With the New Year still young, it may be less about saving this year and about doing more with what you have. WFAA's "Money Saver" Laura Thornquist gives some insider savings tips on how to do just that.
Surveys are finding people want to have fun, but how do we do that and keep our pocketbooks in order?
Let's take a look at ways to get started on a great plan at stretching our dollar on day-to-day living items.
It doesn't have to take a lot of personal time to shave just 25 percent to 50 percent off your budget. First, learn to use coupons, either printable or mobile. Some of the top places to find these include Coupons.com, RedPlum and SmartSource.
Get your Sunday newspaper and hang on to those coupons.
Check in each week on my site, where we will review grocery match-ups with coupons from many major stores including Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Tom Thumb, Walgreens, CVS and more.
When it comes to entertaining and eating out, last week we talked about ways to save at restaurants. For entertainment, remember to get your free Studio Movie Grill tickets, which are still available on Facebook.
Blockbuster Express and Red Box often share free movie codes, and you get free codes just for registering your e-mail accounts.
Finally, Netflix is offering one month free right now; so you might want to jump on that deal, too!
You even have ways that we can make money on the Internet while we are looking to save. If you're online a lot, you may as well earn while you're searching. SwagBucks is a great tool to do just that. You just sign up and use Swag Bucks as your browser, like Google, gives you free money that you can turn into gift cards for places like Starbucks and Amazon.
Most of my Christmas was paid for from SwagBucks.
If you have young ones in diapers, make sure and sign up for Pampers Gifts to Grow and Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards programs, where you can earn points towards freebies. Since you're buying them anyway, you may as well be rewarded, right?
Don't forget to check out Freecycle.org and Freepeats.org, which are great ways to get things for free. And, if you want to borrow a big ticket item, check out ShareSomeSugar.com.
Finally, if you need help with managing your money, check out Mint.com, which is free money management software and a great tool I use to help set my budget every month.
