The major news has been the economy for quite a while now. There’s been a $700 Billion approved to bail out the greedy, elite bankers that caused this whole problem (So they can party hard, right AIG?)

A lot of people are getting very worried over the economy. People are worried about losing their home and going from comfortable middle class life to homelessness.

I am not panicked like it seems the majority of Americans are, for one reason because everywhere I go, everyone is talking and texting on their cell phones, the majority of Americans have satellite or cable (around $39-100+ a month) and restaurants are still very crowded on weekend afternoons. I can’t see people starving to death while they are texting on their phones and watching MTV.

On the other hand, some people, including finance guru Suze Orman are saying that the current financial state is worse than the Great Depression of 1929.

Regardless of how serious the economy crisis (caused by the elite bankers) is, here are some tips for you to cut back to keep more money from going out of your pockets:

1) STOP TEXTING- Different phones have different plans, and I’m not a texter, but as far as I know, texting costs money. Someone recently showed me a $600+ phone bill run up by teenagers who got carried away with text messaging. They were even charged everytime someone sent them a text message.

If you want to say something to someone CALL THEM UP and forget about texting them.

2) Cut Back on Winter heating and Summer cooling- learn how to cut back on your utilities. There is advice right here on this website.

3) Pull the plug on satellite or cable- If your finances are so bad that your stomach is in knots, it’s a very unwise decision to throw $50+ away every month for TV channels. Some people are so addicted to TV they would rather die than not have their hundreds of channels. Some people don’t think they can survive without their satellite/cable.

Well guess what? People have survived thousands of years with no TV at all, muchless hundreds of channels. Second of all, it’s not healthy to be a couch potato addicted to TV. You’ll get fat and unhealthy. Thirdly it turns your mind to mush and besides if you have an internet connection which is much cheaper than cable, you can watch tons of movies and TV shows online for no extra charge. So, if things are that bad for you financially, you have no business even having cable until you can actually afford it.

4) Frugal Gifts- You want to get your family and friends nice gifts for holidays and birthdays. Well, that’s hard if money is tight. Bills can add up super fast if you get carried away buying everyone the Christmas gifts you think they want.

You can still get your loved ones gifts without spending a fortune. Remember, it’s not about how much $$$ you spend (although it may be to spoiled teenagers). You are buying gifts for your loved ones, not buying their love.

So learn how to give wonderful gifts for less. (There will be a post on this in the future.) For example, if you are accustomed to spending $50 on a gift for Tina, start spending $25. If you have 3 kids and you spend $100 each for Christmas toys (that you know they will tire of quickly) spend $50 instead and spend it smarter. That would be $150 savings right there.

5) Check out the second hand shops for clothes. Clothes can be very expensive. Especially if you have growing kids, you have to buy a new wardrobe every time the season changes. Before you go to the mall or Wal-Mart or any other store, check the second hand stores.

Recently I went to a Salvation Army Thrift Store to look for baby girl clothes for fall and winter. The infant/toddler clothes there are only 99 cents each. I ended up buying around $50 worth of clothes. Some of them were brands like Old Navy, Gymboree, Children’s Place and The Disney Store. Some of the outfits were so adorable. After folding the clothes at home, I realized if I bought this stuff at a mall, $50 would have only gotten me around 3 pieces of clothes. But I got about 50 pieces of clothes.

Savings like this really adds up.

6) Drink more water- Cut back on sodas, juices, sports drinks, coffees, and drink more water instead. The (almost) free kind of water, that is.

7) Make your own cards- There are cute cards out there for every holiday and birthday and some even play music and there are some you can record your own greeting on. Yeah, they are cute, but these cards cost around $5 each and let’s be honest-most people end up throwing away their cards shortly after they read them. So instead of buying a card for everyone for Christmas or their birthday, make your own cards. People actually appreciate when someone takes the time to make a card for them.

