Getting the Most Out of Your Money

I was asked to present an evening of ways to get the most out of your money for our ward Relief Society weekday meeting.  Keep in mind that I'm a tax professional and not a financial planner.  Yes, there is cross-over, but I even paid for a financial planner a couple years back to help me since I didn't have the time to look into where to allocate my funds for the highest yields, etc.  That said, I'm still comfortable with numbers and talking about money so I accepted the assignment. 

I was worried 1) that I'd run out of things to say or not have any really good advice and 2) that no one would be there.  But the night went well!  There was a good turnout and the discussion about how to save money with everyone contributing, in my opinion, was great.  We have great sisters in our ward and everyone had good ideas.

Rather than keep these ideas to those of us in the room I thought I'd share them here for you, too.  If you want to learn more about a topic leave a comment and I can do another post about it.  Or, call me. :) I prepared the list and added the last section for things that came up in our discussion.

Budget
Church Guidelines
  Pay Tithes/Offerings
  Avoid Debt
  Use a Budget
  Build a Reserve
  Teach Family Members
Mint.com - Free online for tracking expenses, budgeting, saving goals, & more tools
Balance Checkbooks & Credit Card Statements
Practice with Cash Envelopes
Family discussions
Needs vs Wants
Take a second look at fixed bills

The Church’s Provident Living Resources (providentliving.org)
Family Finances Pamphlet
Online Financial Course: Peace in Your Hearts
Quotes and Talks from Church Leaders
One for the Money: Guide to Family Finances
Online Financial Calculators
Family Finance Lesson Materials
Additional Resources

Protect Yourself - Insurance (An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure)
Home
Health
Life
Auto

Tax Planning
Avoid late payment, late filing, & underpayment penalties
401(k) Contributions
IRA (Traditional and Roth) Contributions
Health Savings Accounts
Dependent Care Savings
Itemized Deductions (above standard deduction amounts)
  state tax (withheld and tax paid)
  contributions (tithing, fast AND mileage for service/callings)
  home mortgage & real estate tax

“Free” Money
Reduce/Eliminate debt
Credit Card Points (IF you pay off monthly)
Swagbucks.com - earn points for Google searches
401(k) Employer Match
Charitable Contribution Employer Match
Online discounts (e.g. retailmenot.com)
Discounts for paying up front

Groceries
Eliminate empty calories (drink more water, don’t buy soda, chips, candy, McDonalds, etc.)
Seasonal produce (on sale or from gardens, esp. high yield plants)
Shop the grocery sales
Meatless Monday
Coupons
   Combine store sales with manufacturer coupons
   Sunday-only newspaper subscription
   Utah Deal Diva’s Couponing 101 (utahdealdiva.com)
   coupons.com and coupons.redplum.com

Other Ideas
Sentimental or home-made gifts
Lengthen time between hair cuts
New uses for old things
Birthday clubs (Toys-R-Us, Aveda, etc)
Customer loyalty programs & emailings (Huggies, Pampers, WorldMarket, JoAnn Fabric, Michaels, etc.)

More from the Group Discussion
Pre-paid cell phones, especially for teenagers
$10 Costco cash from Schiff Vitamins
Allocate a % of your paycheck to direct deposit into a savings account
4 glass jars for kids's savings: Charity, Fun, Mid-Term Savings, and Long-Term Savings
Goodwill sells (with zero sales tax) excess inventory from Target and Orchard Supply Hardware
Use loose change to start savings accounts
Put coupon savings from your grocery trip into a savings account
Cook from scratch
Build it, sew it, make it yourself and consider trading/teaching skills
Pay extra on your loan payments (specify that the payment goes toward principal)


I do need to take a minute to credit two people in my life that have taught me about these topics.  My Mom taught me a lot when I was still a child about budgeting, distinguishing needs and wants, building up savings and many more fundamentals that I've been able to build on.  My sister-in-law Jessica, the Utah Deal Diva herself, has given me many of my recent tips & tricks and is my couponing inspiration.  Thank you, Mom!  Thank you, Jess!