Are you trying to save money, but just can’t seem to figure out how? Believe it or not there are some simple things that you can do that will get you saving. Follow these tips to save $100.00 or even more every month.

Your first step to monthly saving is to look at all of your household bills. Are there services you are receiving that you just don’t need? Most of us have several that we really could do without. Simply downgrading your cable package or eliminating extra channels you pay for like HBO can help to start the savings. Could you bundle your phone, cable and internet together to save money. Many people do. You may also want to consider eliminating your land line altogether. Most people have cell phones and find they don’t use their land line enough to warrant keeping it.

You should also look at other bills like your insurance premiums for example. Many times just with a few phone calls you can find a rate that is more favorable than your current one.

Next, look at what you spend on food each month. Do you grab your coffee to go and what about lunch when you are working? Do you pick up take out or head out to dinner frequently? If so, stop. Make your coffee at home and pack your lunch. Plan your meals ahead and save take out and dinners out for special occasions. Fixing it your self can be a fraction of the cost you spend out every day.

How about your grocery bill? Do you buy items that you really don’t need? Most of us do. Make a list before you head to the store of the items you really need and then stick to it. Don’t be tempted to add extras to your cart. You can also clip coupons and plan you meals around store specials that week for additional savings.

Finally, look at what you spend on entertainment. While we all need to have fun, there are ways to still do so and save money at the same time. If you rent movies a lot or purchase books, check out your local library instead. You might be surprised at the selection of items waiting for you that won’t cost a thing. Check your local paper for free or low cost events in your area. There is usually plenty available for people on a budget.

As a final piece of advice, keep in mind that it is only a savings if you save the money and don’t spend it elsewhere during the month. Often people will work hard to lower costs and save the money only to turn around and spend it foolishly somewhere else.

The last year has been about finding ways to save money. Everyone has cut corners and asked friends what they do to pinch a penny here and there. If you are a family where both the mom and dad work and the kids are active, then here’s an idea for you. A great way to cut costs is by preparing your own meals. We all know this but finding the time in a busy household sometimes seems impossible.

So you work all day long and then have to shuttle the kids to soccer, baseball, piano and ballet, so how do you have time to save money on food by cooking? In order to accommodate your haste and desire to penny pinch your immediate solution may be to stop at the corner fast food joint. This quickly made decision has three downsides, 1) the food is not very tasty, 2) you and your family have just ingested more calories than you needed and 3) you’re establishing poor eating habits in your children. You would prefer to cook but if you and your spouse are going to have any quality time with the kids at night and if you are going to get those kids in bed at a decent hour then cooking is not the ideal choice, right? Wrong.

Over the weekend sit down and make a list of casseroles or easy to prep crock pot recipes that you can prepare during the weekend which will last your family the whole week. Focus on making slightly larger portions so the meals last longer. If you set aside some time on the weekend while you are at home you can prepare several casseroles at once and prep your crock pot recipes for the week. You can throw the casseroles together and either go ahead and bake them which means your meals are already cooked and just need to be reheated or freeze the uncooked casserole until you are ready to bake. If you take the second option remember that you will need to thaw the casserole in your fridge at least twelve hours prior to baking.

If you opt for the crock pot, have your vegetables already chopped and other ingredients prepped and ready to throw together so your cooking time in the morning is drastically reduced, thereby interfering less with your normal morning ritual.

At the end of your day you come home and either reheat the meal you’ve already prepped, put the casserole in the oven and eat in a short amount of time, or simply open the lid of the crock pot and serve with little or no interruption in your weekday evening. You can have uninterrupted quality time with the kids, or enough time to get to soccer and back, less stressed and reassured that you’ve provided a healthy meal for your family that costs you less per serving than take out and far less poundage to your waistline than grabbing greasy fast food.

On all personal finance sites, you’re likely to find information about how you can use coupons to save money on your weekly groceries. The cost of feeding a family can be astronomical, but it doesn’t have to be as a woman proves in a news segment on ABC News and Good Morning America. Kathy Spencer from Massachusetts shows off her couponing skills for Good Morning America, where she got $267 worth of groceries for just 1 penny.

