| Smart Money-Saving Tips You Need Now |
 Food Cooking for yourself can be fast and easy, as well as surprisingly cheap. Try online recipe finders for meals that use what you already have in your fridge. Make enough for a few days, and then use the leftovers in sandwiches for work the rest of the week. Eating at your desk could save you more than $100 a month. Transportation If going to the gas station makes you cringe, make sure your car is in top shape with a tune-up. Fixing any serious maintenance problems can improve your gas mileage by as much as 40 percent. Becoming a better driver can help you save money, too. Smooth braking and acceleration, as well as slower driving, will improve your mileage and keep money in your wallet. Energy You'll feel better about your monthly utility bills, and also the environment, when you take small steps to cut your energy use. Start by replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. Though CFLs cost more at the store, they don't need to be replaced as frequently and can save your household hundreds of dollars over their life spans. Budgeting It pays to educate yourself so that you can make informed decisions about budgeting, investing, and other aspects of your finances. Simple steps like automating your bill payments can help you avoid late fees and damage to your credit score. Ken McDonnell, director of the American Savings Education Council, recommends that you start by cataloging every expense you incur in an average week to learn exactly where your money goes. The results may surprise you. Entertainment Even though saving money is serious stuff; you can still have fun on a tight budget. Try renting movies and cozying up on the couch with friends or loved ones, and get inexpensive, designer-like clothing worth bragging about. When traveling, picnic lunches can be fun and tasty, and if your sense of adventure dictates a vacation abroad, look a little farther afield, to where the dollar is doing better. Then, sit back and relax on the beach in Thailand, where about 31 baht to your hard-saved dollar will have bought you an unforgettable vacation. Four Easy Ways to Be a Freegan Conventional wisdom states that dumpster-diving is for the homeless. Freegans, however, are a small anti-consumerist group who won't allow anything useful to go to waste—to the point where middle-class environmentalists can be found scavenging the trash bins of grocery stores for the still-good food thrown out every day. Some of them even chronicle their finds on the Web, boasting of spending only a few dollars on food each month and furnishing their homes for free, often to the dismay of store owners who see them as scavengers. Thankfully, you don't have to dumpster-dive to subscribe to the freegan philosophy and reap the cost-saving benefits. Here are a few tips for accessible—and considerably less smelly—freeganism: Need a couch, or tennis racket or tea kettle? Rather than buying a new one, check the free listings on Craigslist or Freecycle. Often, people who are moving or spring cleaning put gently used belongings on the site, free to anyone willing to trek to their place and pick it up. It's far better than the environmental effects of the manufacturing, packaging, and transport that go into a new tea kettle, and if it breaks after two months, you never paid a dime for it, so who cares? Just search the site for another one. Be wary of searching Google for offers of free stuff, though—they might come with strings attached, like making you sign up for a credit card or other promotion. It's best to stick to local sites. Remind yourself that one man's trash is another's treasure, and check with your friends and family while doing any massive closet or garage cleanouts. If you and your friends are similar in size (or your kids are), host a family party where you swap all the clothes you were going to pitch. Anything unclaimed by the end of the night goes to charity, and you'll end up with a few new outfits if you're lucky. The same theory goes for neighborhood-wide yard sales, where you might be able to swap a mismatched lamp for some new picture frames. You could also join a swap group, like these listed on meetup.com or on flickr. Before you go, check out our tips for effective bartering. This tip comes courtesy of a clever colleague, who always keeps an assortment of Tupperware at her desk. Whenever there's a work happy hour or party where there will inevitably be more food than people, she makes a beeline for the Tupperware and packages up all the leftovers before they get to the garbage. This way, a veggie platter and shrimp tray becomes the makings of tomorrow's stir-fry dinner. I employed a similar method in college at huge university-wide picnics, where I'd stash leftover soda cans in a backpack. Intercept food before it makes its way to the trash, and you're a far cleverer freegan. Look on the Web for free events in your city or town—a newspaper's listings or city guide will tell you where they are. If you take advantage of free concerts, street festivals, outdoor film showings, and other events, you'll pick up new interests and also have more money for paying the bills—or to put toward eco-friendly purchases, like organic products. Search a local listing, or a site like eventful.com, for the keyword free. For the best “freebie” of all, cuddle up with your loved ones and enjoy their company.
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