how to save money

[emad desouky 1]

hi vj

i have almost 5 months here and wish every one give me his experience and advice about how to save some money in USA

thanks for all

[epsonderby 85]

Bank of America do a cool thing where they round up your purchases with their debit card to the nearest $ and put the difference into your linked savings account. It soon adds up!

Also making a budget really helps. If you limit yourself each day, week or month - however you want to do it, you'll see your bank balance grow...

[amykathleen2005 441]

Automatically direct deposit a percentage of your salary into a separate savings account.

[keziah90210 12]

this is a very hard task for sure. Make sure if you're getting a credit card, pay it on time so you don't get late fees and dont just pay the minimum. Credit unions got good interest rate esp. when you're starting out. Make a balance checking account record so you know how much money you have available. make a budget. Or if you don't want to use credit card (you need it to build your credit score) get a debit card where you can put just enough money to use. so you don't need to carry cash around. don't use a debit card connected to your checking account which gets your paycheck. you can ask for another debit card that you can transfer money into from your checking. my bank did that, its a credit union. Make an automatic transfer every paycheck. i wish i started my fidelity 403-b, 401l something early, this will be a good idea. coz whatever money you save there, you can use it to loan and then the interest you pay goes back to your account.

hope this helps. These are the things that worked out for me. Not sure if this will work for you but you can combine all our suggestions here and see what works.

[sms78 18]

Eat at home everyday. Pack your lunch as well. This saves a lot of money. Don't ever go to coffee shops. $5 for a cup of coffee? forget that. If you make your own at home, it will probably cost you less than 10 cents a cup. Go to starbucks only when you're socializing with people. Hope this helps

[Darnell 8,479]

buy a used car. buy used tires. buy used clothes.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Darnell

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

buy a used car. buy used tires. buy used clothes.

Used clothes? Eeewww.

I agree with used cars, that's what I do.

Used tires requires checking the expiration date and general care.

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

I buy a lot of stuff at garage sales, especially clothes and toys for the kids.

I also keep an eye on freebie sites, especially http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4 - I haven't bought shampoo or detergent in a long time, there are a lot of freebies for that.

[J&P! 2]

I hope this can help, I am use to living alone, its been 5 yrs now anyways here is what I do.

Every month once I use to get paid, I will 1st pay all my bills, like rent, mobile, internet etc. then do my monthly grocery shopping and keep some money a side for milk, yogurt, eggs, bread and fresh vegetable. No matter what I would never go out of budget. Then a very small amount of money for going out, i would usually met my friends at a picnic, at my house or theirs, that way I saved by not paying to eat out, Carried my own lunch, made most of my food home and if I am busy spend 1 day in a weekend to make food for entire week.

As if now I don't work but I do the same with my husbands money and it really works!

[GandK 168]

Costco

[TimeTravel 78]

Cellphone: I am using H2O network ( GSM SIM card ), and paying $10 a month for 200 minutes. But I use Google Voice for outgoing calls since it is FREE.

Grocery: It is expensive since my wife buy almost everything organic. Generally buy from Costco, Walmart, Publix and some Indian store.

General Shopping: I try to search discount coupon online for the stores like Jo-ann, Hobby-lobby and other craft stores. As my wife is frequent shopper for these stores.

Online Shopping: I search the deal, discount coupon, etc etc. Plus I search rebate website to earn extra CASH back. I love to use Ebates.com for getting cash back. Like if I shopping anything online thru walmart, then get 2% cash back, and when I shop from vitacost, then get 4-8% cash back.

Next thing: I pay for everything using my Amex Charge card, so I can get rewards point for every dollar I spend. That is an extra saving. :-)

Overall, I pay my card bill on time to maintain the excellent credit.

[sms78 18]

I buy a lot of stuff at garage sales, especially clothes and toys for the kids.

I also keep an eye on freebie sites, especially http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4 - I haven't bought shampoo or detergent in a long time, there are a lot of freebies for that.

that's my husband's go to website!

[Blondie-CO 8]

Coupons coupons coupons! Seriously, we save between $25-$35 for every $100 we spend on groceries because of coupons and sales. Also, we "sell" old clothes to stores like Plato's Closet and buy clothes and household items at Goodwill (we also like knowing we're contributing to a good cause).

We live by a strict budget especially since my husband has not found a job in the US yet and we still manage to pay off student loans and increase our savings account each month. Not easy to say "no" to fun dinners with friends, concerts and fun trips, but as Dave Ramsey says, "Now we're living like no other, so one day we can live like no other!"

PS- we do not own a tv (therefore no cable bill), have an old junker car that I paid cash for years ago and have found tons of free things to do around our city for "date nights"...... and we could not be happier

[JohnR! 5,495]

hi vj

i have almost 5 months here and wish every one give me his experience and advice about how to save some money in USA

thanks for all

In addition to what everyone said, I would strongly recommend that you make a budget for the next 12 months, in which you can enter your expected salary and also list your fixed recurring expenses, such as phone, utilities, rent/mortgage, car payment, insurance, etc.

Also give yourself a reasonable daily allowance, which will determine how much cash you need to leave aside at each paycheck for your incidental expenses.

By budgeting for a long period you can identify, quickly, those months where money will be tighter than usual, such as car registration renewal, annual veterinary visit for your pets, month if/when you expect to need new tires, auto maintenance, back to school supplies, vacation, xmas shopping, and all those expenses we tend to forget hoping they won't happen. It will also help you understand where your money goes and make adjustments, if necessary. Most important of all, it will quickly show you whether it would be wise to make a certain purchase, and if so, when would be a good time to do so, lest you pack too much expenses in one single month.

Good luck!

Edited August 28, 2012 by Gegel

[livelife2dfullest 7]

I would say use coupons a lot. Husband and i never have credit cards as we do not beleive in paying interest. We have bank cards instead so we budget how much we spend. Also if we want to buy something and we couldnt afford it right away we save for it. So 6 years of living here in the us and 7 years of being married we was able to buy our own house 2 years ago. We paid cash on it so we dont have any mortgage payments. We own 3 cars but no car payments for all three are bought second hand with cash. When i was new here we didnt even own a car since my husband spend most of his salary to support me overseas and pay for immigration stuff. It was hard walking everywhere especially during winter here in ohio. The hus and works hard so we was able to save up. Now i am a full time housewife and mom. We are not wealthy but we dont have a lot of debt also and we dont live paycheck to paycheck now. Sure we dont have a fancy cars, or all the apple's gadgets but at least we dont have to worry about car payments and mortgage. It was hard to budget but with patience everybody can do it.