Get Circulars and Coupons

Kathy spends a couple hours each week going through the weekly circulars, newspapers, and the internet to find the sales and coupons. When she makes her shopping list, she buys products based on if she can get them for free (or close to it).

Check Stores Policies

Many stores will let you use multiple coupons on the same type of order. For example, Kathy had 7 coupons for $1 off seafood orders. She went to the fresh seafood counter and ordered scallops and perch – in 7 different orders so that each order would be about $1 in price. She got a quarter pound of scallops in 4 different orders to get the equivalent of a pound of scallops. A quarter pound of scallops cost about $1.08. This way, she can use one coupon with each of her quarter pound orders and it will cost her 8 cents per order. If she got a full pound order of scallops in one bag, she would only save $1 off the order because she could only use a single coupon for the one pound bag, and she would pay about $3.25.

Save Store Bonus Credits

If the store you do your grocery shopping in offers bonus credits – coupons towards the price of your next order – you can use them to reduce the amount you pay at the checkout line. CVS offers “extra care bucks” when you shop and swipe your CVS card. These print with your receipt and work like cash the next time you come into the store. CVS is also a store that accepts both manufacturer coupons and their own print coupons – giving you many opportunities to get free products.

Double Coupons

Stores that allow you to double coupons give you the opportunity for big savings. Most have a limit of 99 cents or so – but any coupon you can double saves you twice as much money!

Combine Store Coupons with Manufacturer Coupons

The majority of stores will allow shoppers to use manufacturer coupons (typically found in the newspaper or online) with a store coupon (typically found in the store circular with weekly sales).

Youtube: Feed a Family of 6 for $4 a week

The price of groceries has been steadily going up on just about everything. There are some easy ways though to help save you money on you and your family’s food expenses without giving up nutrition or flavor. These tips can save you anywhere from $50 – $100 or more each month.

Before going to the grocery store, make a list! It sounds simple, but many people forget to do so and either buy too much or forget key ingredients to their meals or sometimes even both. Make your list to include what you want to cook and eat for the week or even two weeks. Then start making a new list from the time you get back on staples that you are running out of and new meals you’d like to cook. Sticking to the list saves lots of money in the long run because you won’t be buying more than you need and your food won’t go bad.

Coupons are a very smart way to save money on groceries. Coupons come weekly in the newspaper and you can also find them online for free (you just have to print them out) from places like CouponSurfer.com, CouponMom.com, CoolSavings.com and many others. Coupons can save you anywhere from 25cents to over $10 on some products. There are also some stores that double or triple coupon savings if the coupon is fewer than 50 cents or $1.

Start buying the value priced or store brand foods. It is almost always cheaper to buy the store brand foods rather than the name brand food. Unless you have really good coupons, try out the value priced option and start saving anywhere from 50 cents to over $5 per item.

Don’t buy the prepackaged meals – cook the meal yourself! A 4 serving of frozen lasagna can cost $8+ but if you cook it yourself you can make 8+ servings of lasagna for that much money. Same goes for canned soup, pizzas, sandwiches, and many more. Start cooking your own meals and you’ll see the savings add up quickly!

Discount food stores offer the best values for grocery shopping around. ALDI for instance, sells a gallon of milk for under $1.50 in most places and loaves of bread for under $1. Their vegetables and fruit are also great quality and very reasonably priced. If you don’t want to shop here for everything, those staples alone will save you big money on your grocery bill.

National School Lunch week during October 12 – 16, 2009 has placed the focus on two areas that are in need of attention by families.  First is on healthy food choices for lunches.  Second is the need for reusable containers in which to carry lunches, instead of the throw away products that are not reusable and have a long life in dump sites around the nation.

Fortunately, more and more businesses are manufacturing items that are eco-friendly and have money-saving properties in their use and implementation.  These companies stand to benefit from a world-wide emphasis on ‘green’ living by offering these products.  Many that have gotten on board are increasing their green product lineups, too.  As demand increases, they stand to profit as well.

