Money Saving Tips to Help with Your Unemployment

Learning money saving tips to stretch your financial resources is a must when one loses or about to lose a job. When faced with unemployment, the first thing that came up in my mind is how to conserve my limited financial resources and make it last until I can find another job.  I came up with some money saving tips that my family is now following:

• Limit use of credit cards. If we can’t pay in cash then we cannot afford it or it can wait until we have money to buy the item.
• Limit dining out or stopping at the fast food. It is amazing how the $5-6 fast food meal everyday can be saved for more important, necessary items that you must have.
• Use dining coupons that allow you to buy one meal and you get another meal or item for free or for half-off. Before you run off, make sure you have your coupon on hand or you will end up paying for the meals at full price. We became good with using dining coupons when we occasionally go out to eat.
  

Buy generic items versus brand name items. This is one area you have plenty of opportunity to save money. When you buy groceries, household items, prescription drugs, you can opt to buy generic rather than paying more for the fancy packaging and well-known brand names. In many cases, when you get past the hype of brand names, the generic is as good as the well-known brand products. I started buying store brands like my local grocery store brands versus brand name products and they work as well.

Online shopping. I used to shy away from buying some things I need online. Lately, I have been going to online stores like Amazon.com to look for special items that I can get for less than buying from a store. My daughter's charger for her Mac Book was broken. To replace this with a brand new one from Apple store costs about $75. By going to Amazon.com, we were able to find one for about $50.00 saving us some hard earned money. This is just one example of how we were able to save. Of course, be a smart shopper when you buy stuff online. Make sure you are dealing with someone or some company that is reliable.

Make a grocery list of items you need before you head out to your favorite grocery store. This will help you from buying things you don’t need. Clip coupons and know when your grocery store put up their sale items or mark down their prices.

Find and shop at your local dollar stores. Your local dollar store is a good place to find good deals for your needs like paper goods, wrappers, cleaning solutions, greeting cards, etc. You can find a lot of generic items like paper plates, cups, cleaning items that are more reasonably priced compared to your local grocery or store.

Save energy and cut your electric bills. I became very mindful of lights, electric gadgets, television, radio, etc. that we left on all day long every day. I now make it a habit to turn these off if these are not being used or nobody is watching the television or listening to the radio.

Use the library and check out books, movies, CDs for free instead of buying them. Go to garage sales and pick up books or CDs that others no longer want.

Start shopping around for best rates for your home insurance, car insurance, your cable or telephone service. Call your current carrier or provider and negotiate for a lower rate. These are some expenses that we took for granted and we just continue to pay regularly. It also pays to evaluate what you need, do some comparison, and get the best price for it.

The above money saving tips are ideas to get you going. Be creative in finding ways to save and stretch your money. There are a lot of articles online that you can refer to for money saving tips.

For example, Yahoo Finance has a section on Personal Finance or you can access MSN Money Central. There is always an article on money saving tips, how to handle your finances in this economically challenging environment. Some of these sites even have calculators to assist you how to budget within your means. Make use of these resources to your advantage.

Generate Cash. Now that you have some free time, go through your house and find items, clothes, books, tools, gadgets, etc. that are just collecting dust or taking up space. Put these up in eBay or Craigslist or do a garage sale. Even if you earn $100 from the sale of these items, it is an additional $100 that is now in your pocket that could cover a week’s grocery.

Other options to generate cash: Trade in old books, video games that you no longer need and get an Amazon gift card that you can use to purchase necessary items. Trade in

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