Last time I list 10 ways I waste money.  Now I’d like to mention a few of the ways I save money.

  1. Play online computer games- My wife and I are both casual gamers.  We enjoy a wide variety of games but mostly we play the online game World of Warcraft.  Our choice to play is economical as well as for entertainment.  We’d each easily go through a new game each every month.  That would be about $100 plus tax every month.  World of Warcraft only costs us about $26 for both of us.  That’s a pretty substantial savings for daily entertainment.
  2. Driver slower - As I mention earlier I like to drive fast.  I used to push 80 mph on my commute to work.  Over time I’ve gotten into the habit of only doing 75 mph.  This is still fast but my average gas mileage went from 30 mpg to 35 mpg.  I’ve’ tried other speed and found my mpg  to be about 34 mpg at 65 mph and 36 mpg at 70 mph. 
  3. Telecommute - My long commute to work can be a real drag.  Especially since I spend most of it on the 2 worst freeways in the Bay Area.  But luckily my boss does not care where I work as long as I get my work done.  This mean I telecommute whenever possible which is 2 - 3 times a week.  This reduces my gas bill by about 25% and keeps me under the 12,000 mile per year limitation that most auto insurance companies have for standard auto coverage.
  4. Use online bill pay from my bank - My bank provides me with free online bill pay.  We have 10 - 15 bills to pay every month.  With bill we just log onto our banks website, select when vendors we want to pay and fill in the amount.  Once we hit the send button the bills are as good as paid.  The bills are usually paid electronically the next day.  If the vendor does not except electronic payment the bank mails them a check at no additional cost.  No having to mess with writing checks, making sure everything is in the write envelope, or ensuring everything has the correct postage.
  5. Buy lunch from the lunch truck - I can get lunch from the lunch truck for $5.  They have a wide selections the quality is decent and there is plenty of food in every serving.  If I went out to eat someplace it cost be more.  Even fast food in the are cost more than $5 per meal.
  6. Auto deposit savings into high interest account - Every paycheck I have half my mortgage payment, my monthly savings, and the monthly portion of long term bills auto deposited into my savings account.  This saves me time and increases the interest I receive because I don’t have to do it myself.  I rounded the amount I need to set aside every paycheck up to the nearest $10 dollars.  This means I am saving a little extra every month. 
  7. Use the local library - We check out books from the local library instead of buying books.  The kids enjoy picking out a different story or project book every 2 or 3 weeks.  And we can find finance, self help or reference books when we want them without having the expense for storing a bunch of books at home or the cost per book what can be considerable.
  8. Eat dinner at home- We used to eat 3 - 4 times a month for around $120 per month.  Several month ago my wife found out she had Celiac Disease so we had to stop eating out.  Her reacts like she’s been poisoned whenever she eats anything with wheat glutton.  Our grocery bill went up about $25 per month when we stopped eating out.  But I’d gladly payout $25 per month instead of $120.
  9. Do my own home repairs - Doing our own home repairs is easy and has saved use thousands of dollars.  Contractors are expensive and can be unreliable if you have not worked with them before.  We even managed to buy our home for about 10% below market value because we traded our labor in remodeling the house for a lower price.
  10. Pay mortgage on time or early - Like most other home owners in the Bay Area we have a large mortgage.  Interest on our mortgage costs use about $59 a day.  Mortgage interest is based on the total unpaid principle remain on your loan.  When you make your mortgage payment the unpaid principle is reduced which decreasing the interest cost of the loan per day.  The decrease is at most a few cents but only time these pennies add up.  The savings is not substantial but it does help in the long run.
  11. Pay off credit card every month - We pay for nearly everything on our rewards credit card.  The credit card is paid off every month without exception.  We have a simple rule.  If we can’t pay for something right now we don’t buy it. 
  12. No magazine or newspaper subscriptions- We do a lot of reading of our house but none of us like magazines or newspapers.  We used to get the local paper and a magazine or two but found we rarely read them.  They would also clutter up the house.  So we cancelled all our subscriptions.  Now we get our news and info of things of interest from the internet.