Since it’s the New Year I thought we could all use some money saving tips. So here are ten of my favorites:
1. Cook instead of eating out. Considering how expensive it is to eat out, try cooking at home more. It’s cheaper and you are eating more healthful especially since you know what you are cooking and what you are putting into it.
2. If you have direct deposit with your job have them take a hundred dollars from your paycheck and have it sent to a Credit Union or your savings account. If you don’t have direct deposit have your bank do an automatic withdrawal from your checking account and putting it in your savings account on the same day you are paid. And if you want to be really old school put twenty dollars a week in an envelope and keep it put away. Regardless of how you do it the money is gone so you won’t miss it and you’ll be surprised at how quickly it adds up.
3. If you like movies go on cheap nights. Most theaters note only offer matinee pricing but usually once a week, typically a Monday or Tuesday the tickets will be about half the cost of what they would be on a Friday or Saturday.
4. Along with cooking at home, double your recipe so you have leftovers to take for lunch. If you can save the $10 for lunch each day that is about $200 a month you are saving. Even if you don’t like, or have leftovers, make a sandwich and take a piece of your favorite fruit, it’s a lot cheaper than eating out everyday.
5. This is a big one. Make your coffee at home before you go to work and take it in a travel mug. You can still go out of your Starbucks once in a while but at $5 (on average) for one Starbuck’s coffee the cost adds up. It’ll surprise you how much you can save even if you just cut out one or two Starbucks a week.
Bonus. Buy what you can in bulk; laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, meat, cheese, cereal, milk, coffee, etc. These are things you’re going to use and when you buy them in small amounts can cost you a lot, but in bulk it will save you money.
These are all tips that Eric and I use (with the exception of the coffee we don’t drink coffee) and we’ve saved a lot of money. It won’t make you rich, but it will sure help keep the money in the wallet. If you have any tips, share them below.
Writing Update:
What a busy start of the year I’ve had. As you all know I had my book launch for The Calling this month and had an amazing write up in the San Jose Mercury News (click here for the article). I also, had my first ever Blog Tour thank you to IndiGo Marketing. If you want to check out each days stop, click on the day below:
Day One: The Blogger Girls
Day Two: Love Byters Reviews
Day Three: Queer Sci Fi
Day Four: Divine Magazine
Day Five: The Novel Approach
I also took some much-needed time off. Eric and I went down to Disneyland for a week. We hung out with some family and some amazing friends. It was a great break. Here are a couple fun pictures from our trip if you want to suffer through and check them out.
While I was on vacation, I got to finish The Stark Divide (Liminal Sky Book 1) by J. Scott Coatsworth. Its a wonderful story and such a joy to read. If you want to check out my review of the novel click here. This is a must read if you love Science Fiction. It has something for everyone. Buy it here.
For a quick writing update I wanted to share that, at this moment my publisher is evaluating A New World – Contact and I’m hoping to have more information on that soon. I’m also working on book two of my New World Series and I’m over a three-quarters of the way through.
Which means, I’ll be working on the sequel to The Calling in the coming months. I have the second book outlined and I’m working on the finer points of the plot, but that doesn’t mean everything is set in stone. So if there something special you would like to see in book two of The Calling now’s your chance to weigh in. You can make your suggestions below in the comments section. Please try to avoid spoilers. Let’s have a little fun with this.
Until next week have a great week.