Use your car less often

When possible and for shorter trips, swap your car for walking or riding a bicycle.

This will not only improve your health and fitness because you are exercising but you will start feeling better within yourself too.

By doing this, you will save on fuel and wear and tear by not using your car. It's also better for the environment as you're not creating any emissions by walking or riding.

Less take aways

Buy take away good less often as this often leaves you out of pocket more so than grocery shopping. Home cooked meals are cheaper in the long run and you can make more in the meal for less than take away. Just as taking your lunch to work instead of buying it will save you an easy $10-20 a day. 

If you don't like to make sandwiches, why not make extra for dinner the night before and pack it up for lunch the next day? Most work places including construction sites have a smoko shed/room where you can refrigerate your lunch and even reheat it. 

Don't get me wrong, you can still buy your lunch or take away dinner but limit it to once or twice a week. You will be amazed at just how much money you will save.

Are you crafty?

If you answered yes, why not start making a few more items and book yourself a stall at your local Sunday markets? Depending on your area, these could very well be every Sunday morning. 

You don't have to sell solely your craft items (unless it's a craft fair) but you can take some of your unwanted items that you no longer need and sell them too. Handmade items are very popular at the markets and everyone is always looking for a bargain but make sure you have priced your items competitively and not leaving yourself out of pocket.

If you cannot attend your local markets as a stall holder for any reason, why not approach local business owners in your area? Some business owners are happy to sell your items in their store for a percentage of your price. The bonus with this is you can make your own price tags and get your name recognized in your community.

If you are unsuccessful with that, why not create your own Facebook page or group to sell your items? Selling on Facebook is free unless you pay for ads.

If that doesn't appeal to you, you can sell on established sites like eBay or craft specific sites like etsy.com or madeit.com.au but just remember with these established sites, there are fees to be paid for listing and selling your items.

Recycle your old items into new items

Do you have towels and tea towels that have seen better days? Do you have a sewing machine? Turn your old towels into foot mats by folding them in half and sewing the edges together. Turn your old tea towels into washable dish cloths by cutting them in half then folding them in half and sewing the edges together. This will give your old items new life that will last a little longer before they head for the rag bag or rubbish bin.

Do you have old sheets that are almost thread bare? Why not cut them into 2 inch strips and crochet them into a mat if you know how to crochet? If the sheets are flannelette, why not cut them into squares, sew an edge on them and turn them into new face washers? Your old worn out face washers can also turn into your new dish cloths for extra life.

By doing this, you can save yourself money buyin these items and only replace the bigger items you have recycled like sheets and towels.

Discounts

Every time you find coupons, keep them. Use your coupons and loyalty rewards cards whenever you can, this will definitely save you money in the long term. Here in Australia, we don't get coupons like those in the USA but we still get them in the form of shop-a-dockets, junk mail, etc. Keep all your coupons and only throw them out once they have expired, you just never know when you will use them.

If you like to keep track of how much you have saved, buy a little exercise book to keep note. If you have a high interest savings account, you could always put the money in there that you have saved - this could go towards that holiday or big purchase you've been wanting.

It's amazing just how much money you can save by using your coupons.

Join rewards programs

At most places where you spend money, there are loyalty rewards programs. Places can range from supermarkets to restaurants to coffee shops, etc. these rewards programs can offer some great discounts from discounted fuel to buy a certain amount of something & get the next free to half price when you show your card to earning points which you can save up to pay your whole bill with. It's usually free to join these programs and with the discounts on offer, it's definitely worth joining. If you are unsure of your favorite places having a rewards program, just ask next time you're in or have a look on their website as there's sure to be a mention of it somewhere.

Make some pocket money online

If you have some spare time, a computer/tablet/smartphone, why not join some legitimate sites that pay you for your time? There are survey, paid to click, chat and discussion sites that pay you to do things. Please note that all legitimate sites don't pay you much per input but these are the ones that PAY!!

Survey sites pay per survey and pay you a certain amount of money depending on how long the survey is.

Paid to click sites pay you petard you view, sometimes this can be a percentage of a cent but it all adds up if you do this on a regular basis. 

Chat and discussion boards pay you for your activity. You can start discussions and reply to each reply an your account balance will grow.