Here are some suggestions for saving money by obtaining reusable, sustainable, and eco-friendly items:

Drink Containers
A good choice is those that are reusable over and over and come in stainless steel varieties, but there are other materials, too.  Aluminum is good because it helps maintain temperature consistency of the beverage that is placed into it.  Consider that plastic bottles which are priced at 50 cents each are costing around $100 per year for each child, so not only do you save the planet, but money as well.

Food Containers
Cloth is ‘in’ and you can find a variety of wraps that are made just for sandwiches and other snacks.  Also, there are cloth sacks that are large enough for a complete lunch.  These wraps offer convenient Velcro that helps keep them closed until you are ready to open them at lunch time.  They are also good at keeping your food fresh until it is time to eat.

Eating Utensils
Bamboo is becoming a popular choice for utensils which makes a good replacement for plastic.  It is strong and resilient even in liquid and temperature extremes.  You will even find bamboo stirring sticks for coffee and other drinks that require mixing.

All of these options are wallet-friendly choices because of the reusability and prevention of additional pollution by the purchase and disposal of plastic which has a high resistance to bio-break down over long periods of time. Going green includes the components of saving money as well as saving the environment.  Even if you do not feel inclined to be ecologically responsible (and who wouldn’t be?) you should feel good about saving money in the long run.

Have you ever thought about the size and range of kitchen storage the modern home or apartment has to offer – a drawer for this, shelves for that, and if you don’t have space for a pantry, it doesn’t matter because it all fits in somehow.

There is plenty of shelf space to store all the ingredients you absolutely must have to whip up a meal or a dessert for unexpected company.

At every trip to the supermarket you buy some item that fits the following criteria:

• You’re not sure if you have it, but let’s buy one just in case
• You know you don’t have it, you don’t know when you’ll use it , but let’s buy one just in case

So what happens to this item?

1. It will be used before your next shopping trip.

2. It will stay at the front of the shelf waiting for the right recipe, and then it will be used.

3. On your next shop, you will place another item in front of it, because the new item will definitely be used almost immediately.

4. The old item will be pushed into the back of the shelf, until you can’t see it, and you forget about it.

5. A new item, exactly the same as the old one, will be purchased, because you saw it at the supermarket, couldn’t remember if you had it on hand, but let’s buy it, just in case.

For some of you, item (1) above always happens because you are organized, and have a great memory. Some of you might even get to (2). For most of us though, items (3) through (5) are the most likely outcomes because we are grappling with multiple demands on our time and brain space, and we’re not very serious about saving money.

One day you decide to clean the kitchen cupboard because there will be a few things in back of it that could be stale. And you are shocked to find that it isn’t a few things – it’s a dozen or more things – and you mutter about waste, throw them out and wish you could do better.

If you’re serious about stopping this wasteful cycle, here’s what you do

1. Add up the cost of what you are throwing out. It is typically between $20 and $40 (or even more – but that doesn’t bear thinking about!).

2. Take $40 in paper currency and set fire to it. Can’t bring yourself to do that? Why not? You are about to throw that equivalent into the garbage.

3. Think about the delicious meals or treats you could have prepared using what you are throwing out.

4. Think about how much you paid for the meals you ate instead of the meals or treats in 3 above.

5. Add the cost of these meals to the $40 and now you have a serious amount of waste that could amount to hundreds of dollars over a fairly short period of time – typically about 3 months.

6. Think about what you could have done with this money – reduced your mortgage or credit card debt, paid bills, or just treated yourself or your family to something special.

Now that you are totally aware of what’s going on here, those dark storage spaces suddenly lose their appeal and you can swing into the LCW process:

• Look in the cupboards before you shop
• Check the back of the shelves
• Write a list – don’t rely on memory

It’s simple, but effective strategies like this that mean the difference between cruising comfortably or staggering from one pay check to the next.

