What a week!  We finished up our 10-day journey where we looked at 10 money-saving tips to help us stash $10,000!

Through each of those tips we freed up between $275 per month on the low side all the way up to $950 per month on the high side if you were able to maximize each of those tips!  That’s a savings over this next year between $3,300 to $11,400! 

Again, the question is – what will you do with your savings!?  If you’re not careful, any freed up money will evaporate to other expenses.  Be intentional about putting that money away!

Well, it’s another week in the books and it’s time for a quick tour.  This Week in Personal Finance takes a look at interesting articles, posts and news from the past week in the personal finance arena. 

So give these articles a click!

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• Matt Jabs from Debt Free Adventure shares his story of how he saved over $41,000 by refinancing!
• Kevin from Out of Your Rut asks a very pertinent question that usually elicits some heated debate – Is it better to build your savings or pay off debt!?
• Over at Len Penzo Dot Com there was some very interesting discussion going on regarding whether people should walk away from a mortgage if they cannot afford to make the house payment!
• In today’s economy it’s even more important to diversify your income sources – Five Cent Nickel offers up a great post via Matt Jabs on How and Why to Diversify Your Income.
• I love talking about retirement issues.  Flexo over at Consumerism Commentary references a recent ING survey about retirement that had some pretty interesting stats.  Flexo says he might need $3,000,000, but one-third of Americans believe they can retire on $250,000 or less. 
• Jeff over at Deliver Away Debt might be the hardest working guy in the PF Blogosphere – dude delivers pizzas on the side to help knock out his debt, which is why he’ll need a guest post now and then.  If you were a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles growing up, you’ll like this post on fighting debt – TMNT style.
• Looking for a new job and getting ready for interviews?  Check out some helpful tips and reminders on the art of the interview from Financial Samurai
• Is there such a thing as good debt?  Take a look at what Kevin says over at Fiscal Geek!

R2 Around the Web

How Should We Help the Poor was included in Wealth Pilgrim’s Round Up

What is Your Motivation in Giving was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #245.

Tip #8 in the 10 Money-Saving Tips Challenge was included in the Yakezie Alexa Challenge Carnival over at CJBowker.

Tip #7 in the 10 Money-Saving Tips Challenge was included in the I Love You Like a Blogger round up at Enemy of Debt

Is Money Your Functional Savior was included in the round up at Personal Finance by the Book

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

If your family’s growing and you need extra space, get it without buying a new home or building an expensive addition onto your house. Here’s how.

Clear the clutter in every cupboard, closet, drawer and storage area. Evaluate your keepsakes. Scan photos to revive the memory later. Do you really need nine things to remember Aunt Lucy by?

When it comes to furnishings and décor, think vertical. Get as much off the floor as possible to create more space. Reduce the amount of furniture you have. Instead of using plant stands, hang them on hooks.

Simplify and Sell

Get rid of some of your seating, especially if kids enjoy plopping on the floor instead. Remove clutter catchers like extra tables. Minimize the scale of your furniture, too. Sectional sofas and giant coffee tables gobble up more space than separated seating and diminutive end tables.

A friend sold her oak entertainment center/curio cabinets, her children’s outgrown movies, and standard television. She then used that money to buy a wall-mountable flat screen TV with a built-in DVD player and two slim storage towers for her DVDs and found extra floor space without blowing the budget.

My family started keeping electronic records, which eliminated two filing cabinets in the home office. Downsizing from a sprawling desk to a taller, slimmer desk also created space.

On eBay, Craigslist or on a community bulletin board, list items that you wish to sell.  Hosting a garage sale is a perfect way to create some extra space.Search Ebay’s Want it Now section to see if anyone’s looking for your items.

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Maximize Space and Decorate Effectively

Now that you have more room and cash, you can really make strides in expanding your space. Select lighter colors to make your rooms open up visually when painting. Certain things can visually shrink rooms, such as heavy drapes, dim lighting, dark woodwork, busy patterns, and an abundance of knickknacks.

