Eleven Surefire Ways to Save Money in a Bad Economy
Economic downturns aren’t ever much fun, but as Adam Smith noted centuries ago, these cycles of paucity and plenty are a fact of life. Though none of us can say for sure when this most recent slump will reverse, there are at least sure ways of stretching your cash in the meantime. Here are some penny-preserving ideas tailored to our 21st-century lives:
1. Plenty of people are in the habit of cutting out paper coupons, but even though many of us do part of our shopping on the Web now, not as many of us seem to have gotten into the habit of coupon-hunting online. Sites such as CouponCabin.com, CouponMountain.com, and DealofDay.com list thousands of current offers at retailers all over the Web.
2. Use price-comparison sites such as Pricegrabber.com, Shopping.com, Google Product Search, and mySimon.com to find the best online deals.
3. When you’re at a brick-and-mortar store, send a text message to 46645 (Google’s text number) and enter the letter “f” followed by the name of the item you’re considering. Google will reply with a text message quoting its online prices. To compare prices at local stores, check out ShopLocal.com.
4. If you don’t already belong to one, consider joining a warehouse club like Costco or Sam’s Club and buying things in bulk. This can be especially helpful if you have a sizable family.
5. Buy generic instead of brand-name products. A lot of the difference is usually in the marketing hoopla and not the products, anyway.
6. Withdraw your green from surcharge-free ATMs, which can be located on AllpointNetwork.com and MoneyPass.com.
7. Buy locally-grown food at farmer’s markets or stores that sell local produce and meats. Prices there are usually lower because the food doesn’t have to be transported very far.
8. Shop at dollar stores. You should have an easy time finding them since they’ve been turning up all over the place in the recent past.
9. Buy discount prescription drugs from online pharmacies. You’ll often end up paying less than half as much for the generic medications available at these discount prescription drug stores than you would for the same brand-name pills at brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
10. If your vehicle is seven or more years old and/or worth less than $2,500, consider dropping comprehensive and collision from your insurance. Your deductible may be nearing the worth of your vehicle anyway, in which case a major collision would send your car to the junk dealer and you to the dealership.
11. Keep cell-phone costs under control. Kids today love to text message, so save yourself from unexpectedly high bills by paying the flat monthly fee for unlimited texting.
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