It’s important to have the big stuff figured out – retirement, college savings, emergency funds, eliminating debt. But don’t be so focused on the big things that you completely overlook the smaller everyday stuff.

You might ask how could someone save for retirement without having their daily budget figured out. But you’d be surprised how much more money is potentially available if you shore up your everyday expenditures.

Pay on Time

Believe it or not,there are people out there who think that a due date and a grace period are one in the same. I have a recent life experience with this.

Whether you’re paying bills, rent, your mortgage, or any other payment that has a due date, make sure that you pay on time. When you miss the due date, you’re more than likely going to get hit with late fees. And as horrible as late fees are, the scary thing is how fast they pile up.

Familiarize Yourself with Your Local Library

I was astonished to learn that our library not only loans out books, but they also have movies, CDs, and audio books. It’s the new entertainment capital of our town.

Sure, every library will offer different items. But you’ll never know how much money you can save by borrowing from your library if you never check it out.

Toss Your Dish and Cut the Cable

This one won’t be easy, but it could save you more than $100 a month. Compared to our family and friends, I used to think I got a pretty good deal on our dish bill. It was hovering around $75 a month.

But when I stepped back and realized how many of my favorite shows are available online or in DVD format, I started to think twice about my “good deal”. ESPN even streams games and SportsCenter online.

Become a Cell Phone Only Household

Granted, living without a home phone line is still a weird concept to many people. My parents only get telemarketing calls on their home phone, but still refuse to get rid of it.

My wife and I decided to get rid of our home phone service about 2 years into our marriage. It took a little convincing on my part, but once I showed her how much money we could save each month, it was a no-brainer.

Learn to Cook

Eating out is fun. But it’s also expensive. My wife and I could drop $900 a month easily on eating out, and that’s without any high-dollar restaurants.

Little trips out here and there add up quickly. You can save piles of cash if you stop eating out and eat at home. And if you’re thinking that there’s no way this will ever happen in your household because no one can cook, then learn. Stop the excuses and start saving.

Reduce Your Internet Speed

High-speed internet sales reps have one goal in mind – sell you their fastest speed. The problem with this is that most people don’t need 50mbs download speeds, and they definitely don’t need to pay $75 a month for it.

I recently helped my uncle reduce his internet bill by $35. When he signed up, he bought into the sales reps scare tactics about getting the fastest speed available. He’s sort of computer savvy, but didn’t really understand how to calculate what speed he needed.

We pay $15 a month for the slowest DSL speed available. Sure, I pause videos to let them catch up, but there’s really nothing I do that requires more than one meg of speed.

What about you? Got any money saving gems you’d like to share?

Photo By Images_of_Money

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