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Money Saving Tips
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- Money
Saving Tips
- By Judy & Dan Farrell
1. Holiday Gift Giving
This tip is especially helpful
for large families. Although it is fun buying for and receiving
from everyone, it can be very expensive. Make an agreement with
your family that you will continue to buy for the children but
that the adults will go with a name exchange. This way the children
are not disappointed and you can spend a little more on one or
two people rather than spreading your money thin. For the members
that you did not pick to exchange with, bake a loaf of their
favorite homemade bread or cookies.
2. Clearance
Always head straight for the
clearance rack where you can find amazing bargains. Sometimes
you may have to dig a little to find the right item but the savings
will be well-worth your time. Most clearance racks offer variety,
current trends, and great value. For example, Bed, Bath &
Beyond has a clearance section where you can find all kinds of
wonderful household items for a fraction of the original cost.
3. Thrift / Surplus Stores
Unfortunately, thrift and surplus
stores have been given a bad rap. Many of these stores are filled
with hundreds of top quality items. Name brand merchandise is
easy to find but just like clearance racks, it takes some time
to find.
Find a thrift or surplus store
close to where you live and then plan spending some time to find
those outstanding bargains. One woman in Kansas City, Missouri
located such a store about 20 minutes from her home. After shopping
through every isle over the period of two hours, she walked out
of the store with eight huge garbage bags filled to the brim
with designer clothes for her and her children, many with the
original tags still attached. She even found a couple of Liz
Claiborne suits for herself at $5.99 each and a Dooney &
Burke purse normally valued at $225 for $19.95. Her children
had an entire season of school clothes and best of all, she paid
less than $200.
4. Wrapping Paper and Bows
Create your own wrapping paper,
which is not only unique, but also fun. Use plain brown grocery
bags and craft-like paints to make your design. After wrapping
the gift, let your creative juices flow. For example, using black
and yellow craft paint, create a miniature road. Then dipping
toy truck tires into red paint roll them along the paper making
tire tracks. You can then draw free hand a stop sign, yield sign,
or stop light.
Next, using a hot glue gun,
glue a couple of the miniature trucks to the paper. This is perfect
for a young boy. He will be just as thrilled with the wrapping
as the actual gift.
For a girl, you can simply
create miniature bows from existing fabric or lace and glue them
on brown paper then free hand draw colorful flowers.
Just use your creativity and
look around for items you already have on hand to use.
5. Reuse
When you shop, look for items
that can be reused. Rechargeable batteries are a perfect example.
Even though the initial purchase may be more than non rechargeable
batteries, there is a definite savings over a long period.
Another option would be to
purchase a nice artificial Christmas tree. Many of the current
artificial trees look amazingly real and with the right lights
and ornaments, you can change the look from year to year.
*** "Well...Whaddya
Think? ***
Those are some great money
saving ideas, aren't they? Most of which I bet you never even
thought of, yet they are all so simple to do. Think of how far
you could stretch your budget throughout the course of a year
with just these first 15 ideas!
Luckily for you, we are not
done yet. Not by a long shot!
_______________________________________
To get the rest of the 101
Ways To Save Money, send any email to: grocery_saver-SUBSCRIBE@isoresponder.com
Don't forget to drop by http://www.1st-in-saving-money.com
and grab a copy of "Slash Your Grocery Bill" It's
your complete guide to cutting your own grocery bill down to
size, by at least 30%, GUARANTEED!
- _______________________________________
ARTICLE POSTED
NOVEMBER 27, 2005
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