Tips To Help You Save During The Fall Months

Fall is an especially good time to think about savings.  With the traditional back-to-school in September, children and adults alike can “turn over a new leaf” to start fresh.  The household budget is a great place to start, suggests Nationwide Biweekly Administration.

The air conditioner can finally be turned off in the fall; it’s also a great time to prepare the house for the cold months ahead.  Be sure to change air filters regularly to help your unit run more efficiently and consider closing vents in unused rooms.  NBA says that fall is a great time to check out insulation deficiencies and to fix drafty windows and doors.  Weatherize your house by caulking and weather-stripping doors and windows.  Setting your thermostat to a maximum of 68 degrees and even lower at night will save energy, and therefore energy costs.  For every degree you lower the thermostat, you will save about 2% in energy costs.  And don’t forget to have an annual service check performed on your heater.  Other great energy and cost saving tips include closing your chimney flue when it is not in use, turning down your water heater to 120 degrees and installing low-flow faucets on showerheads and toilets.

Since food is often one of a household’s biggest expenditures, there is great opportunity to save money.  Nationwide Biweekly Administration suggests organizing meals by the week or even by the month.  On Sunday afternoons, make your meal list for the week.  Start with dinners and don’t forget to think about using leftovers as lunch.  Obviously the less often you shop, the less opportunity you have to spend.  Therefore, stock up when key staples are on sale and buy in bulk.  Meal planning is the single-most effective thing you can do to reduce your food budget.  Cook food in large batches (chili, for example, is often a family favorite and can be made in bulk and then frozen).  Strike eating out from your list this fall and your savings could total in the hundreds.   Nationwide Biweekly Administration says that certain items, such as apples, pears and squash are in-season in the fall and are often on-sale. 

Nationwide Biweekly Administration also recommends that consumers consider upgrading older appliances in the fall.  While there is an initial expenditure, Energy Star-rated appliances are energy efficient and will save you money in utility costs for many years.

Another great way to save big in the fall is to consider switching your cell phone service.  Nationwide Biweekly Administration points out that you may even want to drop your land-line, an increasingly popular move as consumers discover that only one phone line is generally sufficient.  Examine your cell phone usage and make sure your plan is the right one for you.  Keep in mind that if you are a new customer, prices for you are often rock bottom.  Some companies even pay you to switch!  Read the fine print, examine the offer carefully and then switch if the savings are there.

5 Summer Savings Tips

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Nationwide Biweekly Administration Savings Tips.

Saving money is possible year round by being conscious of your energy usage and paying attention to the thermostat. In summer, as temperatures soar and air conditioners work overtime, energy bills spiral out of control and break many people’s budgets.  Here are a few tips by Nationwide Biweekly Administration for saving money during the warmer months

·         Turn off the dryer. Take your freshly laundered clothes and let the sun and summer breeze do the drying for you.   The resulting difference in your power bill will be significant.

·         Cook outside.  Especially in the summer, using the oven creates a lot of excess heat that has nowhere to go except your house, taxing your air conditioning and driving the bills higher and higher to maintain a comfortable temperature.  Fire up the barbeque grill for delicious summer meals that won’t heat up the house’s interior.

·         Turn off the air conditioning.   Okay, this is not realistic if you live in Florida, Southern Nevada, Arizona and a handful of other all hot all the time locations.  In other areas though, where the weather does fluctuate, you can save money by simply paying attention to the weather. In coastal California for instance, you rarely need air conditioning at night as the marine layer cools off the air considerably. Turn off the air conditioning before heading to bed, open some windows, turn on the ceiling fans and enjoy a lower power bill.

·         Check and/or replace your air conditioning filters.  A dirty filter can increase your cooling costs unnecessarily.  Dirty air filters restrict airflow and the efficiency of the air conditioner causing more run time and higher cooling bills.  When you factor in how cheap filters are and how expensive air conditioning bills are, you’re not likely to forget to check your filters again!

·         Plan ahead  At the end of summer you’ll notice season ending sales. If you give some thought to next year’s landscaping and garden projects you can pick up the supplies at up to half off.

By following these five easy tips you can reduce your power bills and the strain on your air conditioner greatly this summer.

 Posted By Nationwide Biweekly Administration

 

Clearing The Clutter From Your Life! | Nationwide Biweekly Administration

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Nationwide Biweekly Administration savings tips.