Efficiently use your storage areas. This will make your rooms seem bigger because you have fewer items in sight. Also, as an added benefit, you may be able to thin out more furniture per room.

By adding shelves in large cupboards, hanging shoe holders in closets and using over-the-door hooks, I’m given more closet space and the need for a coat tree is eliminated. I also like cascading closet hooks so shirts, skirts and folded pants use much less space.

Stow more with tables and ottomans that have built-in storage space. For example, using small, freestanding cabinets for nightstands lends us more storage than many tables would. Bunk beds with built-in drawers spared us from crowding the kids’ room with two beds and dressers.

I maximize the space under beds, couches and under the rod in closets. Plastic storage containers provide storage for whatever you want to stow nearby, such as throw blankets, board games, extra sheets, and toys.

Strategic Functionality of Your Rooms

Get more value from each room by multiplying its functions. This strategy may even garner an additional room. To merge his family room and home office and get an extra bedroom, Rich, a Pennsylvania dad, installed a tuner chip in his computer.

It functions as their television and DVD player, which eliminated the need for an additional screen and piece of furniture to house it. They aren’t big TV viewers, so this solution worked well for them.

Tuck a computer armoire in a kitchen or den because when the armoire doors are closed, it blends seamlessly with the room and nixes the need for a separate office.

Dale, a New York dad, gained two new bedrooms and a bathroom for his growing family by finishing off half his basement (check the building codes of your city before making structural changes). By completing most of the work himself with the help of knowledgeable friends, Dale saved quite a bit.

Compared with the cost of buying a larger home or building an addition, selling furniture and things you don’t need to “buy” more functional pieces and dividing large, open spaces to gain rooms still makes plenty of sense.

This has been a guest post by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant.  Deborah writes from her home in Wolcott, N.Y.

You can also find more room in your home by selling unwanted items. Hosting a garage sale is a perfect way to create some extra space.

Tip #10 – Start Packing Lunches!

Welcome to our tenth and final day of our journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000!  

This has been a really fun series of posts and it’s garnered a lot of great comments!  Keep ‘em coming everyone!

If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the last couple weeks we’ve looked at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.  If you have a tip that hasn’t been mentioned, or you’d like to add some additional thoughts to one of our existing tips, please let me know your best money-saving tip here!

We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Remember – each of these alone don’t seem to add much savings, but when combined they add up to over $10,000 of savings over this next year!  Even if you don’t reach that $10,000 mark, saving a few grand this next year will help build an emergency fund or get you started on investing!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Ok, so this one is similar to Tip #1, but I think it’s different enough to make a distinction and a separate post.  I guarantee there are some families that don’t go out to dinner very much as a family, but eat out for lunch almost every single day.

This was definitely the case for some folks I use to work with at former places of employment!

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How Much Does It Cost?

Well, this depends if you only have a half-hour for lunch and need to grab something quick, or if you’ve got an hour for lunch and like to hit a sit-down spot!

If you figure the average fast food meal costs anywhere from $5 to $8 depending on what you get and where you live and the average sit-down meal is somewhere in the $8 to $12 neighborhood, you’re looking at $25 – $60 a week if you’re eating out every day! 

Not only does going out for lunch all the time decrease the wallet size, but it increases the belt size!  Going out for lunch all the time is not good for you – unless of course you are disciplined and always make the healthy choice – I know I don’t!

But Leftovers Might Kill My Career…

Think I’m crazy?  Think again.  Helena Echlin from Chow.com says that bringing your leftovers makes you look less successful and also makes a statement to others that you are anti-social!

Maybe you should stop bringing your leftovers in your Superman lunch box – seriously, no one wants to know that you’re a big Clark Kent fan!

I don’t know, maybe bringing a lunch does ding your image.  As a self-employed, independent contractor, I guess I never really had to worry about the silliness of climbing the corporate ladder.  But I guess i can see the point.

