How to Save Money

[My Own Eyes]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

We don't use credit cards, generally. I do have a Target card, but we keep it paid off, and I use it mainly to buy Jeff birthday gifts or Christmas gifts, so he can't watch it come out of the main account. It makes me feel like "I" am the one actually buying the gifts....LOL!!!!!

Other than that...and our mortgage & truck payment...cash for everything. It's a great way to live!!!!! You have to plan to spend, and planning greatly reduces the actual amount spent!

Another way to save LOADS of money in the long term is to have your mortgage set up to pull out payments twice a month instead of once a month. Setting our mortgage up that way immediately reduced our 30 year note to 23 years (as long as you stay enrolled in the program), and any extra money we pay toward principle reduces it even further.

The downside is you have to pay a small enrollment fee (ours was $75), and you have to get 1 payment ahead. However, that seems miniscule if you think of the interest it saves you. We plan to tack on an extra $75-$100 to our payment starting next year, (goes to principle only) which will knock it down even further. (And significantly)

Actually for the financially disciplined it's better to do that on your own rather than pay to enroll in the program. Just calculate what the extra amount the 2 week plan would allow you to pay, and then divide that by 12 and tack it on as a principal only payment to your monthly mortgage payment (and save yourself the 75 bucks). The added benefit is that in case of a financial hardship, you can momentarily go back to paying the regular payment.

The other thing I did to save myself money on my mortgage (and again this only works for the financially disciplined), when I recently refinanced my mortgage (due to the divorce), I chose not to escrow my taxes and homeowner's insurance. Instead, I "pay" my escrow payment every month into a high interest savings account (such as ingdirect). At the end of the year, I get to pocked the 3% interest I earned on that money, rather than my mortgage company.

I also do that with my taxes to the government. I chose to have the least amount of taxes possible taken out of my paycheck. Sure, I have to pay money in every year, but once again, I got to earn interest on it, and not the government.