Look around your house. Chances are there are areas of clutter than you can reduce. But before you head off to the Salvation Army to donate it, consider selling it instead. From Garage Sales to Craigslist to EBay, Etsy and beyond, there are ways to make a few bucks off the stuff you simply don’t want anymore.

Garage sales are pretty easy and can encompass everything from that ratty couch you’ve had since college to art, music, clothing and beyond. You might want to check out neighborhood Garage sales before having one of your own. After all, it would stink to find out you charged $5 for something but a garage sale down the street had no problems unloading the same item for $15.  It comes down to knowing your neighborhood’s demographic. Lots of recent college grads or artistic types? Keep the prices low. Young-ish urban professionals as neighbors, raise the price just a bit. Be sure to advertise by putting flyers on light poles and near intersections. If you live in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, see if you can post a flyer in their lobbies.

Not sure those early morning all day sitting on the sidewalk with all the stuff you don’t want garage sales are for you? Well thanks to a rather ingenious guy named Craig, you have options. Craigslist is ubiquitous with garage sales these days, only this garage sale is completely virtual.  Chances are if you’re searching for something – say, 6 foot fake Christmas tree – you will find in on craigslist. I knew someone who purchased big rubber bins for moving at Target. Once they were unpacked, they were listed on craigslist (for slightly more than she’d paid for them even!) and within 90 minutes, they had been picked up and cool hard cash lined the wallet of the seller.  Craigslist is free to post.

Sitting on something you don’t want that is vintage, unique, or collectible? Take it to EBay and list it in the appropriate categories. Designer clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry, sports memorabilia, watches, vintage lunchboxes. If you can think of a product, someone is selling it on EBay.  And in the best case scenario, a bidding war might break out over your Partridge Family Thermos from your old lunchbox and you might find yourself reaping a bit of a windfall!  Nationwide Biweekly Administration. 

If you’re a crafty type or have a bunch of vintage clothing, jewelry, handbags and shoes, Etsy is a good resource. This online craft-market allows users to create their own stores and set the price for their goods.

By using one, all or some combination of these tips, you’ll soon find yourself free of clutter and flush with cash.  Nationwide Biweekly Administration

Springing Into Savings Action - Tips By Nationwide Biweekly Administration

Nationwide Biweekly Administration Tips - Spring has sprung and people across the country are starting to think about one thing: vacation. The tradition of the annual summer vacation is as American as Apple Pie, Baseball, and Golden Retrievers. However, we’re living in somewhat shaky economic times and you may not have $5,000 to throw down for a family cruise to the Caribbean. Let’s take a look at some ways to save money for vacation.

 

Take a look around the house. What can you live without? Satellite TV? A big family plan on your cell phones? High Speed Internet at home? A Gym Membership you don’t, or rarely, use? Monthly expenses such as utilities, satellite or cable television and cell phone bills can be the thing that makes or breaks a family’s budget. Do you have both a home phone and a cell phone? Is there a specific reason you need both? If not you can cut out your traditional landlines completely and just exist with a cell phone.

Nationwide Biweekly Administration Tips

Speaking of that cell phone – how many minutes do you use? Is there a way for you to cut back on your monthly plan to save a little money? Consider switching to a pre-paid cell phone provider and experience a cheaper bill and the freedom of not being beholden to a set in stone contract from one of the major cell phone providers.

Another big monthly expense is television. How do you get your broadcast – from a cable provider or satellite provider? Have you explored the alternatives? Sometimes you can cut close to $100 a month from your budget by changing providers.

Internet can be another big ticket item. Cable modems are expensive if not “bundled” together with cable service. DSL’s are relatively inexpensive, but also notoriously prone to outages. Look into lower cost alternatives in your neighborhood. In some places everything from free neighborhood wifi to cell phone tethering is available for your Internet use.  Nationwide Biweekly Administration

Finally, few amongst us have not been, at one time or another, paying for a gym membership that we do not use. Whether you’re monthly dues are $19 or $190, if you are not going to the gym on a regular basis, you are basically throwing this money away each month. Even if you do go to the gym regularly, you may be able to trade the gym for the outdoors and save that money anyway. Running, jogging or power walking down a city street or country road is free.

By taking a few, or all, of these steps, and putting the money you’ve saved into a vacation account, you’ll be packing your swimsuits and sunscreen and heading off for some fun in no time at all. Nationwide Biweekly Administration

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