Do You Have a Single Action That Has Helped You Save Money?

This post really got me thinking, I too was quite reckless when it came to money early on and I'm also on a mission to get my finances back in order. I've been practicing frugality for a couple of years now and things have been improving, I'm taking small steps towards saving money, paying off my debt and saving for retirement.

I would say that best single action which has helped me save money creating an automatic transfer into my savings account. Before I started to get serious about money I always spent everything I earned, I read on a couple of personal finance blogs about automatic transfers from checking account to savings account. I set up an ING account and set up a auto standing order for $50 per month and to my surprise I did not miss the money. I've been doing this for a while now and I've now got a good emergency fund.

Really cool post, the ING Direct auto transfer really got me thinking, if it's automatic I'll probably stick to it. I've also been practicing frugality for a while now and the thing that has helped me save money is calling up all my credit card companies and asking them to reduce the interest APR on their account. I had approximately $20,000 in credit card debt, when my hours were reduced due to cutbacks I had to do something. I read somewhere about calling credit cards to explain any financial hardship that you have to reduce your APR and minimum payments.

I called all my credit cards and out of 7 credit card companies 5 were able to reduce the APR to 0 for 6 months and also lower the minimum payments. This really helped me get a grip of my finances and any excess that I saved went towards paying off my debt quicker.

This is a great post and I'll definitely revisit for more tips. Thanks.

This ongoing tips for saving money is a great, thanks for posting all these tips. I never thought about the ING auto transfer and will start doing that with $100 per month and see how it goes. I also called my credit card companies and to my surprise a couple of them reduced the APR to 0 after I explained I was struggling. If I can continue plugging money into my ING account I'll have a pretty decent emergency fund.

One thing that really helped me save more money was buying a second hand car. It's so tempting to buy a new car using finance and the salespeople are super persuasive, I have a soft spot for cars and rather stupidly bought a BMW for more than I could afford on finance. It was a struggle to make the payments and was a major drain. I now have a second hand car which I have converted to LPG and it's much cheaper to run and I've got no monthly payments to make other than insurance. This single action has probably saved me over $500 per month. It's great to have a new car but when you cant make ends meet you need to opt for no car or a second hand car in my opinion.

It's quite refreshing reading about all of these money saving tips. I also transfer automatically to my savings account and I have not missed a cent of the money. Another trick that I use is that I always pay myself first, whenever I get paid I transfer 30% of the money into a fixed term deposit account which required a 90 day notice, I then use whatever I'm left with to make ends meet. At the beginning I did make some tough decisions such as walking to work and making sandwiches at home or eating out less but I definitely think it's worth it, I now have over $5000 in my savings account and I feel much more equipped to handle an emergency or a crisis, even if I get laid off I could use this money to survive and not have to worry about going on the street.

Pay yourself first, think of it as a self tax, and think of that person in the future who you need to take care of.

Of the tips on offer here, paying yourself first is my favorite with auto-transfer a close second. I can see myself using these tips to save money and pay off my debt! Thanks.

In the spirit of sharing I would say that my single action would be to ban certain sites on my computer, I spend most of my time online and shopping online for me became an addiction, I asked a computer buddy of mine to block some sites and told him never to tell me how to unblock them. It's been about a year since I've done this and I've saved so much money, mu guess is that I've probably saved about $200 per month or $2400 over the course of the year. I should have moved this to my savings account and I'm going to open and ING account now to set up the transfer. Thanks peeps.

I love these threads, you can learn so much, it's information on steroids, it's what most people would call leveraged information. Anyway I've been practicing most of the tips on offer here and my financial circumstances have improved considerable, from being $50,000 in debt a few years ago I now have a savings account with a nice bit of dosh. If there's anyone whose starting out I would urge them to practice these tips, your circumstances can only improve.

My single tip that has saved the most money is being more conscious of my energy usage, there was a time when we spent OVER $500 per month on our energy bill as we have a large family. I changed all my bulbs to energy saving bulbs, sealed all the drafts in my home, lowered the thermostat and encouraged everyone to wear a jumper in winter and white t shirts in the summer. I've also switched energy producers to get a better deal. I now spend about $200 to $250 on average and the amount saved goes direct to my savings account and is locked away earning money for me.

Hey Guys, nice thread. My story is very similar, the bottom line is I need to save more and spend less.
I'll cut to the chase with my single action which has saved me the most money. I too have a large family and most of our money went on groceries and restaurant bills. We spend over $1500 a month on food! Eventually enough was enough and we stopped eating out, we also planned our menus and meals a week in advance and only bought ingredients on sale or when they were on promotion. We planned our meals on these ingredients and made meals in bulk and freezed them, we only cook once a week and free all of our food, all we have to do now is reheat it. I can't say how much this has helped us, we've managed to reduce our food bill to $400 to $500 per month and the extra cash is now going towards paying off the debt and saving for retirement. We've also lost so much weight too thanks to eating out less so it was an action that yielding double benefits.. This is the steps I take

1. Find what on promotion
2. Buy promotional foods in bulk
3. Cook meals in bulk and freeze them
4. Reheat them to save time and money

