse, thrown away). Missing a button? Check the seams of your other shirts for extras, and don’t ever throw a shirt away without cutting all of the buttons off to keep for spares. Haven’t done anything like this since Home Ec in high school? Don’t worry, it’s like riding a bicycle; it will all come back to you.

10. Make friends with the guys and gals in the orange aprons… you know the ones I’m talking about, right? The ones in the massive home improvement store in every neighborhood. If you need something, learn how to make it yourself. If you need something fixed, learn how to fix it. Consider signing up for their free how-to classes for all kinds of tasks, which you might think are beyond your ability.


-- Debt Diva for DebtStoppers