How To Save Money

Here are my 5 best ideas on how just about anyone in the US can make some extra money today:

Cancel Your Cable Television - Follow the 12% of Americans who are expected to cut their cable television this year. Use Redbox, Over the Air HDTV, or create your own internet tv box.

Cancel Your Phone Line and use a VOIP service - Purchase a phone number on Skype or buy an Ooma device for free unlimited phone calls. Paypack should be in less than 12 months and could result in more than $25 a monthly in savings depending on your current phone bill.

Open a Brokerage Account with a promotion Sharebuilder typically offers new customers a $50 bonus when you open an account and make a $4 trade. Open an account with a promotion code, deposit $50 account and invest it in an index fund and earn $50. Get a promotion code

Open a 529 College Savings Account with a promotion - Open a CollegeAdvantage 529 account with referral code (for anyone), invest $25 and earn a $25 bonus.

Take Advantage of Credit Card Promotions - Take advantage of 0% balance transfers, new credit card signup bonuses, or incentives to use existing credit cards.

Related in Free Money:

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Comments (6)

Great tips. I'm always looking for new ways to save money and these are things I could be doing. With 2 kids almost ready for college (and a dog who eats more than I do!), every penny counts. I'm sure not making any in the stock market these days.

Posted by Printable Coupon | June 10, 2010 3:49 PM

The 529 savings plan doesn't actually seem to be that great a savings. Or is that just me?

Posted by Joe | June 11, 2010 6:17 PM

Hey, really enjoy the blog....been reading for years. My wife and I are about the same age as you and I think we're both similar when it comes to our financial status and overall financial thinking. So I made the switch this last week and decided to cancel cable. The final straw was when the cable company wanted to start charging $2/month for the remote control....crazy!?! Plus we're expecting our first child and it makes sense to save a little extra. I wanted to let you know about a program that I believe is way, way better than Hulu.com's desktop application. It's called Boxee and its completely free. It taps into the content that is freely available from ABC, NBC, CBS, Hulu.com, Comedy Central, and more (you get the idea). The interface is simply amazing and has made it really, really easy for us to make this switch. I just have a computer hooked up to the TV through HDMI and another cool feature is I can use my iPod touch as the remote control for it! Wanted to share our experience and especially because of the timing of this post. You'll have to check it out....thanks for everything!

-Ryan

Posted by Ryan | June 13, 2010 5:33 PM

Ryan, Thanks for the tip on Boxee - I had tried Boxee when I first installed Hulu Desktop, but found the videos didn't stream as well. I might give it another try.

Posted by 2million | June 13, 2010 9:22 PM

I really like all your advice, the cable one is probably most practical and easiest. I especially like the credit card one. Although it may be controversial to put everything on your credit card, it does give you excellent benefits.

This is actually what I do; and about every few months or so I have enough points to give myself a $100 gift card. If you are the type of person that can have control over your expenses (most of the time, and be honest with yourself) then it is probably a great idea to use your credit card to your advantage.

If however you know that you probably won't have that control next time you go to the department store, credit cards may not be that great of an incentive.

Posted by Wahid Hussaini | June 17, 2010 12:18 AM

Cutting Cable is a BIG money saver. A great alternative to all those premium channels is getting a Netflix subscription. You can stream unlimited videos (and television programs like LOST) to your TV over a Wi-fi connection. Using a Wii, PS3, X-box360, or any wi-fi capable blu-ray player.

I don't get anything from netflix for suggesting them, but I have saved an incredible amount of money by using them instead of blockbuster or cable.

Posted by David Justin Bibby | June 29, 2010 4:32 PM