Save that Dollar!

Here's a couple ways I found to keep a few extra dollars in the piggy bank. They are simple techniques that I found to work very well:

- Use cash only. I think this is a mental thing. It's easy to swip a card; hard to hand somebody cash.

- Don't give the cashier change when paying cash. Bring it home and put it in a jar. I saved a few hundred dollars doing this. Cool thing is it's transparent.

- Buy an expresso machine! LOL Like most folks I need my fix. $8 dollars for a bag of expresso beans goes a long way! Much farther than a $3.50 cup of coffee.

- Live with in walking distance from a grocery store. This may be hard to arrange but I lucked out. With the store in walking distance I buy much less with more trips. It results in less waste. The business world says inventory is expensive...why not treat the kitchen the same way!

- Use the new Napster. It's legal now and the selection is huge! I love buying CD's and spend lots of money on them. But a lot of them I only listen to a few times and shelf them. With Napster I can download as much as I want and listen to them only from my computer. If I find myself enjoying a CD regularly I buy it. Today I bought "Farmhouse" from Phish as an example.

If you have an idea to add, please pop open a comment! I'd love to share.