Tag Archives: Save Money

How much do you spend on food per year?

By web gangsta | Published: January 25, 2012


Saving Money On Everyday Life: In These Days Of Recession And Belt Tightening, This Is Essential Guide Shows You Ways To Cut Costs , How To Budget Your ... Money On Food Plus Other Money Saving Tips
Save Money on Everyday Life

So, how much money do you spend on food each year?

Go ahead – take a guess.

Chances are, you’re going to guess way lower than you expected.

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How much do you tip your waiter? Chances are, you’re paying them way too much

By web gangsta | Published: January 20, 2012


How to Make Money and Bigger Tips as a Waitress
How to Make Money and Bigger Tips as a Waitress

How much do you tip your wait staff when you visit a bar or restaurant?

Some people go for the standard 20% off the final total of the bill — just take the total, move the decimal point, and multiply by 2… voila! No math required and you left a 20% tip.

Some people jump through complicated hoops to come up with a 15% or 18% tip.

We’ll be honest here – there have been times that Web Watch has left less than 15%… but trust us, the wait staff didn’t do their job that day by listening to what the customer wanted (they didn’t bring us the requested drink, the requested condiment on the side rather than on the sandwich, etc – and it wasn’t because the restaurant was busy that day… it was just bad service all the way around.)

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The 25 Least Expensive Places to Live

By web gangsta | Published: January 16, 2012


Cost of Living and Doctor's Fees in 1848
Cost of Living and Doctor’s Fees in 1848

Sometimes it’s not so much how you live as where you live that determines how much money you can really save over the course of a year.

And we can thank the COUNCIL FOR COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (C2ER) for their annual COST OF LIVING report that lists the LEAST EXPENSIVE CITIES to live in, based on the monthly rent for a 2-bedroom apartment, monthly average house payment, a gallon of gas, a hamburger, and a 1/2-gallon of milk.

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7 Things that millionaires do that you can do too

By web gangsta | Published: December 27, 2011


The Millionaire Next Door
The Millionaire Next Door

Many years ago, Web Watch thought that we knew we had enough money if other people considered us to be “peculiar”.

As we got older, we determined that being “peculiar” wasn’t good enough — we knew that we had enough money if other people considered us to be “eccentric” instead.

The question that Web Watch still has to answer is how to we get enough money to even be thought of as “odd”, since we’re nowhere close to having “odd” enough money.

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Want to get rich? Try living with someone instead of getting married

By web gangsta | Published: December 26, 2011


The Good Girl’s Guide to Living in Sin: The New Rules for Moving In With Your Man
The Good Girl’s Guide to Living in Sin:
The New Rules for Moving In With Your Man

Quick, raise your hand if you’re currently living with your partner (girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other, etc).

Yeah, we thought so.  That’s a whole bunch of you out there, living in sin.

And while you may get yelled at by your parents or your clergy for shacking up with someone, maybe there’s some good reason for you to live together before marriage:

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Movie theaters react to NetFlix with new “Pay one price, see unlimited movies” http://movi.ps/vnQbFi

By web gangsta | Published: December 14, 2011


Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies
Why Popcorn Costs so Much at the Movies

If you love going to the movies as much as Web Watch does, you’d be seeing at least two movies a week, every week for a year. 

Granted not every film you see is going to be good.  And not all will be in genres that you always enjoy.

But you’ll definitely see all the great films, all the funny films, and all the films that people will be talking about the next day if you take the time to go to the theater regularly.

But not everyone can afford to spend $12 per movie ticket these days.  Seeing 2 films a week for 52 weeks can add up to over $1200/year… and that’s not counting parking, popcorn, sodas, snacks you sneak into the theater, beer (purchased at the fancy theaters that have a liquor license)… and you can count on doubling that if you go with a date.

$2400 a year, just to sit in the cool air-conditioned comfort of a big screen theatrical event with someone special a few times a week, every week of the year.

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50 Fun Wedding Ideas if you’re on a tight budget

By web gangsta | Published: December 6, 2011


Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget
Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget

If you’re on a tight budget like most newlywed couples are, then you may be the type of couple that still wants to throw a fancy, special wedding but are trying to keep your costs down.

There are all sorts of ways to do this — Web Watch is in favor of the “don’t invite anyone” wedding in terms of cost containment — but on the other hand, our input on this subject is often summarily dismissed.

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The free $500 Red Star WorldWear gift card – is it worth it?

By web gangsta | Published: November 28, 2011


Rock Star Sunglasses
Rock Star Sunglasses

So the other day, Web Watch was flipping through one of our myriad of magazine subscriptions when one of those annoying response card things fell into our lap.

But before we could toss it away as we do all the others, we noticed there was something different about it.  This one had gift card attached to it.