Here are a few ways to cut back on your electric bill:

*If you have old, outdated appliances like refrigerators, get newer ones. Yes, this will cost more to start out with, but you will recoup your investment and everything after that is savings. Old appliances use a LOT more energy than new appliances. If you have a ten year old refrigerator, washer, or dryer, get rid of it and get a new one. With new technology it uses a lot less energy and they will last you for many years. You will notice cheaper electric bills. It may take you a year and a half to recoup your investment but everything after that is savings. If the appliance lasts you 15 years, then that’s 13 and 1/2 years of savings.

*Turn the thermostat to 76 degrees. Then use big fans to cool the rooms you are using. Ceiling fans are great for making the room feel cooler, but if you don’t have a ceiling fan, stick to regular fans.

*Turn off your computer at night. Some people think it saves energy just to keep it on all the time, but that’s not true. If there will be say, 10 hours you are not going to use your computer, then turn it off and save electricity.

If you really want to save money, try cutting back. Cutting back on certain things can save hundreds or possibly even thousands of dollars a year. Here are some ways to cut back and keep more of your money:

1) Cancel your satellite or cable- *Gasp* I know some people are simply addicted to their favorite TV shows and might not even cancel all those channels if their life depended on it. However, if you decide there are better things to spend money on than hundreds of TV channels, you can save a lot of money by turning it off. Try watching less TV and rent movies free from the library. You can also watch movies and TV shows for free on various websites. If you spend $50 a month for all those channels, that would be a savings of $600 a year.

2) Get a less expensive phone plan. If you have a monthly phone plan that costs a lot, get a cheaper plan. If you talk a lot on the phone, most companies offer free nights and weekends so you can plan to do more of your talking on nights and weekends. If you get a plan that costs $20 less a month, that’s a savings of $240 a year.

3) Cut back on eating out. If you eat out a lot, cut back to one time a week. Eating at restaurants is nice because you don’t have to cook or do dishes, but it can add up. Unless you are eating off the dollar menu everytime and that can’t be healthy.

4) Don’t pay retail for clothes. Look at thrift stores for clothes. You can find some good clothes at good prices if you find the right store. Also check yard sales or ebay. Shop at the big stores when they have big sales. Pay attention to your junk mail to see when the stores in the mall are having clearance sales.

5) Pack your lunch to work instead of eating out. If you work and regularly eat out for lunch, packing your lunch can save you a lot of money.

6) Find free or cheap entertainment. If you spend a lot of money on entertainment like going to the movies, look for alternative entertainment. Invite friends over on Friday nights for snacks, games, and chatting. Go on a picnic, ride bikes, hike, play family games or take up a sport or hobby.

With food prices having gone up faster than anyone can remember, more and more families are looking for low cost meals.

A common meal for poor families in the country was pinto beans and cornbread. Before food stamps, many poor rural people grew up on pinto beans and corn bread because it was cheap and filling.

Cutting back on meats and eating more pastas and beans will save on your grocery bill. Ramen noodles are cheap, but it doesn’t take long to get sick of them.

Noodles, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese are low cost meals or sides. With creativity, you can still eat good and cut back on your grocery bill.

Everyone who drives must have car insurance. It’s the law and you don’t want to drive without insurance and get pulled over the the police. Then, you’d be in some big trouble and face mandatory huge fines.

The problem with car insurance is it can eat up a lot of money. Of course it depends on age, driving record, type of car, and other factors.

It never hurts to check around and see if you can get a better deal. A lot of people have been with the same insurance company for a long time and haven’t even considered changing. However, they may find another company can offer them a lower rate and save a few hundred dollars a year.

So this is just a reminder for people like that. Call around to different car insurance companies, be sure to tell them you already have insurance but are seeing if you can get a better deal. They want your business, so they will give you the best deal they can.

Sometimes change is good. You may find yourself saving a few hundred dollars a year on your car insurance. Especially if you have a good driving record.

In January I bought a Christmas dress for my baby girl. When I went to the store I certainly wasn’t planning on buying a Christmas dress. Christmas is 11 months away. But I saved by taking advantage of a clearance sale for leftover Christmas items the store is trying to get rid of.