The unemployment rate has been steadily increasing throughout the recession. Many businesses have been forced to close their doors, and families have looked to reduce their expenses in order to stretch their hard earned dollars as far as possible. Entertainment is typically the first to be eliminated from the budget, followed by reductions in utility use, and unnecessary expenses like cable television or cellular phone bills.

In an effort to keep customers coming through their doors, and to help families continue to enjoy restaurants despite the tightening of their wallets, many restaurants are offering discounted menus. If you’re looking to enjoy a meal at a restaurant while still keeping to your budget, here are several restaurants you might consider, and their reduced price menus:

Chilis

Chilis offers ten meals for under $7. These menu items are perfectly portioned – instead of getting enough for three meals, you get just enough to be totally satisfied. Menu selections under $7 include mini beef burgers, half portion of the Chilis famous Monterey Chicken and your choice of a side, tacos, full sized burger, mini chicken sandwiches with fries – both regular and buffalo flavor, flavored chicken tenders, quesadillas, cajun chicken pasta and nachos.

Applebees

Applebees offers a 2 for $20 menu, featuring your choice of a shareable appetizer and two entrees for $20. Choose from four popular appetizers: mozzarella sticks, boneless buffalo wings, crunchy onion rings or spinach and artichoke dip. Meal choices range from four different burgers, two different salad options, ribs, chicken tenders, fiesta chicken, or three cheese chicken penne, steak or shrimp.

They also have a lunch menu that starts at $5.99 if you dine before 3pm on weekdays and includes a two-dish combo that you select yourself from soups, sandwiches and salads.

Red Lobster

Red Lobster offers several lunch options starting at just $6.99 in their new “Quick Catches” lunch menu. You an add a side salad to any lunch for $1.99. Choose from favorites like beer-battered shrimp and chips, soup and grilled shrimp salad, shrimp and chicken, salmon BLT, fish sandwich, wood fired shrimp skewers, chicken BLT, and caesar salad with your choice of chicken or shrimp.

Red Lobster also features a pick-any-two (from the list of options) combo lunch for $9.50.

If you have the Entertainment book, you can take advantage of a number of buy one get one free meals at your favorite local restaurants, as well as discounts and coupons good at most fast food restaurants.

The conventional wisdom is that eating healthy costs more than not.  The main reason given is that fresh fruit and vegetables are more expensive than other processed and packaged food items.  While on the surface this is true, the focus should be placed on the total cost of eating.  Here is what is meant by this.

The food conveyor belt.  The frozen, processed and over salted foods that we buy each week do little more than add to our all ready overburdened bodies with too much of what we do not need.  Many health issues arise as a result of not eating enough of the right things.

The slick packaging and marketing of certain foods and additives combine to give us a satisfaction that we have eaten what we like, not what is best for us.  And, we also have this mistaken opinion that eating healthy does not taste nearly as good as the alternative.  So, we continue to pack on the pounds through the years and before we know it, we have serious health issues to deal with as a result.

The alternatives.  The good news is that eating healthy is more accepted now than ever before.  Even in the processed and pre-packaged food items, progress is being made that proves that the alternatives are not only good for you, but taste good as well.  Even though there is still a long way to go, at least there has been significant progress in the labeling of these foods to give us a sense of what we are eating.  Pay attention to what you pick up and choose for your meals.

One of the best ways to be cognizant of this is to visit www.webmd.com and look at their information on healthy eating and dieting.  You will discover all kinds of information with which you can arm yourself when shopping for groceries.

The true costs.  The true cost of eating lies in what it will cost you from a health standpoint.  You are unique and your diet needs to reflect that.  Make sure that you balance your desire for good taste with your need to eat right.  In the long run, given the costs of health care, it is less expensive to eat healthy.

The true health benefits.  Living under a healthy lifestyle not only means eating correctly, but being in balance with life around you.  You should exercise your body and mind.  Keep active and look for opportunities to stretch yourself and take on new challenges.

If you approach healthy eating in this manner, you will be in a better frame of mind, and who knows, you might even avoid serious health issues because of it.  It is definitely worth the effort.

