1. Create a new budget. A new year calls for a new budget. Rolling over an existing budget might be easy, but making changes now is easier than dealing with debt in the future. Have you moved, switched insurance, or added a new family member (child or pet) in the last year? Take into account what changed in 2011 and what you’d like to change in 2012. A pay increase or bonus might leave you feeling carefree, but using that as an excuse to splurge can quickly destroy your old budget. Update your budget (or if you don’t have one, start one) with help from these top five budget sites.

2. Ditch credit card dependency. If you’ve already got your budget under control, then putting the credit cards away shouldn’t be too hard. We don’t usually budget cash for impulse buys, so without cash in hand we often turn to the credit card quick fix for items we want but don’t need or can’t currently afford. The easiest way to eliminate this debt inviting thinking is by leaving your credit card at home. Removing the temptation is one way to break free from credit card dependency.

3. Improve your credit score. Don’t let your credit score surprise you. A bad score can keep you from getting the best interest rates, force you to pay deposits for utilities, or even cost you a job. Check your score, and if it’s below 750 make a commitment to improve your score in the New Year. Check out these tips for how to beef up your credit score.

4. Cut spending on [insert budget category here]. This year make a vow to lower your grocery bill, entertainment bill, or clothing bill. Using coupons (not just cutting them out) and comparison shopping can save a lot more money than you’d think. Search a number of different websites or newspapers for the best deals available instead of buying something the first time you see it. Pricegrabber.com even does the comparison shopping for you. Even small changes like attending the cheaper daytime matinee instead of the pricey Friday night movie can add up to big savings.

5. Grow your savings. Cutting spending is a good goal, but a better goal is to grow the money you’ve saved. For example, that $3.50 you saved saying no to the office Starbucks run once a week is good start, but why not take that $3.50 and turn it into nearly $1,000 after just five years. By investing those saved costs in a savings account you can actually profit from your good behavior. Check out how to build long term wealth with more easy tips.

The so-called “flash sale” discount sites are particularly enticing. A designer bag or new tech tablet is offered in limited quantities, and a timer runs nearby telling you how much time is left. Thinking to yourself, “I’ll never get a better deal,” you quickly make the purchase.

Sounds great, right? Not so fast: Spending more than you normally would, or spending on an item you don’t need (even if it’s on sale) is NOT saving—it’s overspending.

Here are a few tips about how to avoid the temptation to spend on the latest, greatest “flash” sale:

1. How Good is That Deal?

With a limited number of items and a limited time to buy, retailers are capitalizing on our impulse to buy now rather than later. But the deal you’re getting might not even be that great. As the New York Times reports, don’t be surprised if you find those same “exclusive” items on a different site, for less money and without the pressure.

2. Money For Nothing…

In an age of credit card information that’s automatically on file and “one-click” online purchases, sometimes it seems like you aren’t even spending real money. Reality check! The credit card bill is going to come every month, and it’s up to you to keep track of each purchase so you don’t blow your budget. Un-checking that “save my information” box at your favorite online retailer might be just the thing you need for a more frugal New Year.

3. Keeping up with the Joneses

Retailers on these “exclusive” discount sites have taken “Keeping up with the Joneses” to another level—not only can you purchase the new bag that your favorite celebrity is sporting, but you can also use social media to let your friends know about it. The best way to avoid going into debt is to stop keeping up with the Joneses – especially considering that the rich and famous don’t have much of financial track record to speak of.

It’s Friday, so here’s a little financial humor to close out the week.

In this hilarious ad for Norwegian bank DnB NOR, a woman awakes in a five-star hotel room to discover that she has drunkenly married George Clooney, who adoringly shows her online photos of a vacation home he has picked out as a wedding gift to her.

The tagline? Translated from Norwegian, it reads: “Some people are lucky in life. For the rest of us, saving up can be smart.”

We’re just not sure anyone has ever been that lucky.

Sulekha.com

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.

There are a million articles on how to save more money, but how many of them contain advice you can actually use? We distilled the best advice we’ve ever gotten into five simple and universal truths.