Image vs. Reality – What’s More Important?

So bringing some leftovers to work makes you look like you’re at the bottom of the food chain!  It’s like anything else in our society these days – do we live for our image or do we live in reality?

How many people do you know that seemingly have it all – a lot of toys, a big house and nice cars – yet they’re up to their eyeballs in debt!

They aren’t rich, they just act like it!  So, let your co-workers rip on you because you’re bringing your leftover casserole while they throw their $15 lunch on their credit card and have some laughs.

You’ll have the last laugh after you’ve gotten out of debt and stashed $10,000 over this next year!

But I Don’t Know What to Pack!

Need some ideas for packing lunches?  Check out Alan’s Kitchen and his list of quick and easy lunch recipes!  If you have a plan in place you are much more likely to act on it.

One of the biggest tips to help you start packing lunches is to prepare a “leftover container” right after dinner that you can take with you for lunch the next day.  I know for myself that if the food isn’t in an easy-to-grab container the odds of me putting it in one in the morning decrease dramatically!

Estimated Savings: $25 – $150 per month

Let Us Know in the Comments

1. How much have you saved by packing lunches
2. Have you felt the temptation to go out for lunch to protect your image?

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Tip #9 – Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Welcome to day nine of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000!   This has been a really fun series of posts and it’s garnered a lot of great comments!  Keep ‘em coming everyone!

If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the last couple weeks we’ve looked at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.  We’ll be finishing up our series this week!

If you have a tip that hasn’t been mentioned, or you’d like to add some additional thoughts to one of our existing tips, please let me know your best money-saving tip here!

We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

This is one tip that most people have probably thought of, but perhaps haven’t paid much attention to.  For whatever reason, we all get into a rut and so when our renewal notice comes we just pay the premium and on we go for another six months.

For many of us, the thought of getting auto insurance quotes and home insurance quotes isn’t all that appealling right?  So what do we do with things that aren’t that fun?  C’mon now, be honest – we put them off!  

 But, this is one area that you can really save some big money with a little front-end effort of getting some quotes!

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How Much Coverage Do You Need?

Before you get carried away and start raising your deductible and dropping coverage, you really need to do a little homework up front to figure out how much coverage you actually need.

Smart Money has a great article on auto insurance that walks you through the different options for your auto insurance and gives an idea of how much coverage you should be looking for.

Shop Around For Home and Auto Insurance Quotes

Ok, now for the fun part.  Before you give your existing company a call, you’ll want to give competitor’s a call and start comparing insurance quotes.  You’ll also want to check to see if your employer offers any discounts with certain carriers.  If you’re a Costco member, you get a discount as well. 

Make sure you know all the angles – most companies will offer you big discounts for buying both home and auto insurance – among other things through them!

Get as much information as you can and write it down.  You want to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples.  To help get you started here are some toll-free numbers to call so you can shop around:

Geico: 1-800-861-8380

AAA: (866) 539-8033

Allstate: 866 704 9900

Progressive: 1-800-776-4737

Or, you can always go on the web and get some free auto and home insurance quotes as well.

Simple Financial Lifestyle mentioned they recently shopped their car insurance and ended up saving $500 annually!  There’s some great potential savings because this type of insurance is very competitive – and companies want your business!

Call to Negotiate

Once you’ve got a pretty good idea as to what other companies will offer, you want to give your existing company a call first. 

Let them know that you’ve got a quote for “X” amount and you’re wondering what they can do to retain your business.  This works!  It’s amazing how many companies scramble to throw you a deal when they realize you’re about to walk.

There are some crazy discounts offered by the competition these days – ask your current company if there are any discounts you’ve been missing out on, like a safe driver discount, or a “I haven’t had a cold in two years” discount.  Anything!

If your existing company can’t match or beat the lowest price you shopped around for then it’s time to switch.  Yes it’s a pain, but it’s worth it.

