Want to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars?
Twenty minutes here and there will do it.
This isn't a car insurance commercial. It's a way to rewrite your budget.
That one-third of an hour can save you big bucks if you use it to:
- Question statements and medical bills.
- Negotiate a better phone plan or a lower credit card interest rate.
- Plug money leaks.
- Spot problems while they're still cheap to fix.
Let your New Year's resolution be to keep more of your money in your pocket. One way to do that is invest 20 minutes a day, a week, a month or a year.
Where on earth will you find an extra 20 minutes in your day? Think of these as recurring appointments on your calendar, says productivity expert Laura Stack.
"I know people who can literally spend five hours a day on Facebook, in front of the TV, playing Xbox, whatever," she says.
You can still have those things, Stack says -- after you've done 20 minutes of cleaning your financial house.
1. Once a month: Pare it down, sell it off
The next time you're cleaning your actual house, consider: Do you really need all the stuff you're dusting? Too many of us are drowning in clutter. Set aside 20 minutes once a month to weed out clothes, toys, knickknacks, the wedding-gift wok you used exactly twice. Sell the surplus on eBay or donate it to a charity thrift shop."Americans are beginning to understand the power of purging," says interior design specialist Christopher Lowell. This results in a comfortable living space full of carefully chosen items.
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Comfortable people are happy, which may mean fewer impulse buys and less spending to replace things lost in all the clutter (gloves, nail clippers, screwdrivers and the like).
Consider purging dry-clean-only items, or vow to stop buying them. Those you feel you must keep can be cleaned less often if you're not a messy eater who sweats profusely. Lowell suggests that you "freshen" clothing once a week with a spray product such as Febreze.
"There's no reason you can't rotate your clothes. That can save literally a thousand dollars a year," Lowell says.
2. Once a month: Do a walkaround
Take a fast walk around your car to look for fluids on the driveway or low/bulging tires. Check the oil and the lights. These simple chores could save you a world of hurt.Do the same for your house: 20 minutes indoors and 20 minutes outdoors. Look for issues like mildew, slow-running rain gutters, foundation cracks, crumbling caulk, peeling paint, basement dampness, loose weatherstripping or missing shingles.
Stuart Hickox, the founder and president of the nonprofit OneChange suggests several other fast ways to save on energy costs:
- Switch out incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs certified by Energy Star.
- Use power strips for electronics and appliances, and turn them off when not in use; "vampire" energy use accounts for up to 15% of your electric bill.
- Get a programmable thermostat. It takes only a few minutes to program, and a one-degree change can save you 3% to 5% in energy costs.
- See if your region offers free refrigerator recycling and/or rebate programs, then invest in a new icebox; it will save you $120 or more per year on your electric bill.
3. Every time: Comparison shop
Before you buy that fridge -- or anything else -- take 20 minutes to shop around. Start with price comparison websites, which will find the best price for a "site to store" deal, i.e., bought online but picked up locally.Once you've found the lowest prices, check whether those stores are represented on a cash-back shopping site such as Ebates, FatWallet or Mr. Rebates. These sites offer money back on your purchases as well as coupons for special discounts, free delivery or bonus items. (When I bought my first laptop last year, the retailer threw in a free printer/scanner/copier.)
See "Nab a $19 discount in 80 seconds" for more.
Prefer to shop locally? Ask the clerk if there's a coupon. Professional organizer Leslie Jacobs asks for discounts, just to see if salesclerks will give them -- and sometimes they do.
"If you don't ask, they can't say 'yes.' I always ask," Jacobs says. (For more on this, see "Yes, you can haggle at Macy's.")
4. Every night: A home-cooked meal, with leftovers for lunch
Eating out a lot, or buying expensive convenience foods? Don't cop out with "I don't know how to cook." You can learn. A few basic techniques will save you hundreds of bucks each month.Do an online search for "20-minute meals" -- you'll be amazed at what pops up, complete with adjectives like "quick" and "easy." I'd also suggest the Cheap Healthy Good blog, which brims with recipes for all skill levels.
Double or triple a recipe so you'll have leftovers to freeze for later or to put in tomorrow's lunches. Those who took my "brown bag challenge" were horrified when they realized what they'd been spending on lunches out. Plan on three to five minutes to pack a meal.
5. Every day: Exercise
Along with a decent diet, to stay healthy and keep medical bills low, you need exercise. But you don't necessarily need a gym."You just need your body," says Alex Fell of Warrior Fitness in Manhattan.
The former Marine says that exercises like push-ups, stretches, jumping jacks, dips and mountain-climbers will promote strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness. Twenty minutes at a time, three to five days a week, is a good start.
In an MSN Health article, a researcher from the University of Tennessee Obesity Research Center noted that "even modest amounts" of daily walking can offer health benefits. "Modest" meant 30 to 40 minutes a day -- daunting for some people. But what about taking 20 minutes at lunch to walk around the block, or up and down workplace stairs?
One extremely simple way to improve your health: conscientious dental hygiene. Brushing takes two minutes, three times a day, and flossing takes five: less than 20 minutes a day to prevent cavities, halitosis, eventual tooth loss and maybe heart disease or stroke.
6. Once a week: Clip coupons
Tiffany Ivanovsky, a working mother of seven kids, spends $475 a month on grocery-store purchases – including toiletries and diapers."Sometimes there's a stigma that if you use coupons you must be really poor," says Ivanovsky, who writes a savings-oriented blog called MyLitter. "But what it means is that you're really smart."
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