A $500 gift card.

“Whoa,” we said.  What did we do to deserve this, other than subscribe to a magazine or two?

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What are you doing to afford holiday shopping this year?

By web gangsta | Published: October 24, 2011


Mrs. Pinchpenny's Guide to Surviving the Holidays on a Budget
Mrs. Pinchpenny’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays on a Budget

With the holidays around the corner, people are starting to think about ways that they can get gifts for their families and friends without breaking the budget (assuming that they even have a holiday spending budget in the first place!).

A recent survey from COUPON CABIN of almost 2,500 people asked how people were going to afford the holidays this year, and this is some of what they found:

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Save money by shortening your commute

By web gangsta | Published: October 19, 2011


Music For Commuting
Music For Commuting

The longest daily commute to work that Web Watch has ever had to do regularly involved a car, two trains, and a 4-block walk.  Surprisingly, under the best conditions, this 60+ mile one-way trek could be done door-to-door in an hour.

It wasn’t an hour trip very often.

And let’s face it – long commutes kind of suck.  No wonder people often decide to move their living situation to be closer to work.

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Can urinals really save water? Depends on how much water a urinal uses…

By web gangsta | Published: October 6, 2011


UrinalUrinal

How much water can a waterless urinal save a home or organization?

Well, it mostly depends on how many times it ends up being flushed.

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Give Me Back My Five Bucks: a personal finance guide for young adults

By web gangsta | Published: August 21, 2011


From Ramen to Riches: Building Wealth in Your 20s: Or Spending, Saving, Investing and Managing Your Money to Get Rich Slowly, but Surely
From Ramen to Riches: Building Wealth in Your 20s:
Or Spending, Saving, Investing and Managing Your Money to Get Rich Slowly, but Surely

If there’s one piece of advice that Web Watch is always trying to give to our younger acquaintances, it’s that it’s always better in the long run to save as much money as you can for the future.  A while back, we recommended to try to have $10000 in the bank by the time you’re 30 years old, and that’s still a good rule of thumb to live by (call it your “emergency fund”, it still represents about 3-to-6 months take home pay for the average young adult that financial experts recommend keeping available for emergency purposes).

And Krystal felt the same way when she found herself a 20-something with over $20,000 in debt that she decided she wanted to get rid of.  It was an albatross keeping her from future successes.

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Here’s a way to make money by getting rid of those unwanted, unused gift cards

By web gangsta | Published: August 17, 2011


$25 iTunes Gift Card$25 iTunes Gift Card

Web Watch went to a charity auction a few years ago and won a silent auction for a handful of restaurant gift cards, for restaurants that we would actually go to.

We used three of the four cards, which more than made up for the overall cost paid at the auction.  Yet we have one card left that we just haven’t gotten around to using.

And this week we found out that the restaurant it was for just closed.  We know we could travel around the country and use the gift card at one of their other locations, but we really doubt we’ll be visiting one of those cities anytime soon.  Just saying.

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Where you live dictates your utility bill costs

By web gangsta | Published: July 16, 2011


Kill a Watt
Buy the KILL-A-WATT ENERGY USAGE MONITOR

How much energy costs the average homeowner differs from house-to-house, as well as from state-to-state.

Some states have abundant energy resources, and the cost to deliver that energy to one’s home can be very inexpensive.

Some states have higher energy taxes or infrastructure issues that make providing electricity more expensive than other places.

It should come as no surprise that the US ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION collects and analyzes things like this, and makes that information available to us – the American public.

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How Extreme Couponing Works, and how to save money at the grocery store with it

By web gangsta | Published: June 26, 2011


Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey: Save Big Money & Make the Grocery Aisle your Catwalk!
Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey: Save Big Money & Make the Grocery Aisle your Catwalk!

If you’re like Web Watch, you watch a lot of television.  And one of the more recent interesting series we’ve caught is TLC’s EXTREME COUPONING.

You know the show – it features shopping trips by couponing fanatics who are able to save 90% or more on their supermarket bill by careful planning and using coupons.

TLC’s cameras follow these proud hoarders around the store as they fill their shopping carts with hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise that they’ll pay just cents on the dollar for – and then show us their “mini-marts” of storage at home, where they have enough cereal, bathroom supplies, and diapers to last for months or years without returning to the store ever again.

While Web Watch admires some of these coupon folks for using their shopping knowledge to supply charities or care packages for overseas troops, it’s those featured on the show that end up buying products that they’ll never use that really concerns us.  One show featured a woman who had almost a year’s worth of diapers in her storage area – she’s not married, pregnant, or has any children of her own. She did this so she’ll be ready when that time comes.

Just what every baby needs to wear – disposable diapers that are five years older than they are.

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