Hey, folks. I'm thinking about writing a post describing unusual ways to save money -- things that people might not normally think of. We all know you can save cash by skipping the daily latte or by taking a sack lunch to work. What are some other lesser-known tips and tricks? (This question stems from one that a reporter asked me, but I didn't have a good answer.)

I don't spend any of my coins. At the end of the day, I put them in a jar. When the jar is fairly full, I'll watch tv and roll them. Then I hide them. Once many many rolls have accumulated, I take them to the bank, and put the money in my savings account.

My bank/credit union only has a few branches in my state, so I usually end up going to the bank around Christmas because I'm not going to take a day off work to turn in change.

The rolls really do add up.

i used to do that too.. my grandparents taught me the value of the penny.. my grandma would always tell me that "every penny counts".. i still have bottles full of coins at the house

but since i use mostly my debit card now.. i can avoid spare change in my life.. i hate the sound of that stuff jiggling in my pockets =D

Here's some of my little tricks to save money

1) I ignore any interest payments I get on my interest checking (2.5% of balance apy) and HYSA. I do this by not entering them into my monthly cash flow tracking excel sheet, where I enter my income and expenses.

2) I do the coin trick as well

3) I have a local bank with few ATMS, so I can't just withdraw cash and spend it mindlessly and not see it reported later on.

4) I use the extra veggies in my garden to barter with my neighbors for help on big physical tasks.

5) Rainbarrels + composting = free water and free fertilizer for the garden

6) I always plan long trips with right turns rather than idle at the light. See my post about how UPS does this to save millions a year.

7) Rather than buy umbrellas I always use, I use a big trash bag . I used to lose about 4 umbrellas a year.

If you just want 1 think in a multi-pack, buy it and resell the remainder if its possible.

When I was in my early 30s, I saved a lot of money by having half my paycheck deposited in a credit union that closed at 3pm every day and didn't have an ATM or online banking. The harder it is get at your money, the easier it is to save it. I use ING the same way now -- it takes time to transfer money back and forth between ING and my regular bank, so once it's in ING it rarely comes back out.

1) Call the Internet service provider and ask for the introductary rate / special rate for the next 6 months. Thats 14.95 saved for 6 months. (then I'll be calling again). Likewise, you can call your cell-provider and ask them for freebies. My husband and I are texting-averse, but we still get a few texts from friends and family. Now we get 10 free texts a month per phone, a savings of 3$ each month ($.15 per text).

2) Carpool to work. This seems obvious, but given my neighbor and I are the only ones I know who do it, it can be classified 'unusual'. I save 7$ each time we carpool.

3) Drink water at work in lieu of buying drinks. Keep Crystal light singles on hand for when you just don't want to drink water.

4) Tell your significant other that lab-created stones are preferrable to natural stones. I told my husband (boyfriend at the time) that I didn't want the traditional natural diamond ring. I preferred colored, lab created stones. This saved him a bundle, and in turn, we had more money pooled when we combined finances.

5) Print a pair of 20% off Borders coupons when you visit the store. We enjoy going on dates at Borders. Its an infrequent trip, but when we do we always print off a pair of coupons from their website.

Mr. Sam uses change from our change jar for eating out at work and trips to 7-11. I'm not sure we are really saving money on this one, but we are at least not spending more.

All the little money my 22-month-old daughter gets goes into an E-Trade account.

I'm talking about the $5 bills in the Easter card from Grandma type stuff.

She's already got $400 and she hasn't even had her 2nd birthday yet!

Ian

I'll look for bargains on some of the 'Sale a Day' sites or on the Clearance pages online. If I find something that strikes my fancy, I'll buy 2 of them, and then sell one on ebay. So if I find a nice pair of sunglasses online for $20, I'll buy 2 pairs, and sell one on ebay. Last time I did this, I sold the second pair for $46. So I made $6 and got a pair of sunglasses. I don't have this happen much, but if I find a deal, and I think I can sell the item, I'll do it. I've done it about 10 times, and haven't had a single time where I didn't end up with 'free' stuff.

E

I dont use A/C in the car - it eats the gas too much
(this comes from not having working A/C in any car I've ever owned until now)

If you have central air at home, do not run it. Have window units and only use in essential rooms/areas and only when people are actually using the room/area.