If you live in the United States, statistically there’s a 63% chance that you are overweight. As a nation, we have unhealthy diets, terrible exercise regiments and have some of the least healthy restaurants in the world. We know that we should go out to eat at McDonalds every day, but are some restaurants worse than others? Absolutely! Men’s Health recently did a study of the menus across 66 chain restaurants across the country. It found that some major chains surprisingly offered very healthy food, and found that eating at others on a regular basis will put you on a fast-track to a heart attack.

Baskin-Robbins scored very low on the list. They have been previously criticized for offering a Heath Shake that had over 2,300 calories. To their credit, they have recently lowered that shake to 1900 calories. Their soft-serve ice cream has just about the highest-calorie density that you can get, and their smoothies contain more sugar than they actually do fruit. If you go to Baskin-Robbins, checkout the light menu to avoid the worst offenders. Their frozen yogurt, sherbet, and no-sugar added ice cream are also healthier options.

Carl’s Junior was also an offender. As most fast-food restaurants are moving toward healthier products, Carl’s Jr. is focusing on attracting individuals with big appetites. Their products contain more fat, salt and calories than just about any other fast food franchise. For example, the lightest item that they have on their breakfast menu is the hash-brown nuggets, which have a whopping 5.5 grams of trans-fat. (You’re not supposed to get more than 2 grams of trans-fat per day). Your best bet is to eat lunch somewhere else, but if you have to eat there, checkout the chicken salad or the charbroiled BBQ chicken sandwich, which comes in at just under 400 calories.

Denny’s didn’t fare too well either. Each one of their “Slam” breakfasts come in at over 800 calories a pop, and their burgers aren’t any better. Their double-cheeseburger is the single worst in the country, coming in at 116 grams of fat, and 7 grams of trans-fats. Men’s health labeled their double cheeseburger “the worst burger in America.” The magazine suggest that you checkout their “Fit Fare” menu if you want to eat healthy there. Their soups, grilled chicken and sirloin steak are also less-unhealthy options.

The other restaurants that ranked very poorly in the lost included Dairy Queen, Ruby Tuesday, Chili’s, Uno Chicago Grill, Chevy’s, On the Border, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Baja Fresh, Applebee’s, IHOP, Outback, T.G.I. Friday’s.  The restaurants that were the healthiest included Chick-fil-A, Subway, Jamba Juice, Au Bon Pain, Boston Market, Cici’s Pizza Buffet and oddly enough, McDonalds.

In the last few years, a number of “service review” websites have been developed that allow consumers to share their experiences with restaurants, hotels, entertainment destinations, professional services, and even doctors with one another. When a professional receives positive reviews on review sites like Yelp.com, they often see a significant increase in business. Conversely, those who don’t poor reviews are often hurting for business. Some who have received bad reviews have as gone as far as litigating commenters who post negative reviews.

The first lawsuit of this kind occurred after a man named Christopher Norberg wrote a negative review about the chiropractor he visited, specifically with some of the chiropractor’s billing methods and how they were not fair in dealing with insurance companies. At first the chiropractor complained and demanded that Norberg remove the review, but Norberg reviewed. Eventually the chiropractor, Steven Biegel of Advanced Chiropractic Center, sued Norberg for libel and invasion of privacy. Eventually, the case was quietly settled out of court.

Another suit occurred in January of 2009 when a pediatric dentist of Foster City, CA sued two consumers over negative reviews that they had written on Yelp.com. The consumers had criticized the dentist for giving their son fillings that used Mercury. The Dentist, Yvonne Wong, commented “I don’t want these lies to be posted on the Web site about me–I’m not looking for money” to the San Francisco Chronicle. Wong stated that she was forced to sue for libel after Yelp.com refused to take the reviews down.

Although these suits are currently few and far between, there is a trend emerging. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever post less than favorable reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor, but rather that you should be careful with what you write. Remember to stick to the facts. It’s perfectly okay to express your opinions, but make sure to do so in a manner that’s honest and won’t open you up for a lawsuit.