• Grocery Shopping
1) Plan a week’s meals in advance and make a shopping list around that.
2) Do your grocery shopping just once a week.
3) Bring the list AND FOLLOW IT to cut down on impulsive buying.
4) Plan your meals around what is on sale.
5) Buy store brands.
6) Stay away from frozen meals – you get very little food for the price.
7) Decrease the amount of soda your family drinks
8) Don’t buy pre-cut meats or other foods – you pay extra if the market cuts it for you.
9) Leave the kids at home when you shop!
10) Don’t eat meat every night -Great veggie recipes at www.cooks.com/rec/ch/vegetables.html and www.soup.betterrecipes.com/vegetariansouprecipes.html.
11) Pick fresh fruits and vegetables in your area - www.localharvest.org.
12) Quick, cheap and easy recipes at www.cheapcooking.com.
• Dining Out
1) Cut back the number of meals outside the house to one a week.
2) Choose less expensive restaurants.
3) Skip the soda or alcohol and dessert – unnecessary expense AND calories.
4) Cut out your fancy morning coffee; bring an extra cup from home or make it at the office.
5) Make brown bag lunches for work and school.
• Transportation costs
1) Keep tires properly inflated. It keeps you safe and costs less on gas.
2) Drive your car longer. The buy new versus used debate often overlooks the most important factor–how long you own your car. Drive it as long as you safely can for substantial savings.
3) Take advantage of VT alternative transportation options - www.facilities.vt.edu/ot/alternative/
4) Eligible employees can talk with supervisors about part time telework.
• Other tips
1. Cut down on movies at the theater. The typical expense for one person, including ticket, popcorn and drink, is about $15.
2. Borrow DVDs (and books ) for free from the library. They’re only a few months behind Blockbuster.
3. Unplug your home computer when it’s not in use. It is estimated that you can save more than $20 per month. And unplug chargers for cell phones, music players and other devices when not in use; that’s about $10 per month each.
4. Shop sales only for new clothes. Before you buy, see if Goodwill has something you like almost as much for a fraction of the expense.
5. Pass on extended warranties. A $129 two year extension on a $300 product is just not worth it. Warranties are insurance, and we rarely need to insure such a small amount.
6. Reduce the water used in flushing your toilet. Insert a half-gallon milk container, weighted with sand or pebbles, in the tank. For details visit www.wikihow.com/Convert-Any-Toilet-to-a-Low-Flush-Toilet.
Stay well to reduce trips to the doctor: Wash your hands frequently, eat right, sleep well and don’t smoke. Good health is money in the bank.
7. Don’t pay interest on credit cards. This is obvious, but I soon as you fail to pay off the credit card in full, the high interest payments start to eat away at your monthly budget. If the temptation to spend more than you can pay on a credit card is to great, get rid of the credit card (and ignore the previous tip!).
8. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFLs) bulbs. These bulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer. They do take some getting used to, and they won’t work in every light fixture. But use them where it makes sense and save energy and money.
9. Air-dry Dishes: Instead of using the drying cycle on your dishwasher, just set it to clean only, and open the door when the dishwasher is done. The wire racks in the dishwasher can conveniently double as drying racks, and you�ll save the energy it would have taken to dry all your dishes.
10. Wash Whites on Warm, Not hot: Unless you or a member of your household is an athlete, or particularly stinky, your whites will probably turn out just as clean on the warm setting as they did on the hot setting, and you save your water heater from having to heat up several galleons of water to max temperature.