by Victoria Tiegert

Created on: December 22, 2008

As a realtor, I have been forced to figure out ways to cut the fat off my budget since the "collapse" of the housing market. I have been surprised to realize how much overspending I was doing in many areas and how many things could be cut out of my spending entirely. There are many more than seven tips I can share with you, but these should get you started thinking in a way that will lead you to more and more economizing ideas.

1-Always spend poor! This sounds strange, I know, but it is effective. An example of poor spending is when I go to the local grocery store with fifty dollars. It is amazing how much I can really get! However, if I go with an unlimited amount of money, I get far less per dollar. When we shop as though we have more than enough, we don't use the same judgment and thought that we do on a budget.

2-Don't let unnecessary fees eat your money. If you are a poor checking account user and are accumulating a bounced check every month for around a thirty dollar fee, which is assuming that your bank covers the check and you aren't being charged another fee from whoever the check was written to, you are wasting three hundred sixty dollars every year. That is a large sum to spend on nothing. Some credit cards, especially those for people beginning to build or repairing their credit, charge a yearly fee. Call and ask the company if they can drop the fee from your account and if not, pay it off and discontinue business there. Other fees might include monthly services that you don't use, such as a gym membership or a movie by mail type of thing.

3-Coupons and rebates are wonderful ways to save money, but only if you use them. Subscribe to a Sunday newspaper for a few dollars a month and you will find many dollars worth of savings inside. Clip away and store the ones you don't need now in a small filebox under categories. Go through the coupons once a month or so to discard any that have expired. There are also websites, such as coupons.com that are full of coupons you can print off and use. Sometimes they will even have free offers on new products! Rebates are often the biggest savings offers as they assume (correctly) that most people will not really turn them in. Many stores have their own programs where you only have to enter your receipt information online. For example, RiteAid offers a couple of items "free after rebate" every month and they have an online rebate center. Easy as can be to get your item free!

4-When you receive your monthly statements

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