Side Note: I don’t advocate going by price alone – you want to make sure you are with a legitimate company that has good claims-paying ability!  The last thing you want is to get into an accident and have a company that can’t pay!

Estimated Savings: $25-$100 per month

Don’t Forget To:

1. Check out the other money-saving tips in this series!

2. Leave a comment below letting us know how much you’ve saved by negotiating your home and auto insurance!

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Tip #8 – Use Coupons, For Everything!

Welcome to the eighth day of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000! 

If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the next couple weeks we’re going to look at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.

On Thursdays we’re going to look at a tip, but also hear Personal Finance bloggers’ and hopefully some readers’ ideas and experiences on how they’ve saved money!

If you’d like to be included in the Thursday posts – please let me know your best money-saving tip here! We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Some of you are going to hate this idea!  Some of you can’t stand the thought of being “one of them” – you know what I’m talking about…a “coupon clipper”.

For some, just the thought of cutting coupons is torture enough.  I totally get that – I do.  I have to admit that I have a major advantage here.  My wife LOVES coupons, coupon-clipping, and finding good deals.  So, I rely on her for our savings in this department.

But, with the internet, coupon clipping doesn’t have to be old school – you know, where you sit down with the Sunday paper and a pair of scissors and clip away!  Although, that does save money too!

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Ways to Find Coupons

Let’s take a look at a few unique ways to get on board with coupons to help you stash some money!

Check Websites

There are a plethora of coupon websites out there that offer deals and keep consumers up to speed on some great savings.  A few that come to mind are Wise Bread, who offers their  ”Best Deals Today” list and newsletter that you can subscribe to.  Mummy Deals is a great coupon site that my wife frequents regularly.  If you’re looking for coupons for restaurants, you can’t beat Restaurant.com!

Utilize Your Email

I had not thought about doing this until I received this guest post from Ann Smarty!  This is a pretty cool little system to take advantage of deals out there without getting overwhelmed!

Sign Up For Birthday Clubs or Fan Clubs

This is one of my favorites!  As long as you don’t mind getting inundated with emails, this is a great way to get special offers and coupons emailed to you all the time! 

A lot of restaurants will give you a free meal on your birthday.  One local place we like gives you your age in years as a percentage discount off the bill! 

Use Google Search

Maybe you’re looking for a new computer and would like to get some good laptop deals or notebook deals.   Before you go to the store, do a Google search and type in best laptop deals, notebook deals or laptop coupons and find out what’s out there to help you save some money!

If you’re a big Overstock.com fan, you can Google Overstock Coupons or Overstock Deals and get some great internet coupon codes for them.

You can find internet coupons and coupon codes for just about anything!  There is no reason to pay full price - Google it and see what kind of deals can be had!

Coupon Trains

This is new to me.  I found this idea on GroceryCouponGuide.com!  Basically what you do is find three to six other people who share your affinity for coupons and deals, preferably with different needs (i.e. one needs pet food coupons, the other diapers, etc).

The “conductor” starts with an envelope of 40-200 coupons, takes out what he or she needs and replaces them with coupons that won’t be used.  The envelope then gets mailed to the next person who does the same thing, and on it goes down the line.

It’s a way to stockpile some good coupons that you need, although it does take some work.  It could be well worth it if you have the right people in your train.

Entertainment Books

This is one of our favorites too!  We love the Entertainment book.  For $20, you get a book full of coupons to restaurants, entertainment venues etc.

We buy one every year and probably get at least two to three times the savings from that book!  It’s great and it allows us to eat out a little more often without spending additional money.

More Money-Saving Tips From PF Bloggers and Readers

Donna, a reader and commenter on R2 says,

A price book is essential to finding the lowest prices on groceries and to recognize a real sale. I also never trust the warehouse store as the cheapest source of all items. By comparing prices and knowing a real sale the savings can really add up.

