Introducing My New Site: 1,000 Ways to Save

Lately I mentioned that I was working on a new niche site (if you’d like to call it that), and so I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to it.

The site is called 1,000 Ways To Save, and by the time it matures, this site will literally be a collection of over one thousand different ways you can spend less and save more!

The idea behind this 1000 Ways To Save is to challenge the excuse that I often hear people hiding behind when it comes to money:  “Oh, I’d love to save more money towards [whatever goal], but you know … we’ve just got so many bills.  I couldn’t possibly save another dollar”.

Nonsense!  There are thousands of (if not more) ways that each of us could do a better job saving our money.  All it takes is a little ambition to find the right opportunities.

Saving our money better is something that clearly most people are struggling with right now.  To illustrate this point, Bankrate reports that 6 out of 10 Americans could not afford to cover a $500 to $1,000 emergency if one came up.  That’s very unfortunate when you consider that most emergencies (job loss, home repair, etc.) could set you back four or five figures easily.

From my personal experience, I can say that paying attention to your spending habits pays off big over time.  I’ve personally used many of the tips and suggestions that I’ll be throwing out there, and I credit them with helping us to be able to max out our 401(k), 403(b), and IRA’s every year.

Remember: By maxing out your 401(k) alone at $18,000 per year, that’s like keeping $4,500 for yourself as opposed to saving it in a taxable savings / investment account (assuming 25% taxes).

If someone told you that you could pocket an extra $4,500 per year, wouldn’t you want to try it?  I know I would.

What You’ll Find On 1000 Ways To Save

Every article on 1,000 Ways to Save will cover a new aspect of life and provide a list of creative ways where you could be saving more.

We’re going to talk about nearly everything that affects your daily life:

• Food
• Buying household items
• Driving
• Travel / Vacations
• Utilities
• Entertainment
• Clothes
• Mortgages
• Credit cards
• Your health
• Deals across multiple websites such as Amazon, Groupon Coupons, Ebay, etc.
• And so much more!

The goal of each new post will be to leave you with practical, actionable tips that you can really use.  In many respects, most of these tips will be geared towards enjoying the same sorts of things you already like – just finding a way to do them for less!

This idea gets back to one of the core themes I’ve come to understand about spending less …

Being Frugal Is About Getting the Most Amount of Value

One of the areas of personal finance where I feel blogging has helped me mature over the years is this idea of what it actually means to be “frugal”.

Being frugal does not have to mean being cheap.  That’s what I used to associate it with, and who wants to be known as cheap?

Being frugal also does not necessarily mean spending 50 hours a week cutting coupons or eating ramen noodles for every meal.

What I’ve come to better understand is that being frugal is actually about getting the most amount of value that you possibly can out of your purchases.  It’s not about always buying the cheapest option or even denying yourself the things you want.

In my own experience, I’ve made many purchases that I believe to be frugal whereas to others they may seem like luxuries.  Yet, when you take a closer look “under the hood”, you’d see what a good deal we got.

• We bought our new house at far below market / asking price.
• Our vacations to Florida and Mexico for the year were bought almost entirely using travel hacking thanks to credit card rewards points.
• The latest vehicle we bought was purchased only after aligning an opportunity where we were able to 1) talk down the sticker price (more than the dealership manager was comfortable), 2) getting the highest amount of trade-in value on our old vehicle, and 3) securing a loan with the best interest rate.

You see: Each of us has a different tolerance for what’s expensive or inexpensive.  Only I know what’s acceptable in my house.  And only you know what’s acceptable in yours.  Yet, somehow “frugal” has become twisted into thinking that you can only spend some pre-determined amount like $2,000 per month (or whatever).  And every time someone declares a lower, more extreme amount, we think that’s the new socially adequate norm.

I would argue that a person who lives on $10,000 per month may still be being frugal if they are 1) living within their means and 2) getting the best amount of value they can get for every purchase.

“Living within your means” is to say that you are meeting all of your financial goals.  For example, if you’d like to retire early and have determined that you need to save 25% of your income, then after you reach that 25% savings rate, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to enjoy the rest!

“Getting the most amount of value” is all about getting the same quality for less.  For example: If you wanted to buy new furniture for your house, then go ahead!  But before you do, be sure to do your research first.  Don’t just buy the first set you see.  Go to 3 stores and compare the quality versus price.  Do any of these stores run sales?  (Imagine that – a furniture store that runs a weekend sale?)  Can you negotiate with the salesman to get an additional discount applied?  Could they throw in free shipping?

In other words – be hungry to get yourself the best deal possible!

Behind the Scenes of 1000WaysToSave.com

The idea for 1000WaysToSave first came about while I writing my ebooks in 2016.  In one of them, I wanted to include a chapter with 101 ways to save more money.  But as I got writing it, I noticed that this list could be far more extensive than that if I really put in some effort.  And so I made a goal: Let’s try to get that list all the way up and over one thousand different ideas!

From there, a list was created.  Many of my work lunch-hours were spent adding idea after idea to this massive Excel list of every opportunity I could think of.  Sometimes I’d think of one at some strange time of the day and text or email myself.  It was kind of a fun challenge to see it at 200 or 300 ideas and say to myself: You’ve got to keep going!

With so much effort going into this list, I was originally going to groom it into its own stand-alone ebook.  However, I noticed there were already several ebooks on this topic (with one of them that seems to be permanently free).   And so I took things in a different direction …

Instead of an ebook, I decided developing the content into a website might be a better option.  There would be a higher chance that readers will find the articles organically.  Plus with any luck, we could grow a whole community of like-minded individuals sharing their ideas and tips in the comments.

In terms of structuring and marketing the website, some of the major points for me will be:

• Putting content first. My plan for each post is to write something that you’ll first and foremost actually enjoy reading.  I’m trying to include as many stories and examples as possible for each tip to keep you interested.  I’ll also link out to any other resource or article that I think could be of further use.
• Observe on-page SEO. Each post will use proper SEO structure such as the use of main keyword, latent semantic keywords, header tags, meta descriptions, etc.
• External linking strategy. I plan to promote this site by working with a number of other bloggers on guest post opportunities.  To date, I’ve already guest posted on 10+ websites this year and mentioned this website in some shape or form.  By the way: If you’d open to the possibility of me writing a guest post for you, then I’d love to hear about it.
• Internal linking.  Each post will contain a few relevant internal links to other posts within the site.  You can never under-estimate the power of good internal linking structure!
• Pinterest quality images. Part of the social media engagement for this site will be to use Pinterest.  To do so, I’ll be producing likeable featured images that will hopeful garner a few repins and shares from others.

So please: If you haven’t already, head on over to 1000WaysToSave.com and check it out!  Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions to make it better.  I’m always interested to hear what you have to say.

Featured image courtesy of 1000WaysToSave.com