<p>I just raised the collision deductible on my crappy car and quit my gym membership. what is your favorite way to save money?</p>
<p>Why do you have collision coverage to begin with on a crappy car? How much is the car worth? How much do you pay for that coverage?</p>
<p>I read about the $5 saving plan on Pinterest—every time you have a $5 bill in your wallet you put it in an envelope and save it for the year. At the end of the year use that for Christmas shopping, a trip, whatever. I’m trying this to see how much it adds up to in the end. I’m also putting any bill over $20 into my envelope.</p>
<p>Ditching the land line
Sticking with a basic phone instead of a smart phone
Cooking & eating in instead of eating out
Combining trips to save on gas & milage</p>
<p>SteveMA, it is that “over $20” collection that will add up fastest. :)</p>
<p>intparent–probably not. I don’t get a lot of $50 or $100 bills. I had a $50 in my wallet at the time so that is why I thought of it. My guess is that it’s the only $50 I see in there at the end of the year :D.</p>
<p>We haven’t been able to kill our Saturday Brunch Out habit, but we have successfully cut the check almost in half by eating at a less expensive place. Sending the kid off to college cut that bill again by about a third because it is just two of us most weekends.</p>
<p>Last year and this year we also saved on holiday travel using the semi-flimsy excuse that the kid was working during winter break. 2,000+ miles worth of gas, and bills for two hotel nights just vanished from the December accounts each year. We still dined out about the same amount because, hey, who wants to cook anyway, so the overall restaurant budget didn’t change.</p>
<p>“Why do you have collision coverage to begin with on a crappy car? How much is the car worth? How much do you pay for that coverage?”</p>
<p>It is just borderline not crappy enough to not drop it completely. Right around $4000 maybe. And I’m not sure if I should drop it completely since my son just got his license on Monday! In around 6 months I’ll reconsider it.</p>
<p>Finding great deals on the web, and combining sales with coupons.</p>
<p>I ditched my smartphone last year and just have basic phone with only text. Unfortunately, I am still paying for DS’s smartphone. I also dropped collision on DH’s 10 yr. old Honda Accord - but we bought DS a car around the same time. One step forward - two steps back. ;)</p>
<p>I make my own coffee. It drives me somewhat crazy that my kids, who have way less money than I do, buy their coffee at Starbucks. Such a waste.</p>
<p>The drugstore in our building just closed, so that will cut out my middle of the afternoon snack grabbing habit.</p>
<p>I’m a big bargain shopper, but of course, I save more money if I just don’t go shopping at all. We’ll see how that goes.</p>
<p>Trying not to eat out is a big one for us. We also dropped out landline and cut back on cable. I would gladly get rid of cable all together because we hardly ever watch anything but movies anyway and get them at RedBox or the library.</p>
<p>Well timed! I’m trying to decide if I should drop collision on my Civic Hybrid. It’s a 2006 with over 110,000 miles. So, worth something still, but dropping would save me 500 a year. How do others decide this?</p>
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<p>I actually like to cook. And then I know what is in what I am eating, too (fat content, salt, etc.). I cook in batches and freeze. My kids would rather have my homemade potstickers, enchiladas, empanadas, or chicken paprika than anything they could get eating out. Sometimes it is a challenge when I am working a lot (but then I have more money anyway). 
Gotta go, starting a batch of chili!</p>
<p>Not a coupon clipper but Kohl’s sends me an e-coupon many times during the year. Used it just before Xmas to buy some badly needed new footwear and saved a bundle on multiple pairs.</p>
<p>No cable tv.</p>
<p>No hard copy newspapers or magazines. I utilize free media online. Even paid sites like the NY Times offers 10 free articles a month. With my desktop, tablet and smartphone I’m up to 30 NY Times articles monthly for free.</p>
<p>Re-discovered the public library for books. Using the tablet to borrow e-books.</p>
<p>As for food (one of my favorite topics, heh heh), I substitute Wylers or Chrystal Light for soda. When I need a carbonation fix I drink seltzer or sparkling mineral water. Other than that, I typically never buy bottled water because of the quality of our local municipal drinking water supply. I brown bag breakfast and lunch. I get my fresh fish from Asian markets, which invariably are much cheaper than chain supermarkets and specialty fish mongers.</p>
<p>Beverages. Whether for at home or when out to eat, stick with water. Beverages really add up a grocery or restaurant bill.</p>
<p>1-H (over 55) took online car safety course. Ins. Co. shaved $70 off car insurance.
2-DS took car to college. Cheaper for us to have him get his own insurance–go figure!
3-Every January, I call Comcast. They want to retain, so I generally don’t get the yearly
spike.
4-Spent a lot of time in the past month removing temptation by unsubscribing to the
many retailers emails…and have realized I’m a bit of a Groupon/living social
junkie, so may edit my preferences/frequency of emails in that regard.
5-If I do buy online, try to utilize ebates. Have “earned” over $300. Need to convert H
to this, as he often books hotel, rental cars, etc., online…
6-Found out is really pays to keep newly employed DD on our cell plan: her employer
has a discount with our carrier, cutting her monthly cell bill by $30. Plus, she’ll be
reimbursing us for share of bill, roughly $20/month to us 
7-Ditched our local newspaper (getting too skimpy) and I can read online. $270/year.
Was going to ditch the Sunday paper, as delivery was $4.50/week. I could go
to local store and get it for $3/week. Called to cancel and they offered $1.90/week.
Can’t believe they’ll stay in business this way…
8- Quit diet coke addiction last year. $275 savings. Sleeping better, too!</p>
<p>intparent, would you please post your recipes, especially the one for empanadas?</p>
<p>Gosmom, try Wylers tea mix with carbonated water to see if that will satisfy your diet cola fix.</p>
<p>I never buy soda. For beverages at home I make my own iced tea - a few tea bags in a pitcher of boiling water and about 1/8 cup sugar - if that. I also make my own lemonade - I buy generic lemon juice - and make a pitcher using 1 cup lemon juice plus about 1/4 sugar. When we eat out, if I not having a glass of wine, it’s water with a slice of lemon. </p>
<p>Have no newspaper or magazine subscriptions anymore and instead of buying books I use the library or download books from them.</p>
<p>We do a lot for ourselves. Paint the house, landscape the yard, replace the radiator.
Saves time in scheduling too, and much of it we enjoy.
My H wears 501’s & sweatshirts to work & I wear clothes my D has grown out of. ( jeans mainly & i wear her dresses for tunic tops w jeans) this could save enough money so that I can get something really nice when I want to be a grown up.
But time is also money.
We live in the city where it is close to where we work, shop & play.
Until my arthritis got too bad, we walked to the library, grocery store and even medical appts.
Now I need to use the car but I try and consolidate trips.
Also - shopping online saves time, & money because I’m not walking past things that look like “really good deals”!
I can buy only what I need and I don’t have to wait in line.
I do still make an effort to shop locally though because I like to have those stores to walk to.</p>