Happy New Year! I can still say that, right, even though it’s the third of the month?
My 2008 New Year’s Resolution is to Get Out of Debt…and here are 13 ways I’m going to save (or make) money in order to put a big dent in my debt:
- Ensure I’m bringing my lunch to work every day (and politely enforcing this decision on my husband)–I’ve actually been doing a lot better, but I need to KEEP doing it and not succumb to my old lazy habits.
- Check the programming on my thermostat…overnight and weekdays it’s set at 66 degrees and during the evening on weekdays and all day on weekends it’s set at 70 degrees…but I think it doesn’t drop down at night until midnight, so I could probably drop it at like 10pm.
- Call my credit card and ask them to lower my APR…even though I pay more than the minimum due and always on time, they like to sneak it up when I’m not looking.
- Try to do all my running around at once, instead of going to the store Monday, then again on Wednesday, then Friday and Saturday….saves gas and time, too.
- Stick to the shopping list! I usually do pretty well on this, and when I do buy outside of the shopping list, it’s usually things I forgot to put on the list in the first place. But I need to be better about it.
- Be more firm on the “Need versus Want” battle…that’s a hard one to overcome sometimes, especially when there’s TWO of us both wanting something when we really don’t need it.
- Replace more light-bulbs with fluorescent bulbs. I usually wait until a bulb burns out before I replace it, but I might just go ahead and replace them sooner…at least on the last few lights that we use often. I don’t know what I’m going to do with those light fixtures with their ridiculous decorator bulbs with the itty-bitty bases…haven’t seen fluorescents for those yet. Maybe eventually just replace the light fixtures altogether…not a big fan of them in the first place. But then we’re back to #6….do I really NEED to replace the light fixtures?…or do I just WANT to?
- Get some bookings and sell my jewelry! I’ve still got a ton and just have been having a heckuva time getting back into the swing of things since having Cooper. While the jewelry essentially sells itself, it’s not going to unless I get it in front of people.
- Sell real estate on my blog, as mentioned yesterday.
- Turn off the water while I’m brushing my teeth. I got into the very wasteful habit of leaving it on and now I need to curb that habit to conserve water and hopefully lower my water bill a little.
- Spread out my haircuts…every 12 weeks instead of every 8 weeks.
- On a related note, opt for a more subtle color for my highlights so that I can go longer in-between applications, especially since my stylist is wonderful and great and got a promotion a few months back and now costs more.
- Go through my belongings…sell discarded items and clothing on eBay, donate what doesn’t sell and keep the receipt for next tax season.
Got any other ideas on how to save money or create a few more dollars? Let me know…I’d love to hear them!
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13 Comments
These are really great resolutions – way better than the I’ll Never Keep It weight loss one.
We buy a lot of bulk on occasion. I should probably make it more often.
Sounds like a great start. One simple thing I watch is how much toilet paper I use at a time. It’s so easy to just roll off yards of it– and it’s not cheap.
great ideas! i should try out some of those!
Wow! I wish that I could be this disciplined…..
In the evenings and on weekends I think you should try going for 69 degrees (or even 68). One or two degrees can still make a difference.
Great list. Wishing you lots of success.
Karen, MomHuebert, I buy in bulk where appropriate for the four of us…can’t seem to get the family to eat 10 lbs of fruit in a week…well, maybe I could, but then we’d be using a lot of that TP! š
Robyn, believe me, I’m not that disciplined, so we’ll see what happens.
Jen, I can’t make it any cooler in the house until Cooper can keep himself warmer better. And he’s chubby enough without me adding even MORE layers to keep him from moving on his own! š
That looks a lot like my list of daily goals. I’ve succeeded on a few (the termostat, for example), but could definately get better on others.
One you didn’t have listed is to unplug things when they aren’t in use. I always used to leave my hair dryer plugged in. It’ll probably save me one cent per year, but there’s no reason to not pull the plug every day.
BTW, there are fluorescent bulbs with the itty bitty bases. I think I found them at Home Depot, but they were hard to spot. And expensive.
Darn that Cooper for getting in the way of your “get out of debt” goal. It would be a whole lot cheaper if you could get him to potty train now…
We all need to simplify, I guess. I’ve done the thing with the longer-lasting haircuts and lower-maintenance coloring myself.
Good luck with the jewelry biz!
Need versus want — we should all keep that in mind.
You might check with your pediatrician on the temperature thing. We put ours down to 67 at night (10-11pm) and it seems all of my kids actually sleep better when it’s cooler. We’ve always done this even when we had little babies (youngest is 20 months now)
[…] I try to get the best deal with that money.Ā But since my new year’s resolution is to get out of debt, I’ve gotten really strict about my spending in an attempt to become […]