You want to be able to give gifts.  You might even be expected to.  But if giving presents is making you broke, you don’t want the whole world to know.  Instead you need to find a better solution.

You can save a lot of money by making your own gifts.  There are so many gifts you can make with your regular household items, or, if you want to step it up a little, there are virtually unlimited things you can do after you’ve visited your local craft store.  One of my personal suggestions:  Candle making.

I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t want a nice feeling in their home.  This includes warmth, comfort, beauty, and a good aroma.  Candles can provide all of these things for any home.  The best part is you can easily make them yourself.

You will probably need to go to the craft store to make your own candles.  You will need to get yourself some wicks, a pound of beeswax, stearic acid, candle molds, vegetable oil, a double boiler, and a candy thermometer.  To give your candles a nice scent, you can buy fragrances to add to the wax.  The range of smells is limitless.

For the directions of how to put all these ingredients together to make a wonderful candle, follow this link from Associated Content:  The Easiest Way to Make Beautiful Candles at Home

The inventor of the lightening rod among many other notable successes made this man praiseworthy.  He was one of the most influential men in history, possibly being the reason his headshot was put on the one hundred dollar bill.

A recent study to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research says that when someone goes out, they are less likely to spend their money if they are just carrying a Benjamin on them.  The study showed that when people were carrying Franklin’s cash colleagues (Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, and even Grant), they were much more willing to spend without guilt.

This is an amazing discovery, but of course it won’t work for every single person.  However, you never know if it will work until you try it.  During this economy bust, people are tending to give $100 bills a high value and are perhaps treating it as a symbol to tell them they aren’t completely broke yet.  For more insight on this topic and to find out a little more as to why having a BF in your pocket will actually save you money, head over to:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1887485,00.html

If you want to try this experiment out, please leave a comment and let me know how it went.  I am extremely interested in the results and will be testing it out myself.  I thought about replacing everything in my wife’s wallet with Benjamins, but maybe I’ll just try it out for myself first.

If you have a set minute or texting plan and you are occasionally or often going over on the allowed amount, you are paying way more than you need to be.  The fees applied to over-talking and over-texting should be against the law.  If you’re going over, either control yourself or change your plan to fit your talking and texting lifestyle.  Most carriers no longer charge extra for a plan change.

The other way you might be losing money is if you aren’t talking or texting enough.  If you’re paying for 3000 minutes but only use 2000 in a month, you are paying for an extra 1000 minutes each and every month.  Again, change your plan to fit your lifestyle.  A lot of people don’t want to deal with figuring out how much they use their phone, so they just settle for the unlimited plans.  If you are like this, take the time to pull out your past phone bills and find out exactly how much you talk, text, or use the Internet on your phone.  You just might find that you could easily switch to a lower plan and save yourself $10 per month or even more!  Try it out!

Home repairs can cost you quite a pretty penny.  Sometimes it can even be up in the thousands.  You should make sure you can find the best prices available for whatever work you need completed.  There are some tips and tricks you should take into account when thinking about doing some home repairs.

In order for you to be completely content with the quality of work that is done as well as the price it cost you, you should choose from a list of several well-established, licensed contractors who have submitted written out, fixed-priced bids for the work that needs to be done.  It is important that it be written out and that you have a copy.

You should never pay the full price of your home repairs before the work is actually finished.  There might need to be a bit of a payment up-front, but if possible, pay when the work is finished.  Never sign a contract saying you will pay before the work is finished.  Your contractor might be extremely trust-worthy, but you can never be too safe.

Inspect and be happy with the repairs before you pay for the work.  You don’t want to regret sending the contractor away and then finding a problem that could easily cost you even more money in the future.  Make sure the work is done right.

Another way of saving a lot of money is by doing repairs yourself.  If you have the knowledge, or are willing to go get the proper knowledge, by all means, try to do the work yourself.  You will save money by not having to pay for a contractor, but make sure you can do quality work, or you will either have to redo it or call in a professional.

Saving money is not hard to do.  Just have some common sense about things and you will really start to see the different ways you can save.  If you have some great ways you save money, don’t be afraid to comment and share.  It is always appreciated.

So would you like some more tips?  You can try some of these!

Try to reduce the weight you are carrying as much as possible.  If there are random things in your car that are taking up space and weight and don’t need to be there, take them out.  Find a different and more stationary place for them.  This includes looking in the trunk of your car.  If you don’t use your trunk a whole lot, you might be surprised as to what is in there.  I know I was.

Here’s something that I believe helped me the other day.  One day last week we randomly woke up to about 7 inches of snow.  It was just about everywhere.  Streets needed to be plowed, sidewalks needed to be shoveled.  Cars that were parked outside were completely covered.  Well, that was my car.  So before I drove the car, I wiped off all of the snow from my car.  When there’s a lot of snow, it is amazing how much it can weigh.  I probably took off close to 50 pounds of snow which would have weighed me down as I was driving, thus making me use more gas and costing me more and more.

Try to think of different ways you can save gas.  Let me know what you come up with!

