Control spending

How to Keep Heating Bills Low This Winter

January 6, 2012
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How to Keep Heating Bills Low This Winter

This holiday we had a visitor, an old friend from my childhood.  He and his family currently live in Michigan. While Florida presented them a welcome change of weather, they in turn gave me this frugal story of theirs to keep home heating bills under control.  I was pondering this idea for last few days and ultimately asked for his suggestion. Having a reputation in our dorm for his legendary frugality, this friend of mine is the ultimate authority in cost cutting. Here are some of the techniques he suggests employing at your residence. When using electricity When your thermostat is the one and only option to warm your home. Controlling the thermostat Set it a few degrees lower than you normally do in winter. This will require less energy consumption to heat your home.  If you cannot turn off the heat while you are away, consider setting the thermostat even lower. This will help in lowering the heating bills as well as maintaining a suitable temperature in the house. Ensure proper room insulation Ensure energy is not leaking through the windows. Check and make sure the windows and doors are completely sealed and there’s no space under the doors. The windows should

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It Is Difficult To Live Frugal But Not Hard

July 11, 2011
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It Is Difficult To Live Frugal But Not Hard

Few days back my car was serviced, after dropping it in, we headed for a festival we planned to attend. It was just a regular servicing with oil change and tire rotation and inspection. The guy from the service center called me an hour later to let me know that the wiper blades need replacement. It was nothing I didn’t know, it was long pending, I always wanted to do it myself. Don’t know what happen in that exact moment, I agreed that they should replace my blades. Problem here is, after reading on many blogs, and myself pitching for fixing your small problems with car or home yourself. I did agree for them to put a new wiper. When I returned to pickup my car in the evening, it was a hefty $25 charge on the invoice! Two years back when I did replace wipers on my own, it costed me $8 for the pair at Wal-Mart. How did I miss on this occasion? If I think, problem is broader, it is difficult to stay frugal. It is comparatively easy to stay frugal when you are living frugal to survive, than when you choose to be frugal to be rich. If

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Tips To Stay Away From Impulse Buying

July 1, 2011
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Tips To Stay Away From Impulse Buying

This is part of the series of posting to inspire you to be rich one cent at a time. As I said earlier, the term ‘rich‘ has many poly morphs, Monetarily rich, Emotionally rich, Socially rich and Spiritually rich Today we will cover the aspect of being monetarily rich,  My blog has maximum content on monetary richness compared to other forms of richness. You can be rich by earning more money, you can be monetarily rich by saving more money. You can save more money by spending less. One of the biggest contributor of spending money is impulse buying or emotional buying.     How many times you got excited at an offer and bought it instantly only to find it useless later? Controlling emotion is not tough, you can easily do it. Always remember, If you feel the need for buying something only after seeing an ad or hearing someone talking about, it is not the thing you absolutely want. A mere $20 save every year for 30 years (assuming you have 30 years more to retire), will give you 1481.65 back at 5% interest rate. If you are in love of that shoe on display, just mentally think

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