1. The best way to save money is not to spend it. Even if you’re getting something on sale or at a great price, you’re still spending money. So when shopping for anything — from groceries to a house — make sure you really need it before you pull the trigger.
2. Learn how to comparison shop. For airfare and hotels, check multiple airlines at once using aggregate data from sites like Kayak.com. Check what interest rates different banks are charging on mortgages and credit cards on Bankrate.com. And before filling up your tank, find the cheapest gas in your zip code on GasBuddy.com.
3. Knock out impulse purchases. If “I just want to treat myself” is in your vernacular, add up how much a $5 nail polish, $10 iTunes album download, or $4 magazine costs you on a monthly basis. That may be enough to make you speak a different language soon.
4. Know when to buy used. Certain things — like mattresses and medicine — should always be purchased new. (Just whispering the words “bed bugs” in New York will cause many people to run screaming from you.) But there are plenty of normally pricey items — from jewelry to musical instruments to home decor — that can save you a bundle on great-quality stuff when bought used. Know what they are and get friendly with Craigslist and Kijiji.
5. Ignore the Joneses. Keeping up appearances when you can’t afford to puts you on the fast track to debt and financial insolvency. That may mean limiting your contact with people who live a faster lifestyle than you do, but a friendship with a competitive undercurrent is not a friendship you will miss.

5MinutesForMom.com

Spinning off Tuesday’s post, the question remains: If you do manage to cut your spending on discretionary purchases, how much money does that help you save every year?

Bills.com has a nifty Ways to Save Money feature that shows you how much your savings can add up if you sock away the money in an interest-bearing account. For example, cutting $5 per week from your grocery bill every week adds up to a savings of $1,300 over five years, assuming a 1 percent rate of return. That’s a fairly simple change that you can make with dramatic long-term results.

One drawback: At the moment, low-risk savings vehicles (like savings accounts and certificates of deposit) are paying peanuts — a fraction of a penny on the dollar in most instances. And Bills.com’s calculator does not allow users to select anything under a 1 percent return, so it may be overestimating how much your savings will compound over time.

But we offer a solution. Punch your estimated savings and the actual rate of return you’re getting in your savings account into our Compound Interest Calculator to play around with more realistic outcomes.

Flickr.com

Being a personal-finance aficionado, I always click on those articles that promise to help cut the fat from your budget. Most recently, I was intrigued by the idea of RealSimple.com’s “24 Hours of Savings” article for finding ways to trim your spending throughout the day.

However, it’s disappointing that the bulk of the advice seems to be to cut back on lattes, deli sandwiches, sweets, booze, and takeout. All told, the amount of money the article says you can save by slashing those edible expenditures amounts to at least $26 per day.

My first reaction? “If you’re spending $26 a day on takeout, that’s $9,490 a year — no wonder you have money problems.”

It’s an unfortunate habit for personal-finance articles to contain unhelpful, overly general advice you have probably already thought of yourself. (For your amusement, here’s another example.) And much of the time, it amounts to little more than pound-foolishness.

So let’s put the question to you: What’s the most simpleminded advice you’ve ever seen in a personal-finance publication? And what kinds of tips do you find the most helpful?

USMint.gov

You’ve seen those commercials on TV that proclaim, “For just 50 cents per day, you can change someone’s life.” And while some of those charities are no doubt worthy, what if the life you could change were your own?

This is not a gimmick. To see how spare change can add up, I was just playing around with Econ4U’s Compound Interest Calculator to see what saving two quarters a day could earn you in the long run. If you sock away 50 cents every day, you’ll have $182.50 at the end of one year. Not bad in itself.

But what if you put that in a basic savings account paying 1 percent in interest?

Well, after five years of continuous saving, you’d have $930. And after a decade? You’re up to a whopping $1,908 — all for saving just 50 cents per day.

No matter how close to the brink you are, just about anyone can scrounge up two quarters by emptying your pockets, keeping an eye on the sidewalk, and checking change-return wells in vending machines. Hey, even the office couch may yield a return.

As they say, a penny saved is a penny earned — and with compound interest working for you, that makes nothing but sense.

TheFreshXpress.com

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.

There’s a difference between dating cheap and being cheap — we’re not endorsing the latter, but there are many ways to show your crush a creatively good time without emptying your wallet. Here are a few of our tried-and-true methods for romance on a dime.

