Identify 10 new ways for me to save money.

10. I noticed the other day that a few of the rooms had lamps in the far corners of the room that could be changed to a single well placed lamp in the middle of the room giving off almost as much light but while using less power and money.

9. Use the toaster oven over the full sized oven whenever possible. Not only does it heat up faster because its smaller so is saves not only on power but also on oven cleaning supplies as its less oven to clean.

8. I just finished reading Living Well on Practically Nothing by Edward H. Romney and it was great. While many of his suggestions are extreme enough that I’ll hopefully never have to resort to them, as a whole it changed the way that I thought about money in a good way.

7. Always check out the “used section” on amazon.com before buying a book new. At times its unbelievable the good deals you can get for new condition used books which are a lot cheaper even after paying shipping as compared to buying new from amazon.com and getting free shipping.

6. Eat less junk food. Lets face it junk food not only doesn’t fill up up as well as more wholesome alternatives but it also costs more, so it looks like it pays to eat better.

5. Making your own gifts is a great way to give unique gifts to others without having to spend lots of money to be different.

4. Make my own filtered water and refill the water bottles that I have instead of buying bottled spring water. A little extra work but a lot cheaper in the end for good tasting drinking water.

3. Buy a good thermos. I picked up one of the new stainless steel 1 Liter thermoses at Walmart a week ago for $11 its unbelievable how good it keeps hot tea hot. I normally let my tea cool down to warm before drinking it and even after 5 hours the last cup is still steaming when I pour it out. This is one investment that will quickly pay for itself as it now means that I can have my own tea as I like it instead of buying coffee or low quality tea on the days that I’m at seminary.

2. Buy holiday items a year ahead during the post-holiday sales. A good example is Christmas cards where I buy them the week after Christmas when they are heavily marked down. The same goes for other items clothing items that go in and out of season. The biggest exception is sandals as good ones for men are so hard to find even in season, seriously if my feet were smaller I’d buy the “less girlie looking” women’s sandals to make things easier.

1. Continue to reading the Hillbilly Housewife site http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index.htm for ideas that apply naturally to my life.