Well, it is a month and a half into 2013. How are you doing with your New Year’s goal (I don’t call them resolutions) to save money? I know that I have been working hard to figure out how to cut more costs our of our daily lives and am doing well with it. Now, I am just cutting in order to counteract the rise in costs with having the baby. There are only so many ways you can lower your expenses, but if you have tried to think about what you can do, maybe I can help.
As you know, I am a fan of infographics. I mean, what is not to love? You get to learn things just from looking at a picture. Awesome, just plain awesome! Here is a great one from Quicken Loans that throws us 13 great tips to save money in 2013. There is nothing crazy here, but they break them down to show you what you can really save. At the end they show how much you could be saving in total, which amounts to $11,244! Now, I am a realist and since they are including refinancing savings in there, which not everyone can go out and do, I will subtract that and give you the real savings benefit from these tips.
$8,088
There you go, with these quality tips, you can shave off over $8,000 from your yearly bills. That is a good chunk of change that you could put into your retirement fund (Max out your Roth IRA and then put the rest in a high interest savings account if you don’t have any other investment vehicles). I don’t like throwing away money and neither should you. Make sure you are following some or all of these tips and save away!
An infographic from the team at Quicken Loans.
Great infographic. One of my buddies at work actually made the leap and cut his cable completely. Now he saves $100 per month and just watches everything 1-2 days later via the Internet through streaming. Not bad!
Thanks MMD. I did it and have been saving about $50 per month because I still have internet with my cable provider. I enjoy the monthly savings and don’t miss the crappy television station.
Good info graphic! I am actually running a very similar one on Thursday, so much so I had to check that it was not the same one…LOL! We’ve done a number of these things and since we work from home others don’t relate to us much. There not major cuts, but ones that when added up can save a nice little chunk of money.
There are so many good infographics out there, but I have posted a few that were the same as others. That is why I try to write my own opinion on it just to give it some content around the graphic. I look forward to reading yours John.
That is a great info graphic! It just goes to show how a few small changes can have a profound impact on your bottom line.
Thanks Glen. Yes, it does show you that you can really make changes by cutting things here and there.
A friend and I had been talking about carpooling but I’m not sure if that’s going to work out. It’s ridiculous how much it costs to drive places. We live on the outskirts of town and we have to drive 20+ miles (roundtrip) for nearly EVERYTHING. Going to the gym, the store, work, friends, etc.
We’re hoping to move sometime this year and I estimate it’ll save us at least $200-300/month! Not to mention the time…
I wish I could carpool, but I don’t have anyone living near me. It would be a waste to drive to my closest colleague’s house just to carpool with them.
Cool infographic. The bottled water piece especially makes me laugh, because the comedian Lewis Black does a great piece on the topic. Drinking out of the hose was fine when you were a kid until Pepsi and Coke started selling water. Then tap water was tainted and bad….and you needed 8 servings of bottled water a day to be healthy!
Yeah, I saw the piece that Lewis Black did. It made me laugh and I don’t even drink bottled water. I will if I can’t find a good water source around, but I don’t go out and purchase it. Most bottled water is actually city municipal water that they filter. Nothing more.
Magic Jack is available in Canada but the sound quality is terrible my work clients who have tried it always end up cancelling because the phone calls are so frustrating. My home phone is with my cable provider and is less than ten dollars per month and it is a very good quality.
I drink tap water but I am not giving up my cable. News is my vice and I love to flip channels. Fox news is not in my basic package and I would not pay extra for it.
Magic Jack is hit or miss and it really depends on your connection speed. I like the news and I don’t have cable because I get the news via an over the air antenna. It cost me $30 and I am set.
I’m trying to get W to stop drinking and smoking so much. It’s just so expensive and unhealthy!
yeah, those two habits are not only expensive, but just plain bad for your health. I do drink on occasion, but it is not much. Especially now, I just don’t have the tolerance like I used to.
Nice infographic! I am doing pretty good already, except bottled water, we do have a reusable 5 gallon tank that we fill every week so no plastic wasted but I would prefer tap water was drinkable.
Yeah, if tap water is not drinkable, then you have to resort to what you can do . It is good that you have a 5 gallon tank.
All good points and easy ways to reduce spending. I remember spending lots of money on bottles of water. Our tap water straight from the tap isn’t all that good for us, but we have a giant water cooler\filter in our kitchen that we use to run it through before drinking and it keeps it cold too.
We use a water filter on our tap, so the water is just fine and cheap. I mean, I already pay for it.
Not ready to cut the TV out at this point, but I did call and get it reduced by $15 per month, so better than nothing. I don’t spend much money on the other things, and we’ve already refinanced, but great info if you do have ways you can cut some of these things out.
Yeah, some people just don’t want to miss out on the cable shows. I have gotten used to it, but it is not for everyone.
I love this picture and I love saving! I don’t have cable and I wash all my items on cold/cold. I do however spend money on dry cleaning for key items and it is wayyyy to expensive!
Yeah, dry cleaning is very expensive
Great infographic; always enjoy them. Lots of great tips to adding some $$$ back into your hands. We play a game with the girls on our electric bill to see how much we can save. It has really helped them get better at turning off lights, etc.
That is an awesome idea for a game. Nice job incorporating everyone.
Nice infographic. It’s amazing how much you can save if you just look for areas to cut. Bottled water and washing in cold water are so easy you don’t really even need to think about it.
I have been washing in cold water ever since I started doing my own laundry. I don’t drink bottled water, so I always have those savings.
That’s an awesome info graphic. I agree on the bottled water, its’ way over priced and I can get it straight out of my tap for damn near free, and people keep on buying it.
I guess people don’t realize that they are probably just getting city municipal water that is filtered and sold at an enormous markup. You can’t fix stupid Chris.
Amazing infographic. I do agree with most of the stuff mentioned. Bottled water is not only expensive, but most of the people are not recycling the empty bottles. I have been trying to live a “green” life for almost two years now and it is not only good for the nature, it helps me save money. I do drink tap water, I walk to work, drink my coffee at home, etc.
Great infographic! I would love to cancel cable- I don’t watch much TV and with a kiddo by the time I do get around to watching something I like it’s DVR’d from like a week ago. Hubby loves TV/cable though and he does sort of need it for his blog (live sports) but I guess when you’re married you have to compromise on some things.
Yeah, you would need some live sports for a hockey blog. My wife and I are both on the same page, so it was easy to cancel cable.