great tips for saving money

**The following article was written by guest contributor, Laura Webb.**

I recently dove into my own bills and spending and was delighted to find literally hundreds of dollars worth of savings!

Tips for finding extra cash where you least expect it.

1)Your insurance company: When is the last time you’ve shopped around for car insurance or even had a conversation with your current provider? When I started working from home, I called my insurance company and let them know how little I’d be driving from now on and they reduced my premium by $82 a year! You can also increase your deductable for a lower premium, if you are a homeowner you qualify for a discount, and if you have teenage drivers, you can submit their school grades (if they are good!)  for a possible discount too!

2)My phone company: I was looking at my home phone service bill when I saw a $5 charge. I called in to inquire what it was and they let me know that it was to keep my phone number out of the phone book. It is not, however, to keep my number fully “unlisted” from websites like 411.com or solicitors. And since most people don’t use a phone book nowadays anyway, I said “No thanks, I’ll keep my $60 per year, thank you very much!” Look at your home phone service and even your cell. Do you need to pay for unlimited texts or do you only need a couple hundred?

3)Home Entertainment: We had Blockbuster.com and were paying $18 per month for it and we loved it! However, we realized that we really didn’t need to have 2 movies at one time, so we shopped around and switched to Netflix and changed to 1 movie at a time at $7 per month. That saved us $132 a year! You might be paying for DVR service or extra HD channels that you don’t really utilize. Or do you have HBO and how much do you really watch it? Take a look at your bill and see if you can trim some off!

4)Self maintenance: I’m so proud of my hubby for finding this one! He gets his hair cut about every 6 weeks and was going to the same salon as me and spending about $25. He recently realized he can get the same trim at Supercuts for about $12. That will save us over $100 this year! Another easy way to save on self maintenance? Get a polish change instead of a full pedicure. Your nails will look just as great and you’ll save about $10 - $15!

5)Exchange..everything! So this year I went to my first clothing exchange party and it was so fun! Everyone brought nice quality items that were in great condition but were willing to trade for something else. We all walked away with clothes that were “new” to us and best of all, FREE! I’ve also started exchanging books too! After buying the first Twilight book for $11, I asked friends if I could borrow the rest of the series. By not buying them myself, I’ve saved over $30!

I hope that this is an ongoing list as I discover more ways to trim back and watch the savings add up! I literally have not noticed a change or felt like I was being “frugal”, just paying more attention to what money was going out the door. I look forward to sharing more tips and hearing your ideas too!