The Debt Hawk says,

One of my favorite tips is to increase your 401k contribution percentage by the amount of your annual raise. This is one of the best ways for people to reach the 15% contribution limit. Since you have not gotten used to the raise yet as part of your disposable income, you will not even miss the money, but you will be increasing your savings a lot year after year.

 Budgets Are The New Black says,

I gave up my cell contract and switched to prepaid!

Are you a coupon clipper?  Tell us some more great ways to save using coupons!

Estimated Savings: $25 – $50 per month

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Tip #7 – Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food

Welcome to day seven of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000! 

If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the next couple weeks we’re going to look at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.

On Thursdays we’re going to look at a tip, but also hear Personal Finance bloggers’ and hopefully some readers’ ideas and experiences on how they’ve saved money!

If you’d like to be included in the Thursday posts – please let me know your best money-saving tip here! We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Uh-oh!  I can already hear you now!  “Oh no he didn’t just attack my Snickers and soda jones!”  “He better not tell me to cut out my mid-afternoon Funyons and Red Bull snack!”

Now just hear me out a second.  There’s a reason why 44 major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote their products to children and adolescents in 2006.

Americans are junk-food-junkies!!  And we spend a LOT of money on this garbage every single month.

Now, I’ve got a major sweet tooth and would eat junk every day if I could.  Thankfully my wife is not a big junk food fanatic, so I’m able to avoid a lot of the costs because she does the grocery shopping.  And I’m OK with that because I’d be twice my size if I ate what I wanted on a daily basis.

Not only that, but our grocery budget would be much larger as well. 

My wife and I do not drink soda, rarely buy potato chips and almost never have “snacky foods” in our cupboards.  Our snacks of choice are granola bars, pretzels and ranch dressing or chips and salsa!  These are the only things close to junk food that we really buy.

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Junk food is not cheap, and it adds up pretty quickly!  In fact, JD from Get Rich Slowly recently admitted slipping back into bad junk-food habits and shelling out close to $100-$150 in one month on this stuff!

Financial Samurai mentioned that as part of his health kick, he cut out ALL sodas & high sugar related drinks from his diet and started drinking more water.  Not only does he feel better, but he lost weight and saved roughly $100 per month from that alone!

How to Kick the Junk Food Habit

 The only way to kick a habit is to replace it with something positive.  You can’t just go cold turkey on something and expect to just fight cravings without getting your mind off of it.

So, instead of soda – drink water or ice tea (your own fresh brewed!).  Instead of candy bars do what the contestants on Biggest Loser are told to do – chew a piece of sugar-free gum, or eat some veggies!

The idea is to quickly tackle any craving with a healthy or positive alternative. 

Once you start getting used to this new lifestyle, it will become like a positive habit itself.

So go ahead, kick the junk food habit and slash your grocery bill for some more savings!!

Estimated Savings: $50-$100 per month

How much have you saved by cutting out junk food from your grocery bill?

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Tip #6 – Get Rid of Your Home Phone

Welcome to day six of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000! 

If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the next couple weeks we’re going to look at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.

On Thursdays we’re going to look at a tip, but also hear Personal Finance bloggers’ and hopefully some readers’ ideas and experiences on how they’ve saved money!

If you’d like to be included in the Thursday posts – please let me know your best money-saving tip here! We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

This one can be related to Tip #5, but it’s important enough to note a distinction.

Many of you have probably already gone this route, but I’m sure there are a few of  you that haven’t.  It’s funny, I say this as one having not had a home phone in about five years to getting one with our new place and here I am writing that you should get rid of it.

The main reason we got one was because it was actually a little cheaper to get the very basic land line package so that we could upgrade our high-speed internet.  The land line cost itself (minus the taxes) is $8.50 per month and it includes 30 local phone calls. 

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For years, however, my wife and I used our cell phones exclusively as our only phone options.  We had plenty of minutes and it allowed us to save some money on the land line service.

After researching phone and internet plans when moving into our new home, I realized just how expensive that home service can cost!