1. Go bowling. Few things take the awkwardness out of a first date faster than goofy shoes, victory dances, and sharing a plate of nachos. Expect to pay under $20 for at least an hour of fun (or check if your local alley offers all-you-can-bowl nights.)
2. Pack a picnic. Fall is the perfect time to pack up a picnic lunch and hit the trails or park to gaze at foliage. Homemade tomato/basil/mozzarella sandwiches, a couple of seasonal apples, and a bottle of wine will run well under $20 for a gourmet lunch.
3. Appreciate fine art for free. Many nonprofit institutions offer free admittance to museums, film festivals, and concert series. Browse FestivalNet for local listings of music and film festivals and fine-art fairs.
4. Get outside. Channel nervous energy into an adrenaline rush by partnering up for rock climbing, hiking, biking, or kayaking. If you’re less sporty, nature walks and zoos will provide you plenty of conversation starters without making you break a sweat.
5. Show off your cooking skills. We don’t recommend it for a first date, but serving up dinner at home is a surefire way to cozy up with a date. Hopeless in the kitchen? Epicurious.com offers free access to the recipe databases from the Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine archives.

PerfectWeddingMag.com

If you’ve followed the conventional wisdom of making a budget to live within your means, you may think you can just kick back and reap the benefits, right? Not exactly.

There are a number of life changes that will require you to tweak or even completely redo your budget. Here are a few of the most important changes you can make to ensure your budget can adapt to major life events.

• You get a raise. You may be tempted to spend a chunk of that money on a bigger apartment or a fancy new car, but resist. If you allow your expenses to expand every time your income increases, you’re not any more secure financially than you were before the raise. Keep your monthly expenses the same, though, and your savings accounts will reap the benefits.
• You lose your job. When your paycheck evaporates, it’s time to tap into your nest egg. However, maintaining your previous lifestyle without an income is a fast way to deplete your emergency fund. What you need now is a [blank]-hit-the-fan budget. Strip down your spending to stay current on the essentials for survival (housing, utilities, food) and any debt obligations (student loans, minimum credit-card payments, and other loans) to keep your credit in good standing.
• You get married. When you legally become a two-income household, the IRS starts looking at your earnings in a new light. Sit down with your new spouse to make sure you’re paying the correct amount in taxes every payday to avoid an unhappy wedding gift from the taxman next April 15.
• You have a baby. Not a newsflash: Kids are hardly cheap. The Department of Agriculture calculates it costs $226,920 to raise a baby to adulthood. However, the early years need not be the most expensive. An infant doesn’t need dozens of toys, books, or expensive outfits (especially considering she will outgrow all of the above at record speed), and as long as it’s safe, he won’t care how much you spent on his nursery furniture. Resist the urge to splurge gratuitously on your new arrival. And here are some important other financial milestones to hit before Junior arrives.

MarthaStewart.com

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.

After paying for housing and utilities, the grocery bill is often the largest single line item in a household budget. So if you haven’t already tried these tips to shave dollars off the cost of feeding yourself and your family, they’re worth a shot.

1. Organic foods aren’t proven to be healthier. If you are on the organic bandwagon because of environmental reasons, that’s fine, but there’s no compelling health argument to justify paying more for organic. The Mayo Clinic says there’s no nutritional difference between organic and conventionally grown produce, so don’t feel bad about not paying the premium.
2. Don’t let a sale price entice you to buy something you don’t need. Remember: The easiest way to save money is not to spend it. Saving 20¢ on pudding still means spending two dollars that you weren’t planning to part with, so ask yourself first whether you really need it.
3. Plan your meals before you hit the supermarket. We’ve all been guilty of buying a nice piece of fish or a bunch of kale with the best of intentions, only to find days later it’s wilted and starting to smell up the fridge. Knowing what you plan to cook and when can go a long way to saving you from throwing away spoiled food.
4. Skip convenience foods. Pre-washed, cut, and bagged broccoli can be double the cost of a head of the cruciferous veggie. You’ll also pay extra for salad kits instead of lettuce and dressing, baby carrots over bunches, and pre-formed hamburger patties rather than a package of ground beef. Take the extra time to prep your food and your savings in the checkout line will add up.
5. The freezer is a budgeter’s favorite appliance. Buying the value pack of chicken breasts and the giant bag of peas is always smart because frozen meat and vegetables can keep up to six months in the freezer. Learn to read the cost-per-ounce section of every label to stretch your grocery dollar as far as possible.