A lot of these sites have different ways of paying you depending on the country you live. Some examples of how you can cash in your balance is Paypal, bank deposit, cheque and gift cards.

For a list of legitimate sites that pay, please visit http://www.freewebs.com/moonchild1authere is a list of earnings from previous years plus a blog from when payments were made with a link to the site. Go check it out and happy earning!!

Keep your car regularly maintained

I know this is not always affordable for everyone but keeping your car as well as the tyres regularly maintained will save you money in the long run. Regular services done by a mechanic can pick up on just about anything that is about to go wrong and attend to that as well as the service. 

If you cannot afford to keep your car maintained by a mechanic, you can easily do the oil change yourself if you are mechanically minded, that way, it only costs you for the oil and oil filter.

Also, if you regularly maintain your tyres (make sure there is always the correct air pressure), this will help your tyres to last a lot longer than what they would driving around with flat tyres. Not only will you be staying safe on the road but your tyres will last longer (providing you don't constantly do burn outs).

By doing this, you will no doubt be saving money in the long run by preventing mechanical break downs and regular tyre replacements.

Buy when on sale not as you need

Buying items that you regularly use when they come on sale will save you money in the long run. It doesn't matter if you don't need the product when you buy it because if you leave buying it until you need it, you risk buying the item at full price. You don't have to buy a lot of that item when it's on sale but by buying just 1 extra will save you the difference between the sale price and the full price. This idea can be used for food items as well as toiletry and cleaning products.

Another way you can use this idea is by buying gift items when they come on sale and put it away for that person until that special day (birthday, Christmas, etc) comes along. You will be surprised not only with the money you save but you will be ready for the occasion even if your finances are tight at the time.

Buying in bulk

When you can, buy items that you need in bulk. Some supermarkets sell bulk food items like rice which end up being cheaper per kg the more you buy. For other things like cleaning products, you may have to go to a specialty store. Do your research first though work out what it would cost you to buy what you normally use as to what you will pay for a bulk item. Some things may not work out cheaper but 9 times out of 10, they will when you work out the price ratio. 

Book exchange

Have you got any books laying in boxes or in your bookcase that you will never read again? You can't afford to buy the books you want to read and keep? Why not bundle your unwanted books up and take them to your local book exchange? They will give you a monetary value of what you can exchange your books for. This will not only get rid of your book clutter but you will gain books that you will read over again.

If this doesn't interest you, you can sell to the book exchange and come home with some cash instead. Please note that book exchanges don't give much money to buy books off you as they need to resell the books.

If you have it but don't use it, sell it

Do you have unwanted or unused items laying around the house? Why not sell them for some quick cash? You could auction them off on eBay or another auction site, sell them on your local buy sell swap site on Facebook, sell them at the local Sunday markets or have a garage sale.

If you are unsure of what price to put on your items, your best be would be to auction them off on eBay or a similar site and let the market determine a price. Just remember to do your research to find out which way to sell your items will suit you. If you can't spend the time at the markets or have a garage sale, then your next best thing is to sell them on eBay or a Facebook group that allows selling. 

Not only will you be getting rid of the clutter from your house but you will be making some extra money which can then be put to better use than the unwanted clutter.

Save any spare cash

Do you have spare change left in your bank account, wallet or purse by the time your next pay cheque arrives? If you do, how about opening a bonus savings account, Christmas club account or just another bank account strictly for savings only. Then all you need to do with the left over balance in your bank account is to transfer any left over monies before your pay cheque goes through. 

Any left over change & notes can be taken out of your wallet or purse to take to the bank when you have the time.

You will be surprised at how much money you can save over a 12 month period for doing just this - especially if you have one of those bonus savings accounts that pays you bonus interest when you don't withdraw any money.

Cut your electricity bill down

This is about the easiest bill to slash when you and your family are in the habit of doing so. Instead of having your appliances on stand-by when not in use, turn them off at the wall. 

When things like tvs, microwaves and washing machines, etc are not in use but are still on at the wall, they still use electricity. You may not think its much they use but you will be surprised by how low your bill will can go when you are in the habit of turning them off at the wall when you're not using them.

The money you can save by doing this can go towards better things like food shopping or in a savings account for that long overdue vacation.