Aside from our basic, no-frills, “don’t-call-too-many-people” plan, the next cheapest plan was around $25 a month!  Tack on your taxes and surcharges and you’re upwards of $35-$40 pretty easily.

Alternatives to Land Line Phones

As I already mentioned, just using a cell phone is a great alternative to paying for a home phone. But there are other alternatives out there as well.

Matt from Steadfast Finances says he trimmed the telecom fat by cutting out his land line AND cell phone and only uses services like Skype or Magic Jack.  He’s saving $50 per month by making some cuts. 

I asked Matt if he missed his cell service at all, and he said, “Not really, even after four years.  There is a bit of freedom without  always being “reachable” 24/7.”

Kudos to Matt.  I know I couldn’t go without a cell phone, but he does make a good point about always being reachable.  Of course, I could always turn the cell off too – but I never do.

Matt is just one of many people that are making a move to internet phone services like Magic Jack and Skype.

Who hasn’t seen one of those cheesy Magic Jack infomercials!?  Along with Vonage, these are probably the three most popular services like this out there.

I’ve heard some good things about Magic Jack, but also some not so good.  A site called Spot Cool Stuff, gives a really great and in-depth review of Magic Jack, Skype and Vonage! 

The conclusion is if you want cheap, go with Magic Jack, but there are some negatives that go along with it – so buyer beware.

The bottom line is that this is just another area that needs to be evaluated in the grand scheme of things to see if you can cut back and save a little cash.

Estimated Savings: $25-$50 per month

What are your experiences with home phones?  Have you cut the cord?  How much have you saved?

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

Tip #5 – Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Welcome to day five of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000!  If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

• The Goal: Save $10,000
• By When: This time next year
• How: By implementing 10 money-saving tips

For the next couple weeks we’re going to look at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.

On Thursdays we’re going to look at a tip, but also hear Personal Finance bloggers’ and hopefully some readers’ ideas and experiences on how they’ve saved money!

If you’d like to be included in the Thursday posts – please let me know your best money-saving tip here! We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!  If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Here’s what we’ve been through so far:

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

According to J.D. Power and Associates, the average cell phone bill is about $63 a month, but with the rise of smart phones and iphones, the cost is going up!  In fact, the article points out that those who use their phones for email, texting and downloading spend on average $14 more per month than those who don’t!

Many times, folks who sign up for a plan rarely review what they’re paying for and anaylyze their usage.  It’s important to take a look at how many minutes you are using and what exactly is included in your plan.

These things can add up pretty fast, so what’s the best way to negotiate your way to a lower cell phone bill?  It can take shape in a few different forms, so let’s take a look.

Check into Corporate Discounts

You’re probably well aware that many large companies sign contracts with cell phone providers at discounted rates.   What you may not know is that many of those discounts are available to employees even if the company isn’t shelling out the dough for your phone.

In fact, my company offers discounts with the four main carriers and once I found out I called our cell provider immediately and asked for the corporate discount.  That was good for a 16% break!

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 Check into Bundling Discounts

If you have your internet, tv or even a land-line with another company, give them a call.  Many times, these companies are willing to offer some bundling discounts to get more of your business.

Give your current cable or internet provider a call and let them know you’re shopping around for cell providers and ask them what kind of discounts they can offer you to get you to switch your plan.

Call to Negotiate Your Own Discount

This is the hardest one on the list because it takes determination, courage and talking to customer service!  But it can be done.  Just like most companies, it’s cheaper  for cell companies to retain a customer than it is to acquire one – this works in your favor.

The Dollar Stretcher has a great post about optimizing your cell phone plan.  I’ll reiterate some of their points here.

1. Do your research on other plans out there. 

If you’re with Sprint (like I am) then spend a few minutes and check out what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile offer for similar minutes.  If they are comparable or better yet, cheaper, then you’ll want to make a good note of what they’v e got.