This first tip only works if you drive an automatic.  I think there are similar things you can do in a stick shift, but I’m not completely sure.  If you’re in an automatic, and you are stopped at a red light, immediately put your car into neutral.  If you have ever noticed, in an automatic, when you’re stopped and you let off the brake while in drive, you start to roll forward.  That is because the engine is still working on moving your car forward.  If you want to save gas, make your engine stop using the energy to push the car right into your brakes.  Just put it in neutral.  But don’t forget to put it back into drive when the light turns green!

Today’s second tip might even help you get a bit more into shape!  When you’re going to any place that has a parking lot, go ahead and park in the first open spot you can find.  Not only will this reduce the gas consumption you are using for driving circles around the lot, but it might also force you to walk a longer distance than you are used to.  Don’t worry, it’s not too much further.

I like these, don’t you?  I’ll come out with more tips in later posts.  Feel free to leave comments and suggestions on how to save money!

However, none of us can afford to live each day thinking that maybe we’ll suddenly get lucky like my friend. Instead, if we want to have money to spend we need learn how to spend it (or not) wisely.

There are a lot of things we tell ourselves that we need but in reality we just want it. Learning how to make the distinction between wants and needs can really help save you a lot of money.

Try asking yourself questions before each purchase. Could I get by without this? Do I really need this? Remind yourself why you were going to buy something before you actually purchase it. Chances are if you can’t come up with a good reason it’s not a need.

Resisting impulsive buys can really help you make the most of your dollars. Don’t let yourself get sucked into purchasing enticing items that are placed by the register just to tempt you. Just remember to take those couple seconds to check yourself and it will save you from making rash purchases you’ll regret later on. Making lists or eating before going to shopping can also cut back on unnecessary purchases.

Now the prices for gas are starting to go up again.  They’re not going up as fast as they were last year, but it’s still pretty early in the year.  Who knows what will happen?  All we know is that they are going up right now and they could continue to do so.

Therefore, it’s time to play some defense.  I think that if everyone knew that they could save some money, and it was very simple to do, they would do it regardless of how much they make or are worth financially.  I think most of us just don’t know or realize that it is so easy to save money – especially on gas!  Maybe there are a few things on this list that you’ve never thought about doing in order to save money on gas…

First things first, a car uses most of its gas when it is accelerating.  Using this gas is worth it as long as the car stays in motion.  Physically speaking, the only way you’re wasting the gas you’ve used to accelerate is from the friction in the axles and on the road.  That is, until you have to brake.  As soon as you brake, you’re losing a lot of what you’ve built up by accelerating.  You’re not getting everything you paid for.  Obviously we need our brakes, and need to use them often – and I understand that and am very grateful for them.  But what I’m trying to get across here is that you should do what you can to use the gas you’ve accelerated with.

This means to drive as smoothly as you can.  Drive slow.  Pay attention to everything around you.  If you’re on a road where a car is slowing down in front of you to turn right, look to see if you can go around them without having to put on your brakes and slow down behind them.  This is just an example, but there are so many things you can do.  What are some of them that you can think of?

Now, I realize that if this were a job, it would be the worst paying job in the world, but it’s not a job.  It’s so easy to just pick up a penny whenever you see one.  As you do it, you will even notice that you will be finding even higher amounts of money.  Nickels, dimes, and quarters are almost as common to find as pennies, but worth 5, 10, and 25 times as much.  I even remember one time when I found a patch of grass with over five dollars in coins.  (It should be noted that Canada has $1 and $2 coins, which made finding a good amount of money even easier)

Want more than just finding a few cents every once in a while?  Did you know that companies are mailing you money every day?  My mailbox is always full of money.  Well it’s basically money.  Coupons.  Coupons are a great way to save money.  Yes, you only save a little bit at a time, but again, it adds up fast!  If you used just one 30 cent coupon every week for your groceries, you will save over $15 in a year.  Now imagine if you used multiple coupons each week.  The savings are amazing!

It’s so easy and ultimately fun that soon, you might be tempted to take up coin-picking-up-ing and coupon-collecting as your number one job!

Let’s say you’re addicted to coffee.  You have to have it every single day, probably multiple times a day.  Well how much do you think you’re spending on each cup?  When they all add up, how much are you paying per month?  Per year?  Coffee is really not good for your health anyway.  Same as carbonated beverages.  If you’re addicted to something that isn’t good for you, your health will suffer a whole lot more.  Why put yourself through that.  You’re paying to make yourself unhealthy.  Cut it out.  You’ll be so happy you did.

What are some other things people are addicted to that aren’t good for them?  Sugar?  Chips?  Vending machine products?  What about other stuff – stuff you don’t eat.  Like sitting on the couch watching TV for hours upon hours.  Video games.  Procrasinating.  We all have things we can work on to make our lives better, and when we do, hopefully we can save a bit of money here and there.

If you’re buying something everyday that you know isn’t good for you, try thinking about different things you can do to stop yourself from wasting the time, money, and health.  Go ahead and leave me some comments if you have any stories or questions.  Feel free!  (Pun intended)