How to save $10,000 in 2009

Rethink your car

The federal government's latest Consumer Expenditure Survey indicated that the average household spent $8,758 a year supporting an average of two cars. But you can easily spend more than that on a single car in an area where insurance costs are high. Research firm Runzheimer International estimated a 2009 midsize sedan would set its owners back $8,764 to $13,200 a year, depending on where the family lived.

Yearly car expenses:

City	Cost	City	Cost
Detroit	$13,200	Knoxville, Tenn.	$9,077
Philadelphia	$12,266	Dayton, Ohio	$9,049
Los Angeles	$12,069	Eau Claire, Wis.	$8,988
Newark, N.J.	$11,684	Bismarck, N.D.	$8,926
Providence, R.I.	$11,443	Sioux Falls, S.D.	$8,764

Source: Runzheimer International. Costs include fuel, oil, tires, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, taxes, license and registration fees for a 2009 Ford Fusion driven an average of 15,000 miles driven a year within a 50-mile radius of the city.

Clearly, not owning a car, or owning one car fewer, can save you a bundle if you can pull it off. Some alternatives:

Car sharing. If you live in an area served by the car-sharing service Zipcar, you can pay an annual fee and hourly charges to have access to a number of vehicles parked around your town. If you live in other areas, renting a car occasionally and using public transportation the rest of the time can make sense.

• Tell us: Do you have spending resolutions for 2009?

Carpooling. If you must own a car, try to make it a "site of production" rather than just a "site of consumption," as Robin puts it. That means using it to make money, or at least be reimbursed for some of your costs, such as by carpooling.

"What people chip in for gas often exceeds what you had to pay to fill up the car," Robin said.

Car maximizing. You can save more than a quarter-million dollars over your adult life simply by owning cars for 10 years instead of five. You can save even more if you buy those cars used. Read "Make your car last 250,000 miles" for tips on how to keep your vehicle running smoothly longer.

Eat for less

You can trim an out-of-control food bill substantially by eating out less and making more meals from scratch. Combining coupons with weekly sales can chop an additional 25% or more from your bill. (Read "Click your way to lower food bills" for more.)

Being vegetarians, as Oregon residents Sandy Aldridge and Dale Lugenbehl are, can save you a bundle as well, since meat is relatively expensive.

But Aldridge and Lugenbehl take it a step further by growing most of the food they eat. Instead of spending more than $500 a month on food, which is average for two-person households, the couple spend "less than $30 a month, sometimes considerably less," Aldridge said. (See "5 foods it's cheaper to grow." )

• Video: 7 things that are getting cheaper

Aldridge acknowledges that tending a garden and processing the produce can be a lot of work, but she finds it preferable to running back and forth to a grocery store. Also, the couple don't grow their own just for financial reasons, but as a way of lessening their environmental impact.

"Because we grow things organically, we don't use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers. It also eliminates transportation of the produce," Aldridge said. "You really can't get anymore bio-regional than picking things from your backyard."

What they don't grow, they "purchase in serious bulk -- 25- and 50-pound sacks of grains and beans, 5-pound sacks of nuts," Aldridge said. "That packaging, for the most part, is compostable, so we just return it to the soil."

Continued: 10 ways to save $1,000

< previous |  1 | 2 | 3 | next >