A large box of baking soda is cheap, like $2, at the grocery store. You’ll probably go through 1 box a month if you use it for what I suggested. By using it as soap in the shower, it exfoliates your skin and prevents you from putting all kinds of crazy chemicals on your body (from body scrubs, soaps, etc) that can cause psoriasis & other skin problems. Using it as a shampoo (you just toss it in your hair and rub it around, then let it sit for a few minutes), it’ll exfoliate that, too, and prevent dandruff. Baking soda cuts oil and neutralizes odors. Brushing your teeth with it acts as a gentle dentifrice. Shaving with it not only exfoliates your face, but neutralizes bacteria and germs which can get into cuts and infect them. After the shower, toss some in your hand, wet it just a tad and rub the slippery/wet baking soda under your arms. Let it dry, and it’ll act as deodorant and anti-perspirant through-out the day.

Now, if you add up all the savings from what you would normally spend each month on stuff …

$2 soap (more if you use a liquid body soap)
$2 shampoo (more if anti-dandruff)
$2 shave gel
$4 deodorant
============
$10
-$2 baking soda
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$8 save a month

If you have to use special versions of shampoo and such to control dandruff, you’ll save even more. (I used to have a really bad seahborheaic dandruff that took $10/mo shampooo to control. I switched to baking soda, dandruff went away, no longer spend $10 on weird shampoo).

Folks always look for one “big” thing to change in their life to make a difference, but it really is all the little things that add up, for better or worse.

For 45. I have AAA, but I found that many deals on the web – expedia.com, orbitz.com, and similar websites are better that what AAA offers. There is also priceline.

Another item for those who work for large corporations. Check out if your corporation offers some special benefits (shopping discounts, travel discounts, car rental etc.). Some large corporations donate a lot of money to arts which may translate to free entrance to many museums for employees. If you work for such a corporation, taking your badge with you to NYC (for example) can give you free tickets to many museums there for you and your guests.

Learn to value your money. When think about buying something you see think how long it would take you to save this amount, what other potentially more useful things the same amount of money would buy and whether whatever you want to buy really worth it to you.

Also, calling to cancel your cable may mean you get transferred to a customer retention specialist who can offer you a better deal than the one you have currently. Often, businesses would rather give you better terms than lose you as a customer altogether.

….shop at garage sales; group sales like for club or schools are the cheapest cuz they have so much stuff and don’t want to deal with it afterword. later in the day they also markdown prices even further. went to one last weekend that was all the clothes you can stuff in a bag for $3. i managed to fit in 8 shorts and 10 tops. you can also take the nicer clothes to a consignment shop and have them resold for some profit.

….don’t buy into the idea that certain brands only work with certain products: i steam carpets for some extra cash and get the soap at a dollar store. it works just as well as the brand name soap thats suppose to be the only one that will work with that make of cleaner. just need to take a few minutes and test different brands.

For number 40, as you see, not all the suggestions pertain to everyone. :-) Someone who works in a retail store, for example, might have a better chance of earning a few extra bucks for the emergency fund by asking for more hours on the schedule.

“40. Work a few extra hours at your day job. ”
a) Only applies to non-exempt employees. b) Those who do get overtime often need to have some justification to work late c) The compensation of those who are “exempt” from overtime pay is often not correlated with the amount of time spent at work. The productivity during work hours is often more important as well as skills like competence, creativity, leadership skills, etc. Also, if you use your brains for your job, being tired isn’t the best time to come up with great ideas; at some point you start making mistakes and get “negative productivity”.