The best way to do this is through a site called Bill Shrink.  All you do is enter the amount you currently pay for cell service and click enter and this site will let you shop different plans to evaluate the least expensive out there.  It’s a very cool site.

2. Give your cell phone company a call.

Be nice when you call.  You’ll get nowhere with an attitude!  Politely let them know that you are shopping your plan and you’d like to know what they can do for you as a current customer.

For this to work, you must be willing to drop your carrier.  More than likely, they’ll run through their plans and tell you there ins’t much they can do.

3. Ask to be transfered to the Retention Department

Again, you want to be truthful in this.  I do not advocate lying to get a discount.  But, if you are willing to drop your carrier, the Retention Department is where the authority is.  They are the ones who can reduce costs and make things happen.

When you do get transferred, you’ll want to politely let them know that you’re trying to cut some costs and one of the ways you wanted to do that was by lowering your cell phone bill. 

They’ll tell you  that you need to drop your minutes.  Let them know that if there’s nothing they can do that you’d like to cancel your contract.

If you’re willing to cancel your contract, this should work.  If it doesn’t, then give one of the competitors a call and ask them what kind of deal they can give you.  You should be able to save some cash doing these things.

Estimated Savings: $10-$25 per month

What has been your experience with getting a discount from your cell phone carrier?

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!

So we’re taking a break from our 10 day journey to save $10,000 to have a look at some interesting items from around the web.

If you missed the initial post on the 10 Money-Saving Tips to Help You Stash $10,000, I highly encourage you check that out and join us as we resume next week!

It’s been a fun ride so far and we’ve already freed up roughly $375 per month!! 

The basic premise is to try to save $10,000 over the course of this next year by implementing 10 Money-Saving Tips! 

For roughly 10 days, we’ll look at a different tip each day to help you stash some money.  Even if you don’t save the full $10,000 – any additional savings will be well worth it! 

These are the tips we’ve gone through so far: 

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat  

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Now on to the rest of the show! 

It’s another week in the books and it’s time for a quick tour.  This Week in Personal Finance takes a look at interesting articles, posts and news from the past week in the personal finance arena. 

So give these articles a click!

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• Thinking about starting a blog to make a little side income?  Pete from Bible Money Matters is offering an ebook to help you do that!
• Enemy of Debt is hosting a “Manage Your Money” Challenge where each challenge will be different or will introduce you to a unique approach to managing money by using a variety of services and software.
• Kevin from Out of Your Rut takes an angle on retirement planning that doesn’t get talked about near enough – working toward a low-cost/debt-free lifestyle in retirement.
• My wife and I have been talking about starting a garden this spring because we love fresh food and we also love to save money. Frugal Dad offers a unique alternative to a monster garden in Square Foot Gardening.
• Jason Price, writing for Christian PF, posts about one of my favorite topics – Money and Happiness!
• Brip Blap offers some insights into raising kids without regrets. 

R2 Around the Web

These are some Blog Carnivals I participated in this past week:

• Carnival of Personal Finance #245 hosted by Budgets are Sexy.
• Festival of Frugality #218 hosted by Think Your Way to Wealth
• Carnival of Money Stories hosted by Personal Finance by the Book
• Best of Money Carnival #39 hosted by Canadian Personal Finance

Plutus Awards

Lastly, it was a great honor this week to be named as one of the top 5 finalists for the Plutus Awards – (think Oscars for the blog world!) in the category of Best Religious Finance Blog!! 

If you get a moment to vote, head on over to the Plutus Awards site and cast your vote for Redeeming Riches! 

Thanks for reading this week, have a great weekend!!

Tip #4 – Turn Your Heat Down

Welcome to day four of our roughly 10-day journey, where we are looking at 10 money-saving tips to help save $10,000!  If you missed the introductory post of 10 Money-Savings Tips to Help You Stash $10,000 you’ll definitely want to check it out so we’re all on the same page.