I've been lurking around this post and the tips here are great, thanks guys. I know most of it is common sense but it would have never occurred to me. If I practice most of these tips for the remainder of my life I could really save lots of money. I have a tip for people who shop a lot and like designer clothes. My story was similar to many other, anything I earned was used to buy designer clothes, most of my assets are in my closet! (I was an idiot). Anyway I cut my spending habits significantly but knew that I would return to my bad habits. My solution was simple, buy used designer clothes from eBay. In a typical month I would spend about $500 on designer shoes and clothes, I can now find these clothes for a fraction of the price. I picked up a Nike Air Max Trainer, virtually unused for only $15 which included delivery, normally these shoes would have set me back $100. I now buy all my clothes used and any money that's left over goes towards my credit card debt.

Great thread guys, keep the tips coming because I've bookmarked this page and will visit frequently.

I love revisiting this thread, I'm always getting a tip for free. Nice.
This thread inspired me to read a personal finance book so I could increase my financial intelligence. After listening to several personal finance audio books the tip I want to share might be controversial. I think that the single most effective action you can take to make money and save money is to increase your financial IQ and financial intelligence. Just learning new financial terminology will open your eyes to all the opportunities that are passing you by. I would definitely recommend that you listen to the following books and increase your effectiveness and financial intelligence so it helps you become a better money manager.

(I must stress that its better to LISTEN to these books rather than read them as it's much quicker, think of it as leveraging your time)

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad
2. Richest Man in Babylon
3. Think & Grow Rich
4. I Will Teach You to Be Rich
5. Millionaire Fast Lane
6. Automatic Millionaire
7. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Seriously these tips are great but listening to these audio books will open your eyes like they were never opened before.

Wow, this is a great idea, where can I get these Audio books? can I get them for audibles? I would be grateful if you could tell me if you bought them in bulk. Thanks

Hey Deigo, you can actually listen to most of these audio books online, most are freely available. I suppose I could use this thread to reveal the audio books but I'm not sure if this would be allowed. I would be happy to post a video reviewing the books but you would have to do your own search on youtube to find the videos. I would also suggest you use your libraries reservation service which will allow your to reserve the audio books for free.

Here is a review of Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Here is the review for The Richest Man in Babylon - I love the concepts in this book, a must read.



I don't want to post too many vidoes and get banned by Admin, most of the other books are online.

Wow, I love the idea of listening to books rather than reading them to increase increase financial intelligence and IQ. I'm currently listening to rich dad poor dad and it is really opening my eyes. Can't wait to listen to Millionaire Fast Lane, MJ DeMarco seems quite cocky but a lot of people are posting positive reviews about it..

Anyway the tips on offer here are amazing, I've noticed a financial turnaround already, I've consolidated my loans and I've reduced my monthly payments, any excess money that I have left over is plugged into paying off my debt quicker. Seriously Thanks for sharing this thread.

Another single action which helped me save lots of money was moving to a cheaper house. I was living in an expensive neighborhood and was using more than half on my take home on rent, it was a really nice house and it was furnished well but eventually I came to the conclusion that I would not be able to afford it. I have since moved to an apartment which is 70% smaller, it has all the basics and it's not lavish at all however I'm saving a shed load of money now. The way I figured was I spend most of my time at work or outside and only use my place to sleep so it doesn't matter if its cheap, as long as it's clean. Seriously peeps, if you want to save money then go to a cheaper neighborhood in a cheaper place. When you make your millions you can live lavishly.

Just finished listening to Rich Dad Poor Dad and now I'm on a mission to remove as many liabilities as I can from my life or rent them out. I'm also on a mission to buy assets that produce income so I can eventually stop working.

I cant recommend this book enough to everyone, YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS AUDIO BOOK TO OPEN YOUR EYES. Sorry for shouting but this will have a positive effect on my life now. Thanks

The Audio book post has definitely caught the imagination of many people. I too have read most of these books and they have had a profound effect on me. I've evolved financially and have the experience, foresight and knowledge to achieve my goals. I will agree that this is time spent wisely, listening to the audio book is an even better idea as you save time which is of course the greatest asset of them all.

I just remembered another action which is worth mentioning that has saved me money. Every time I find a way of saving money I bank it. For example I was able to reduce one of my subscription from $10 to $7, this meant that I was saving $3 every month, or $36 per year. I quickly set up an auto transfer from my checking account to my ING savings account for $3 per month. Had I not done the auto transfer this money would not be accounted for and it would probably be lost in oblivion. Every time you save money bank it by creating an auto transfer.

This thread is becoming addictive

I've already set up a savings account and I'm in the process of moving to a cheaper place and freezing my meals so I don't have to eat out as much. I don't have much experience when it comes to personal finance however my folks keep on banging on about retirement. They keep on telling me to max out my 401K and to ensure that I contribute to get the maximum employer contribution, so far I've been contributing 10% and the employer is contributing 4%, I guess it's free money. Also they keep bending my ears about maxing out the Roth IRA if you have money to spare. I'm guessing it's like having an automatic transfer for retirement.