75 Ways to Save Money
October 18, 2007 by Karen Weideman
Filed under frugal friday, frugal living, money saving idea, saving money, top 50
For this week’s Frugal Friday, I am giving you an additional 25 ways to save money. I am adding these to the other lists. Now we’re up to 75 ways to save money (or not spend it). I hope these ideas will help you to keep more of your money.
Numbers 1-25: Top 25 Ways I Save Money
Numbers 26-50: 25 More Ways to Save Money
51. Buy clothes that don’t need to be dry cleaned. To be honest, I avoid clothes that need to be dry cleaned and clothes that need to be ironed. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have any, but I try to avoid them.
52. Get organized. Disorganization causes missed payments, lost coupons, late payments, and so forth.
53. Order checks from a check company, rather than from your bank. Take advantage of first time offers. Each time I order checks I order them from a different company. I usually pay $20 for 4 boxes.
54. Swap babysitting with friends. One week you watch their kids so that they can go out. The next week, they watch your kids so you can go out.
55. If you like a song, buy the song instead of the entire cd.
56. Take advantage of free shipping offers. This saves on gas, time, and impulsive buying.
57. Try to make some cut backs. Do you really need all those cell phone minutes or all those cable channels?
58. Check your bills for errors. Are you being charged the correct percentage rate? Are you being charged for a service that you didn’t request?
59. Raise your deductibles on your car insurance policy. I did this just this week. I wouldn’t want to claim anything under $500 anyway. If you raise your deductibles, your premiums will drop.
60. Look online for recipes, rather than buying expensive cookbooks.
61. Avoid looking at things you like to buy. My husband has a weakness for cookbooks, hats, and t-shirts. When we go shopping, I try to stear clear of those items.
62. Install a programmable thermostat. Set it to go up a few degrees while you’re at work and then to come back down right before you come home. If you normally keep your a/c on 72, then try having it go up to 76 while you’re away. You’ll really save a lot during the blazing summer months.
63. Check your phone book for coupons. Many times you will find coupons such as buy 1 get 1 free on pizza or take-out meals.
64. Put water into empty laundry detergent, shampoo, and dishwashing liquid bottles. Put the cap on and shake the water around to remove the soap that is left. This will allow you to get a few more uses from the bottle before you toss it.
65. Check restaurants and stores for punch cards. I have a coffee card that I am using. After 6 coffees, I get a free one. Next week I’ll get my free coffee.
66. Trade services. Clean your neighbor’s house in exchange for him mowing your lawn. Babysit your friend’s children in exchange for use of their swimming pool.
67. Toss out the catalogs. If you start looking through catalogs, you’ll find all kinds of things that you don’t need.
68. Pack food for road trips. When I go somewhere with my kids I make sure I have dry cereal, granola bars, graham crackers, grapes, bananas, cereal bars, and a little junk food in case they get cranky. This saves time and money.
69. Change light bulbs to CFL bulbs. Energy efficient bulbs could save you $30 per year per bulb!
70. Whenever possible, do your own home repairs. There are numerous videos and home repair websites. Check your local Lowe’s and Home Depot for free classes too.
71. Clean your own house. Some people spend hundreds of dollars each month having someone else clean their house. While I do dream of someone else cleaning my home, it just isn’t thrifty.
72. Join your local freecycle group. So far I have given away a set of gently used crutches and some buy 1 get 1 free restaurant coupons. I have received some boy’s toddler clothes. I’m hoping for some furniture! 
73. Use your dishwasher. According to Consumer Reports, an efficient dishwasher can use less water than washing dishes by hand, no matter how frugal you are at the faucet.
74. Clean with vinegar. Type “vinegar” into the Thrifty Mommy search bar and you will see that there are countless uses for vinegar.
75. Cut your own hair. My husband bought a nice set of hair clippers. He cuts his and my son’s hair. The money saved on hair cuts has more than paid for the clippers.
Which things save you the most money?
take advantage of online offers. ie: double points that you can use later or that add up for bigger things like Christmas presents.
Use Visa reward points (but make sure they don’t have yearly payments)
i love this!!!! i need advice like this. thank you
All the cookbooks I have were given to me by my mom. Then again, I don’t even cook so…
I second the hair clipper purchase. It was on of our best buys. My husband is in the army so a haircut every week is a must. At $6-10 a cut the clippers paid for themselves fast!
Great advice! Will definitely put some of these to use. Thanks.
I love coupons for dining out. To go along with 63 & 65 you can save money with the discount cards that lots of schools sell as a fundraiser. There’s also Entertainment books in a lot of the big cities.
Great Job, Karen! You outdid yourself once again.
Jen, We also get the Entertainment books every year. I can’t imagine not having one. Actually, last year we bought 2 book because they save us so much money. We usually get a buy 1 get 1 free meal and then split our with the kids or order a side item. The coupon books are great for our family!
Thanks Kelly!
Jenny, Since you don’t cook, does that mean your hubby does the cooking? I dream of my hubby helping out with the cooking.
Karen, Glad you like the Entertainment books too. Another great thing is that you can try new restaurants and at half price even if it wasn’t that great at least you didn’t break the bank!
lol Jen. I know what you mean. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve left a restaurant and said, “Geez. I’m glad we had a coupon. I couldn’t imagine paying full price for that meal.” lol Thankfully, there are more times that we’ve said, “That was a lot of food for $12!”.
“That was a lot of food for $12!”
That reminds me of Logan’s – do you have one of these chain restaurants near you? On Monday and Tuesday they have two full meals for $12.99. You also get all the dinner rolls you can eat… so I always end up taking some left overs home!
We don’t have a Logan’s here. My parents have one in their town. Two meals for $12.99 sounds like a good deal to me. Our favorite spots to eat are Mexican and Chinese restaurants. There is a really good Chinese buffet here. It is always fresh and they have a sushi chef! Hmmm, I just realized that rhymed. lol
How about saving money on expensive binoculars by simply standing closer to the object you wish to observe.
i heard about your website on Cooper(luv her!!) and thought, hey some good ideas, but i pretty much do all these, which makes me feel good!! i love the freecycle idea. i got an aiwa stereo FOR FREE. it has a cd player as well as a plug for my mp3 player. i also recently went to old navy and spent $40 on 8 pairs of pants for my 8 y.o. and a few things for my 2 y.o. money was kind of tight that week, but i just couldn’t pass up the deals(all the clearance was 50% off) my kids have more clothes than they’ll ever wear, all b/c my mom and i both hit the store sales, yard sales, goodwills, and thrift shops!! i am a sahm and every penny counts. thanks for a great site!!
Hi Michelle. Thanks for stopping by.
Sounds like you got some great deals at Old Navy. Those are my kind of deals.
I went to the consignment store today. They are having 50% off their winter stuff. I picked up some a bag of stuff for my kids for $11, but I had a $10 credit, so I only paid $1.46 for it all.
I hope you’ll drop by again some time.
Great list. I will have to keep adding to mine the way you have added to yours. What a great idea!
Great ideas! Although using punch cards for coffee cost much more than making it yourself at home