(of course, if it 100degrees this might not work. Think instead of having window only in the bedrooms, turn off the central air overnight at least. Use a 75 degree setting on 'energy saver' and a fan. Works fine)

JD - I dont know if you mean 'save money' as in cut expenses or 'save money' as in put some away.
If it is the latter: the quirky thing that works for me: Whenver I "save" money by forgoing a small luxury type item (like a Frappe or a book I want to purchase), I take the physical cash equivilant and put it into a savings acct. I also do this with the "amt saved" at the end of my grocery receipt that totals $ saved on coupons and specials. Many weeks it is $10 (with a total of $50-$70 of groceries bought). There was a time I piddled a few dollars away all the time unconsciously and didnt bother cutting coupons or checking specials. I set this system up as a reward - it was important to see the benefit of my "sacrifice".

I also take extra cash from my budget envelopes that is not used in the time period alloted and save them in my bulk liquid savings acct or in my 'trip' sub acct. It is a game to me of how low I can go, because the balance is going towards something useful.

Many of my beauty supplies come from the kitchen; that saves me quite a lot.
(ex: mix brown sugar and olive oil for a v. good skin exfoliater. Saves me at least $100-150/yr)

Also, as a rule, I've always put in any "extra" money into savings, no matter the amount.
For example - I get a Rite-Aid rebate check for $2.99 - savings.
Birthday money $200 - savings
$15 for taking care of my neighbor's dog - savings
Found $1 on the ground - savings
Taxes refunds and bonuses - obviously

Savings - even on the v. small amounts - is important because it is about action - no matter the outcome.

However, studies show that if you drive with your windows open, the drag created by that will actually eat more gas than you'd use by running the A/C. The faster you go, the worse the problem becomes. So if you're just driving around the city in stop-and-go traffic under 25-30 mph, you might save a bit by opening your car windows instead of using the A/C. But if you're going faster than that, you'll save gas by closing the windows and using the A/C. Or if it's not too hot, close the windows and just blast the fan.

Interesting. I only crack the windows anyway and mostly do city driving only.
I never knew it is lose-lose whichever you choose to do. I get over 30/gal w/o the a/c.

I burn gas much much faster if I use the A/C - losing 10 mi/gal. if my math is correct.

I don't have any numbers to add off the top of my head, but there is no way you loose 10miles/gallon from air conditioning. That's just not possible. It looks like 10% maximum which if you get 30miles/gallon w/o a/c on you would, at the very least, get 27miles/gallon w/ac.

EDIT - I found this online
Consumer Reports' auto-test department reports that the air conditioner reduces your car's fuel efficiency by up to 10 percent. So to achieve maximum fuel efficiency, motorists should avoid using the air conditioner at speeds below 40 mph and travel with their windows down, explains Gabe Shenhar, senior auto test engineer at Consumer Report's auto-test department.

"But as your speed increases to 45 mph, or highway speeds," says Jason Toews, co-founder of GasBuddy.com, "wind drag becomes an issue. Driving with the windows down increases the drag on your vehicle, resulting in decreased fuel economy by up to 10 percent. Drive at speeds over 55 mph with windows down and you'll decrease fuel economy by up to 20 percent or greater."

I could see a reporter asking this, since most people have already heard "pack your own lunch and don't drive so much". But I don't really know of many good, "secret" tricks where you aren't hitting serious diminishing returns. I'll put in a tip anyway.

Depending on your living situation, it might make sense to collect recycling. I live in a studio near a family so we share a recycling can and the brilliant people at the waste management company only unload bi-weekly (compared to weekly for regular trash) so every other Wednesday sees recyclables blowing all over the street because everyone has the same problem. So I got tired of seeing the trash pile up outside my door (which is close the can) and I started pulling out anything with a redemption value (mine or theirs). It's only a few bucks a week, but it's a nice bonus to keeping extra room in the recycling container.

Ryan

Pretend you don't need all sorts of modern conveniences & packaged products. Because we're having a baby and planning on doing cloth diapering, we went whole hog and switched to cloth TP. Seriously. It's total luxury compared to all that paper (the more women in your house, the bigger the savings). Also, reduce your paper towel usage. Stop thinking of things like ziploc bags as trash. We're not martyrs - I don't rewash ziploc bags all the time, but I'll reuse the one that I use store veg scraps for stock for more scraps, etc. If they're not gross, they get reused!

If something really bugs you, or is just too difficult, switch back. But give some things a try & use your imagination.