With no immediate end in sight for the recession, millions of families are struggling to pay their mortgage, car payment, credit card bills, and still have money left for groceries and other expenses. Yet some families have discovered creative ways to cut their expenses, leaving money for savings and entertainment.
What those families are doing is taking advantage of the wealth of information that is available on the Internet. One doesn’t need a degree in economics to grasp the fundamentals of household budgeting; all that is necessary is a desire to save and a willingness to explore all the options. And the home computer can easily connect you with all the resources you’ll need.
There are websites that offer grocery and consumer coupons, product evaluations, budgeting tips, bartering services; sites that direct you to where the highest interest rates are paid, where the best deals will be found, sites for travel, and thousands of other helpful sites.
A great place to get started is with Mint.com, a FREE web service that offers FREE money management software. Allowing users to track their spending, the website currently connects to more than 8,000 financial institutions and is regularly adding more. With a wealth of services and options, Mint is a great place to begin learning how to live more frugally.
Other helpful money saving sites are listed below:
BudgetTracker.com—A budgeting website.
Flipswap.com—An electronics recycling service that PAYS for old cell phones.
CouponMom.com—Offering printable grocery and other coupons.
MyGroceryDeals.com—Another coupon website that compares local grocery deals.
Lala.com—A CD swap website Swapagift—A website where you can buy, swap, or sell gift cards.
Zunafish.com—A website for trading CDs, DVDs, paperbacks, audiobooks, and video games.
While these are certainly tough economic times, there are creative ways to cut expenses. An to address that issue, The Housing Guru would like to announce a soon to be launched blog, The Frugal Guru, where readers can both learn and share money saving tips from around the world.
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