When your short on cash, one of the best ideas to conserve is to make the things (both goods and services) you have previously purchased last longer.  For example, instead of buying new clothes, try preserving the ones you currently have and wearing them for a longer amount of time.  Also, instead of getting a new haircut every month, try growing out your hair and going for that look.  This can go even bigger.  Do you really need to get a new car?  Does your old auto still function?  Why not try getting even more use out of your existing auto instead of buying a new one?  If you wait one year, you’ll get a later model anyways.  This method of saving money is highly effective and you’ll start noticing the differences in your budget while stretching out what you currently have and becoming more efficient in a difficult economic terrain.

There are a number of sites that help you manage your budget and money.  These sites have you enter your bills, income, and expenditures and tell you where you are overspending and need to cut back.  Similarly, you can also find out when you are in the red and where you are saving money.  However, these sites such as Mint.com and QuickenOnline are merely facilitators.  You can accomplish this same function by opening an excel spread sheet and writing every expense while calculating your incomes in accounts receivable.  Simply create a few mathematical formulas at the end of each column and your totals will be automatically calculated.

Are you asking yourself this question?  If you don’t usually pay attention to politics and stocks, it might be easy to think that this doesn’t affect you as it’s outside of your realm.  However, the opposite is true this time as this isn’t just a financial sector problem.  You will now find jobs harder to come by and much less loaning of money.  In turn, prices for goods and services you buy will be less but this is a result of a bad economic cycle and it is indicator that you have significantly less money to spend.  In order to do your best to perserve, save your money and work on creating additional sources of income.  One easy way to create the potential of money is through blogging online.

This is a good article on how to make money blogging.  It highlights that bloggers have the potential to make money via advertising and ppc ads through higher traffic intake.  Some of the top bloggers make thousands per month.

Did you know if you save or make an extra $2.73 a day, you will have $1,000 in one year’s time? Think how easy this would be. You could make this amount just by adding $19.11 at any point during the week. So for example, if you didn’t buy a new shirt for $20, you’d be ahead. If you ate at home vs. at a restaurant, you could save even more money. If you drank water in place of other beverages at restaurants, this could add up as well. If you got a nominal part time job just for 1-3 hours a week, you could add this much easily.

The point is a clear $1,000 is very much within your grasp in 1 years time.

We’re in tougher economic times and if you think that will change because of a Congressional bailout then you are mistaken. Because nobody is going to bail you out, you must independently become smarter about your money and how you accumulate wealth. You don’t have to be rich or old to start thinking about money. If you’re old enough to spend money, you’re old enough to start thinking about it.

One way to put more money into your pocket is to not spend/burn the money you have. This idea is so fundamentally simple, yet millions of Americans throw it to the garbage. In fact, if more Americans were smarter with their money, you wouldn’t even be hearing the word “bailout” over and over again.

Frugality is a quality many Americans need a lesson in. I’m not advocating never purchasing any luxury item again, but I am suggesting that you research and use diligence when buying.

More detail to come in later blog entries.