You can save big by buying items leftover after any holiday. Stores want to get rid of their holiday items to make room for the next holiday so they slash the prices off of their leftover inventory 50-75%.

Their was a rack of cute Christmas dresses for little girls marked way down at only $6. These are really cute dresses and it’s certainly not everday you can find such a cute dress for only $6.

If I waited until around Christmas time when the Christmas stuff came out to by my baby girl a dress, I imagine it would cost around $20-$25. But now I already have her dress ready for when Christmas comes around and when I see the price tags on the dresses come Christmas time I will be smiling thinking of how much I saved.

I just get a thrill on huge savings!  I find it fun to see how much I can save.

Now Valentines day is coming up and the stores have all of their Valentines stuff out. I will wait until February 15th to see what I can find for 50-75% off.

I wanted to buy some toys for my kids and with my frugal mindset, the prices for the toys at Wal-Mart just seemed ridiculous. It’s mainly the name brand licensed toys like Disney and Sesame Street. I don’t want to pay five dollars for some little die cast car just because it is from the Disney movie “Cars” for example. I knew I could find much better deals online. At ebay I can find a huge variety of toys, cheaper prices, in like new condition, and stuff you can’t ever find at stores. Plus I’m mad at Wal-Mart for having a whopping 2 lanes open when I went there and two very long lines of angry customers who spent the loooong wait in line griping about how Wal-Mart is too cheap to open up a few more lanes, so I would rather spend my money where I don’t have to wait in line forever.

So I was browsing around ebay looking for toys to buy and I found some really good deals, but when I looked at the shipping price I went, “Whoa!”. There was an auction for a lot of care bear toys and the price for the toys themselves was good, but when I saw the shipping cost was $30, I kept on looking. Adding in the shipping cost, it’s no longer a bargain.

If you are a collector looking for a specific item, that’s something else, but if you are looking for a bargain to get the most bang out of your buck then you really have to pay attention to shipping costs.

I did find some good deals on toys with fair shipping costs, but I had to skip over a few auctions that had really high shipping costs. Sometimes the size and/or weight of items makes shipping expensive and then there are a few people who try to make a little profit from shipping costs but adding several dollars to the actual shipping cost.

Now is the best time to buy Christmas stuff like wrapping paper and candy, if you haven’t had your fill of sweets already.

Now Christmas is over the stores want to get rid of their Christmas inventory so they are slashing prices, 50-75% off the before Christmas price.

At Wal-Mart prices for Christmas items will be 50% off and anything left over the weekend will be 75% off.

This is the best time to grab that wrapping paper at deep discounts and store them in a closet for next Christmas. As fast as time flies, next Christmas will be here before you believe it.

If you love sweets, now is the time to grab that Christmas candy. Of course you can’t store it until next Christmas because it won’t be any good then, but if you like to eat sweets, get Christmas candy for rock bottom prices for your desserts.

When you go to stores, look at the Christmas items they are offering for 50-75% off and if there is anything you will use next Christmas, grab it up and save.

I was at the store yesterday looking for Christmas cards for a few people. I noticed on average the cards were close to $4 a piece. I would rather spend the money on the person’s actual gift than a card because most people don’t save their cards and end up tossing them out.

There are a few ways to save on Christmas cards.

1) Make Your Own Cards. I know a lady who is retired and to keep her busy she makes every single one of her cards herself. They are really beautiful cards and she gets the material from old cards. She simply buys a big pack of stock paper and glues pictures on them from other cards. Then she writes her messages on them. She’s crafty and makes them look really nice. You don’t have to be artsy or crafty to make your own cards though. You can get a big pack of stock paper for around $5. Just fold the paper in half and decorate it. It takes time, but it will save a lot of money compared to buying cards individually.

2) Buy cards in bulk. You can also get a bulk package of cards with a wintry scene on them but they don’t necessarily have to be for Christmas. They are blank inside and you can write whatever message you want to.

This is a really simple frugal idea. When you buy dryer sheets, cut all of the sheets in half and use one half sheet with every load you dry. That is like getting a free box of dryer sheets every time you buy one.