Looking to round up a little extra holiday cash? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, these four tips might make holiday shopping a little easier on the pocketbook.
1. Change Your Car Insurance
No, it’s not the year 2008, but this advice is still relevant. Internet-based car insurance companies are more competitive now than ever. Companies like Esurance (now backed by All State), Geico and Progressive compete like crazy to acquire new customers, but don’t try very hard to keep them. You can use this to your advantage by changing your car insurance to the lowest bidder every couple of years. Sounds like hassel? It’s not. The process may take you 15 minutes, but not much more than that.
2. Ditch the Dish (or cable)
Watching TV can be expensive. It’s time to start a media consumption revolution. We can start this revolution by kicking expensive cable and dish subscriptions to the curb, and watching TV online instead. Through Netflix ($8.99/month) Hulu Plus ($7.99/month) or Amazon Prime Instant Video ($8.25/month) you can access hundreds of shows and movies for a fraction of what you are paying for dish or cable. These subscriptions allows you to watch on your mobile devices or (with a simple setup) on your TV. I know some of your are thinking, “What about my live sports?” I’m with you there. None of these aforementioned offerings currently provide live sports access. However, some networks like CBS and TBS offer free live streaming on their websites. Also, with the $50-100 per month you save you could afford to go to a buddy’s house or a local sports bar and watch the big game along with some tasty food and drink. You could also get really crazy and read library books (free) instead of watching TV (not free).
3. Sell Your Old Electronics
I’m sure there are other options out there, but I recently just completed a pain free transaction with Gazelle.com. Gazelle was willing to pay me for an old iPod (seven years old) and iPhone 4 (four years old). They paid for the shipping, sent me a free box to ship my items and kept me updated on every step of the process via email. I was certainly skeptical at first, but after having gone through the process firsthand, I’d recommend it to anyone. If you’re looking for a little extra cash, it doesn’t get much easier than this.
4. Monday Moratorium
I guess it doesn’t have to be a Monday, but pick a day of the week where you don’t swipe any debit or credit cards. I like Monday, since your credit cards probably got a workout over the weekend and it’s a good day to let that plastic cool off. Up front this doesn’t appear to actually “make” money, but it will indirectly affect your income. First, you’ll have established one day of the week where impulse buys won’t happen. Second, this will force to you plan out your spending — including meal planning, gas, etc. — which inevitably reduces your unnecessary purchases. This might take a few weeks to get used to, but it will be worth it.
Photo by Jeremy Yerse
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