How Am I Doing With Ramit’s Save $1,000 Challenge?

Photo Credit:  muha…

Ramit has been posting a lot more tips on his  Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge. I’m just going to put a few of my thoughts on the tips. I really encourage not only to look at the posts, but to check out the comments that are left. Some people have some wonderful suggestions that I have never thought of and I think that is the real gold nugget with this challenge.

How to negotiate your car insurance

We just renewed our Progressive policy the other month. We price different companies’ policies when renewals come around and we’re happy with what we have.  If that changes, I’ll let you know.  I switched some Nationwide to Progressive years ago and save almost half my monthly payments.

How I’m saving $2,000+ on eating out in 2009

I grabbed an entertainment book for my area. I checked out some of the places and we’ll save the most in casual dining section of the book. If we use the coupons for the places we already eat at, the book will pay for itself with three coupons.

Since I used MyPoints referral link, I also can redeem some points and get some gift certificates. Double bonus! We also can get $2.50 off movie ticket. I estimate we see 10 movies a year, so that’s $50/year.

Never pay full retail price for clothes (or eyeglasses) again

We really don’t splurge money on clothes, but the glasses tip will save a chunk of money next time I order a pair.

 Use the free rewards from your credit card, car insurance, and workplace

I tried to use my Costco membership to find a cheap deal on a vacation package for our 2^nd anniversary, but I discovered that I could save money by ’building it’ piece by piece.  For example, by using Priceline’s  bid feature, I got a week at a nice hotel for $35/night instead of their $95/night ‘sale’.  That one step saved us over $400 for the vacation. 

 For those keeping track with me with Ramit’s 30 Days to Save $1,000 Challenge:

•  Reusing & Reducing Saved Us Money on Living Room Redesign
•  How We Saved Money By Creating Our Own Cable, Phone, & Internet Bundle
• No Spend Days and Gasoline Hedging 
• AT&T Wireless: Can’t Quite Optimize, May Leave for T-Mobile
•  Involve Your Friends with Saving 
• Selling My Stuff 
•  Turn Your Thermostat Down 
• Pack Lunches for the Rest of the Week,Really?

• Tip#1 $45/month
• Tip#2 $10/month
• Tip#3 has brought me $15 for two books I haven’t used.
• Tip#4: $10 for an ING Referral bonus
• Tip#5: $7.25/month
• Tip#6: $235/month once the car loan is paid off
• Tip#7: $80/month
• Tip #8: $20/month *note we did this before the challenge
• Tip#9: $240 this month * this also include items we got for the dining room
• Tip#10: $420 for the vacation *I’ll update this as we finish up the car rental and ticket purchases.
• Tip#11: $50/ for a pair of glasses  *estimated, but not purchased
• Tip#12:  $25/month (being conservative) *after we use the 3 coupons to break even
• Tip#13: $0/month

•  Grand Total Saved:$852.25 *what I actually save during the challenge, not including future purchases (like the the glasses)
• Monthly Savings: $192.95

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