I am always seeing articles "25 Easy Ways to Save Money" or "10 Simple Things to Stop Doing to Get Out of Debt." I keep finding a frustrating problem with most of these articles: I am already doing most, if not all, of the things in the article. Of course, that might be the reason we are not in fact in debt, but as we are trying to save money for a house and car, I am searching for good ways to save.
Evidently, I can save a lot of money if I just stop going to Starbucks and make my coffee at home. Of course, when you don't drink coffee in the first place and can't really remember for sure the last time you went to a coffee shop at all, this tip doesn't really get you anywhere.
Turning your heat down 10 degrees at night will really rack up the savings--unless of course your pipes freeze because you already have it down to 60 and it is below zero outside.
Packing your lunch to the office will really save you money as well--except for when your husband already just takes last night's leftovers anyway.
Making a meal plan and shopping list and going to the grocery store only once a week will reduce impulse spending. Does most of the world only get enough food for a day or two and pick up random stuff that looks good in the moment? I guess this really must be so because I see things about this on pretty much every list. I understand that a lot of people (myself probably included) don't meal plan well, hence the number of articles written to help people do it better, but the idea of not doing it at all is a little crazy to me if for no other reason than I just don't want to spend time going to the grocery store every day.
And, my personal favorite: cutting back your haircuts from once a week to every other week will save you half the money you spend on haircuts--unless no one in the family gets a haircut more than once a month, if that, and said haircuts are done in the bathroom. (To be fair, the last one was only in one article. Are there a large number of people who really get their hair cut once a week? Really?) Also, I don't think it is bad to spend money on haircuts, but once a week is more than a little excessive.
I have every so often happened on some good tips I can incorporate and have sometimes found suggestions I am not doing, but am not willing to do either (I keep my house at 68 during the day during the winter. 60 is too cold). But most of the time, I just get a list of things I pretty much consider plain common sense, especially if someone is in debt.
In all fairness, there are a good number of frugality blogs and such that have all sorts of great suggestions, it is mostly the list articles that I find unhelpful, probably because anything that requires little effort--which most of the things on these lists are--I started doing long ago.
