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Saving is still not as popular as spending, but to live paycheck to paycheck gets too distressing to ignore such a necessary lifestyle like saving! Here are seven practical ways to save that money you worked so hard to earn:

1. Don't spend it. That sounds so elementary, but it's the first idea to consider. We are such a spending generation that we ignore the savings account. The surest way to save is to avoid the urges to spend what you have.

2. Shop around for the right grocery store. To settle on the nearest supermarket may be a mistake. There are high end stores, average stock stores, and discount stores. My wife and I have shopped at every grocery store our community has to offer. Like Vons and Ralph's on the West Coast, Harris Teeter is a high end store that charges a lot more for everyday grocery items than the Food Lion chains. Both offer a discount card for some savings. Grocery warehouses, like Costco and Smart and Final offer great quantities of food at comparable prices, but can you really afford to buy bulk items? We've found a great mom and pop store just five miles from our house. Because of its low prices without needing a club card, we have been able to fill a shopping cart for under $100.

3. Use the phone or Internet to find things around town. It's all too easy to hop in the car and go looking for new places. Rather, pick up the phone to find new places and allow that full tank to last longer. Phone calls and Internet searches can eliminate not only the trip to find a story, but also the trip to buy the item. Besides, how often do we drive to a place to look at a product and feel as if we ought to go ahead and buy it while we're there? Too often! Eliminating proximity saves money!

4. Staying home is another way to save money. If we rely on what we have in the refrigerator to provide our meals three times a day, then we can avoid those costly trips to the neighborhood fast food restaurant.

5. While in the house, minimize the use of the air conditioner, the dishwasher, and the dryer. Using store-bought fans and steadying the thermostat to a single setting, you can save money by limiting the usage of power. Also, wash the dishes in the sink more often. This habit helps to minimize the number of glasses and cups floating around the house, and it teaches the children a valuable lesson in responsibility. If you have an electric dryer, then consider erecting a couple wooden posts in the backyard with a clothes line strung across it.

6. Collect the change from your pockets or purses. Put each day's coinage and paper money in a little jar or cookie tin, and ignore it. You'll be surprised how quickly that bit of cash will grow!

7. Set up another savings account, or-better yet-have a portion of your paycheck automatically withdrawn and transferred into the savings account before you register in your mind what you made and be left with the idea that this transferred money doesn't even exist.

Only practical methods of saving will keep the money saved. While it is difficult to just set money aside, finding ways to cut back in and out of the home bear greater returns on your efforts.

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Learn more about this author, James Tigerlobo White.
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