But to sum it up – here’s our mission:

For the next couple weeks we’re going to look at one money-saving tip each Monday through Thursday.

On Thursdays we’re going to look at a tip, but also hear Personal Finance bloggers’ and hopefully some readers’ ideas and experiences on how they’ve saved money!

If you’d like to be included in the Thursday posts – please let me know your best money-saving tip here! We’d love to hear your stories of what you did and how much money you saved by implementing your tip!

If you’re a blogger and have posted about your money-saving tip, please include a link to your post!

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Friends who know us will laugh at this one.  Our house is always the cold house!  We try to turn the heat up when we have company over to accommodate, but they’ve wised up and started bringing sweatshirts and slippers now!

We do this mainly to save money on our heating costs.  As my wife always says, “There is no reason why you shouldn’t have to put on a sweatshirt and a blanket in the winter time!”

We also do this because we love to sleep in colder temperatures.  Neither one of us sleep well when it gets hot, so we turn that thermostat down to 63 degrees at night.

If no one is going to be home for the day, we leave the temp set at 63.  If someone is home, then we crank that puppy up to a balmy 65 – sometimes 66 on a really cold day!  We throw on sweatshirts and deal with it.

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You’re Nuts!

That’s usually the response we get when we tell people what we set our thermostat to, but I’m glad we are not the only ones out there. 

As promised we wanted to take a look at some PF Bloggers ideas on how they’ve saved money as well.  Take a look at these two submissions I received regarding turning the thermostat down:

Rainy Day Saver says:

We set our thermostat to 63 degrees to reduce our heating bill. It’s worth saving about $200/month.  Yep. The 7-degree difference from 70 degrees to 63 saves us a lot of moolah!

Kyle, from Suburban Dollar says:

I work from home all by myself, and to cut down on heating costs I keep the thermostat set at 63 degrees inside and bundle up while I work. 

Great job guys!!  In Kyle’s post, he had a link to an article by USA today that talks about the Challenge to Be Chilly.  They go on to say that some folks are doing this to save money and some are doing this in an effort to go green and conserve energy.  One family saved over $800 last year by turning their heat down and employing some energy-saving tips!

How Much Can You Really Save By Conserving Energy?

For most of you out there, you’re probably thinking, “OK, that’s great, but how much can you really save?  After all, it’s not worth saving $5 or $10 if I’m going to freeze my fanny off!”

According to Bill Pindle, deputy director for the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), “The rule of thumb is that you can save about 3% on your heating bill for every degree that you set back your thermostat”. 

If you turn down the thermostat 10 degrees when you go to work, and again when you go to bed — a total of 16 hours a day – you can save about 14% on your heating bill, says Prindle.

That’s a pretty good savings! 

Where I live, in the Chicago area, the average monthly heating bill in 2007 was $218.  In New York it was almost twice that, just shy of $500!  A 14% savings on those two numbers is roughly $30 – $70 per month in savings!!

Fight the Temptation to Crank It Up!

It will only take one day of you freezing your tail off to say, “Forget this, it’s not worth it!”.  Don’t do it.  Start with turning your thermostat down a few degrees to save some money and get used to the chill.

Buying a programmable thermostat will be a good investment for you as well, that way your temperature will automatically drop when you go to work and when you go to bed so you don’t have to always remember!

Give it a shot and see what happens!

Estimated Savings: $25-$200 per month!

How much have you saved by turning the temperature down?

Check Out All The Tips From Our Series

Tip #1: Cut Back on Going Out to Eat

Tip #2: Evaluate Your Entertainment

Tip #3: Cut Your Cable

Tip #4: Turn Your Heat Down

Tip #5: Negotiate Your Cell Phone Plan

Tip #6: Get Rid of Your Land Line

Tip #7: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Cutting Out Junk Food!

Tip #8: Use Coupons, For Everything!

Tip #9: Negotiate Your Home and Auto Insurance

Tip #10: Start Packing Lunches!