Some more money savers that I conjured up... :)

I posted this article a short while ago, outlining a few simple tips to save a few bucks each day.
For any international visitors who are perhaps a trifle confused at this point, I am not talking about wildlife conservation here. Bucks = South African Rands. :)

Since then, I have picked up on a few more ways that may help you out somewhere along the line - I know I sure as hell keep trying :)

- Make your own lunch for work:

Image via Wikipedia

This may or may not apply to you, depending on your personal work context...

However, if you are someone who regularly (perhaps daily?) heads over to KFC, Steers, Macdonalds (Burger King if you are in the USA :) etc... to pick up a quick lunch, then this is a total no-brainer:

1. Before the week begins, buy a loaf of bread and something to put on it, some fruit maybe and a selection of snacks;
2. Come Monday morning, take 10 minutes before work to pack yourself a homemade lunch;
3. Enjoy your lunch a great deal more than you normally would;
4. Marvel at the amount of money that you suddenly save daily;
5. Marvel at the decreased indigestion post-lunch... ;)

Sure, it is going to cost you initially to buy the ingredients required for lunch, but trust me, it will be nowhere near what you would normally be spending on fast food (which probably leaves you feeling shoddy anyway)...

- Delay the take-away... :)
This kinda follows on from the previous tip - if you are someone who frequently gets take aways to avoid having to cook at home, then this is for you.
It's pretty simple - make those take-away pizzas / ribs / burgers that you love so much, a weekly / monthly treat, rather than a regular occurrence.
It is all too easy to pop out and pick up take-aways, and don't they always just taste so damn good?!

Give it a try it though - next time you habitually find yourself heading for take-aways, stop for a second and think: "What do I have to eat at home...?".
Something quick out of the freezer? Perhaps whip up some pasta?
This doesn't mean that you need to cook a complicated dish in place of take-aways - the point is to save money by eating food that you already have.

The other benefit of this, is that take-aways will once again re-establish themselves as a novelty in your life - a treat that you look forward to - and when take-away time does come around, you will just enjoy it that much more :)


- Resist the urge to check your email on your cellphone...

Image by KhE 龙 via Flickr

I confess. Guilty as charged.

This is one that I struggle with daily, sometimes hourly... :)

Having email on hand at all hours is a fantastic new way to work, what with Smartphones now being able to deliver our email no matter where we are or what the time.
The flip side though, is the trap of becoming obsessive about this.
By obsessive, I mean checking your email on your phone all the time - something which as I said before, I have struggled with personally.

Now unless you own a Blackberry, repetitive checking of your email can soon add up to a decent chunk of cash being spent on your data bill... sometimes a few hundred bucks... and for what?
Added stress. Yup - that's all that you are getting for your money.

Try and get into the habit of checking your email on your phone slightly less frequently - start out small if you are a hardcore email checking machine... :)
It is tough - trust me I know, but just equate this to how much hard cash you are spending (wasting...?).

It's that simple.

Related articles

• Easy Ways to Save Money, Anyone Can Do It (socyberty.com)
• Be smart about buying a smartphone (money.cnn.com)
• Can Once-a-Month Cooking Really Work? (thesimpledollar.com)
• Lunch Hour (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Do Teens Need Smartphones? (lockergnome.com)
• Life Before Smartphones? (markevanstech.com)
• Cheap and Healthy Vegetarian Eats in Melbourne, Australia (nzausoceaniatravel.suite101.com)
• Kids Lunchboxes Made Easy Peasy (scrapsofmygeeklife.com)
• How to Pack a Healthy Lunch for You and Your Children (fyiliving.com)
• Money Saving Lunch Tips for School or Work (socyberty.com)

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Some easy ways to save a few bob...

I was thinking about ways I could reduce the amount of money I spend each month, and the more I thought about it, the more I realised some obvious ways in which I could easily save a few ZAR each and every day... (for those readers outside of South Africa, ZAR = South African Rands) :)

...collect enough of these and it all soon adds up...

- Take that call:
This one is not immediately obvious as a money saver. Ever had your cellphone ring at exactly the wrong moment? Maybe you just aren't in the mood to speak to that person right now...?
Trouble is, if you let the call go to voicemail, you will most likely have to return that same call at some point - at your own cost of course.
So unless you are driving, or otherwise engaged in an activity which makes it totally unreasonable to answer the phone, rather take the call as it rings, and save yourself a few rand in the process.
Take it - they pay.
Leave it - you pay.

- Chill out on the roads:
Most people spend a fair amount of time in their car, driving to and from work and all over the place.
Unfortunately driving on the road nowadays can be misunderstood to mean "treat it like a racetrack" or "licence to act like a toolkit"... you get the idea.
Often when stressed out or late for an appointment, people also tend to drive in a far more urgent manner than they normally would - which translates directly into higher fuel consumption and more wear and tear on the vehicle.
So next time you feel the urge to put your foot flat on the road (for no good reason other than to go fast), just take a second to translate that brief moment of speed, into hard cash... coming out of your own pocket.

Hey you might even get a few less speeding fines!

- Suppliers should come to you... wherever possible:
Do you run your own business?
Do you use suppliers of services and / or stock?
This is great one to use on a daily basis - a supplier, by definition is somebody who supplies something. This can be goods, a service, anything that you need for your business to work.
Being a supplier, then means that they should be more than happy to deliver their product or service directly to you.
The costs involved in always collecting from suppliers can quickly add up for a small business, and getting them to come to you will help to reduce this unnecessary expense big time.

- Make it a habit to switch off anything you don't need right now:
Eskom recently dropped a bomb on the average Joe in the street, with crazy hikes in the price of electricity in the months of June and July.
Truth is, most of us act in a very wasteful manner when dealing with electricity.
So, starting today, right now in fact, take note of any electronics around you that can be switched off if they are not being used.
This includes lights, hifi's, laptops, printers, geysers (if not being used for a day or more), radios (often left on more out of habit than for enjoyment), and even cellphone chargers (which, although not much, do consume electricity just by being plugged in).
Do it a few times and soon it will become a habit - something that you just do without thinking about it.

In addition to being more "green", you will be saving yourself a few bob each month as well.
You just can't lose! :)

I will continue to update this post as I conjur up more easy ways to save those sought-after rands and cents...
Got a decent money-saving tip? Feel free to share it by posting a comment.

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