Drink Water

I don't mean individual bottles. They are a scourge on our purses and our environment. But excluding individual serving sizes, water is nearly always cheaper than any alternative. Our local, state and federal governments spend millions to make sure we have clean tap water to drink. Whenever possible, take advantage of this resource.

If you truly can’t trust the water at your home, filter it. Still cheaper than soda, juice, milk, beer, etc.

At restaurants, order ice water (with a lemon slice if you prefer) and save 20%-30% on your lunch tab versus ordering iced tea or soda (which will be made from that same tap water). If you’re afraid to drink the water served at the restaurant, consider that they are preparing the food in the same water. If you wouldn't drink the water, you wouldn't eat the food prepared in it, right?

You need water. Eight glasses a day is the general wisdom. Drink it and save money every day.

Accept Change

When the clerk at the store tries to give you pennies for change, accept them. Remember, every penny matters. You want to treat all your money with respect and that should include the money you are tempted to toss in someone's "give one take one" dish. Put your change (including pennies) in your wallet, change purse, or pocket and then use your pennies as soon as possible to turn them into silver.

For example, let's say you get back three pennies on a transaction and you put those in your pocket. Then your next transaction totals $9.92. You might be tempted to pay with a $10 bill, but if you give the bill plus two pennies ($10.02), you will get back a dime. You will have turned those pennies into silver.

And unless you are a big fan of stuffing pennies into paper rolls, or paying someone else to do it for you, be sure each morning to grab any change you dumped from your pockets the night before. If you practice this discipline, you will turn your pennies into silver every day and you will never need to have more than four pennies in your possession.

Needs Versus Wants

To begin pinching pennies out of your budget, you should consider all of your expenses and determine which are needs, which are wants, and which are some combination of the two.

Needs

Needs include clothing, shelter, food, and transportation to work. You may need medicine or education. If you have dependent children then you must provide for their needs as well. And we all need love.

Wants

Wants are just about everything else. They are the pie-in-the-sky dreams we believe we may never achieve, but they are also the frivolous things on which we waste our money because advertisers manipulate us into "needing" them. I do not mean all wants must be avoided, just that you should recognize them as optional.

The gray area

When saving money, you will make the most progress looking at those items that reside in the gray area. I think of these as needs dressed up in wants. You need protein, but you want a rib eye steak. You need shelter, but you want a loft in the city. Your children need exercise, but they want a trampoline. You get the idea.

Why are these distinctions important? Needs are not optional; you must make sure needs are met. You will go into debt if necessary to ensure your child gets food to eat or to fix your car if you use it to get to work. But as you consider all of your expenses in relation to these categories, you will begin to see places you can cut wants and better meet your needs. Perhaps you will decide that although you need a snack at your 10:00 am break, and you have wanted and purchased something from the office snack machine each day in the past, from now on you will bring a snack from home that saves you $.40/day.

You will also begin to weigh your wants. You may find that you want a newer, more reliable vehicle more than you want the latest video game or a night on the town. Or you may decide instead that you want the nights on the town enough to squeeze a few more months out of the car you have.

Getting clear about what you want will help you choose what you want most and help you pinch the pennies to pay for it.

Every Penny Matters

I saw a young mother with two small boys outside the grocery store today. One of the boys ran ahead and picked up a coin off the ground. "Thomas, put that down. It's filthy," his mother called.

"But, Mom, it's a penny."

"A penny. What could you buy with a penny? Nothing. A penny these days isn't worth the effort to pick it up off the ground." She had reached Thomas by then and tossed the coin aside.

You know, nothing frosts me more than hearing someone talk like there is an amount of money that isn't worth saving. You have to start somewhere. Ben Franklin said, "A penny saved is a penny earned." I think he said penny, not dollar, because he recognized that saving money begins at the smallest unit. Every penny matters. And in today's economy every penny matters more than ever before.

If you are throwing away pennies, then over time you are throwing away dollars. If you agree that every penny matters, I would like to share with you the tips I have found over the years that allowed me to keep more of my hard earned pennies. I think I can teach you a thing or two about saving money.