Today’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to Thicken My Wallet, a blog that is run by a recovering lawyer turned entrepreneur earnestly trying to thicken his wallet while musing on the greater personal finance world, small business and everything in between.

Every startup needs to look at ways to save money wherever possible and Thicken My Wallet shares the Top 10 Ways to Save Money Now:

“The stock market seems to have entered a definitive slide (good, stock may actually be cheap in the spring) which means, if you want to increase net worth in the short term, the emphasis has to be on finding ways to save money rather than focusing primarily on capital appreciation. Most of us know about the save 10% of your take-home pay rule but I came up with the following 10 ways to save money now based on my day-to-day life.

1. Carpool or, if you are in the market for a car, buy a car that takes regular gas or diesel and buy a used car.

Last year, I bought a used car but it doesn’t take regular gas. I am getting killed at the pump. What I saved on buying a used car is being balanced off by the additional gas bills (one step forward, one step back one supposes). Ideally, buying a used car that takes regular gas and then leave it home to carpool.
2. Leave your credit card at home during the week-days.

I use to work in an office tower with a series of underground malls underneath and I use to watch people die by a death by a thousand cuts buying something on sale here and something on sale there; all these unexpected expenses add up. Leave the credit card at home so you only spend what cash you have in your wallet.

3. Pack a lunch.

I don’t think I need to expand too much on how much it costs to eat out every day. The additional benefit is that if you take a short lunch at your desk, you may be able to leave work earlier (this is my pattern now).
4. Watch those transaction fees.

I give away money every month being on the wrong account plan at the bank and the wrong cellular plan. I am always over the maximum transaction/time allowed and paying through the teeth in additional charges. As counter-intuitive as this seems, I am adjusted my bank plan fees and cellular plan fee to pay more monthly to avoid those extra charges since the increased plan fees save me more money than the extra charges I use to incur.
5. Save more than 10% at the beginning of the month to make yourself “poor”.

I set up automatic debit plans that take out large portions of my pay cheque at the beginning of the month to my retirement account, mortgage payment (I am prepaying my mortgage down every month), savings etc. By the 10th of every month, my bank account looks like I have no money other than for fixed expenses (I get paid once a month). I fool myself into thinking I have no discretionary income to spend.
6. Buy used or borrow….book, CD’s, DVD’s and all those other entertainment expenses.

If you have kids, why do they really need brand new books or clothes- they tend to destroy both in months…
7. Find free entertainment.

I am finding I am spending good chunks of my weekends at the library (books, free internet access, sometimes they have shows- well, they are for the kids but I am young at heart…), window-shopping (credit card at home), at the gym (not really free but it is included in my condo fee so might as well use it). There are a lot of free things to do especially in a large city.
8. Buy in bulk with other families to really save on items.

My family use to do this when I was a kid. You buy in extreme bulk (I am talking about an entire flank of a cow or 60 boxes of tissue) and you divide it up among several families. The savings really add up buying in that type of bulk.
9. Wait before you buy anything.

My friend and I walked past the Hide House two weeks ago (aka the Old Hide House) which is now in receivership (they sell everything you could think of in leather). I saw something I like there for 40% off but it was on my want list so I went home to think about it. It was gone the next week… which is good. The instant gratification would not have been worth the amount of money I was going to pay.

10. Find the most cost conscious person you know… and ask them before you buy something.

They’ll point out to you where you can find the best deal; it seems to be built into their DNA to sniff out good deals. My brother is one of those guys who will research, research and research before he buys anything. I am in the market for a washer and dryer and so is he. I know more than I really want to at this point about front-loaders vs. top loaders and the pricing of each but if it saves me money, I am all for this knowledge.”

For more information, check out the Thicken My Wallet Blog.

What do you do to save money?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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