How do you save money?

@verabear (796)
Philippines
February 8, 2010 7:00am CST
I blogged about saving money over at verabear.net based on an article I read in a magazine. I'm interested to know though what you do to save up or cutback on your expenses? For example, the article suggests setting aside 10% of your paycheck for savings, and to take that right away before considering your expenses. What do you think? Care to share your tips for saving? Thanks in advance!
1 person likes this
3 responses
Torunn
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
9 Feb 10
Well, today I plan to go over to my fathers flat (we live in the same block) and take half of his food as he is traveling and will be gone for another two weeks. Then I save money because I don't have to buy food, and he doesn't have to find green milk, stinking cheese and wobbly meat in his fridge when he comes home :-) Not too much saving going on at the moment, but I have a piggy bank that I put all my small change in and then use it when I'm traveling. And I make sure that my money is in a bank where I get the best interests.
verabear
@verabear (796)
• Philippines
10 Feb 10
Works for both you and your dad! That will definitely save you some money :) I used to keep all my lose change in a coin bank too, but I don't know why I stopped, haha. Another way we save is have separate jars for specific items we want to save up for and put the money there.
verabear
@verabear (796)
• Philippines
11 Apr 10
Hi Torunn! I didn't mean to ignore your response... I tried having several jars to fill for different purposes but we stopped. I even took a photo of those jars, I'll have to look for it and show you some time, they were labeled and all. Now I have just one. I didn't assign a particular reason for filling it up with loose change though, but I have an idea now.
Torunn
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
20 Mar 10
I have several piggy-banks. (or rather elephant-banks as most of them look like elephants) If I save for different things I'll use more than one. At the moment I'm only saving up for my trip to Riga after Easter, but I'm planning to start saving up for a new camera soon. Then I'll use two, one for the camera and one for travelling.
cher913
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
10 Apr 10
we eat a lot of cheaper meals and visit the library for books and for videos that we may want to watch. we dont have a ton of money but we throw our extra change into a bin to be used later.
verabear
@verabear (796)
• Philippines
11 Apr 10
That's a good idea. We're back to eating out again but we're aiming to reduce it again to only once a week. Or to at least try not to eat where it costs a lot to get full. Thanks for sharing :)
hvedra
@hvedra (1619)
•
8 Feb 10
At the moment we still have some debts so those have to be paid first. The 10% thing is a good rule but also, if you have a raise of any kind, have that paid into a savings account and don't add it on to your "available to spend" money.
verabear
@verabear (796)
• Philippines
8 Feb 10
That's a good idea. I thought about doing that, because I recently received a raise. I will have to convince myself more that it's the way to go. Thanks for responding! :)