Don't Heat your Closets and Save

Do you keep your closet doors open at home? What about your cabinets in the kitchen, your basement, or your pantry?
Although it seems like nothing much, these storage spaces in the home add up to a lot of cubic footage, and when you are trying to save money on heating expenses, the cost of heating your closets, cellars and pantry can really stack up.

Just by closing the doors and ensuring that there are minimal leaks, you can reduce your heating bills by a significant fraction, which is more dramatic if your closets are on an outside wall.

While you are at it, you can consider closing off a wing of your home during the cold season, to help conserve energy. If you have enough space in your home to live in just a fraction of it, it can be a great way to save on costs such as lighting, heating, and cleaning for the winter.

Borrow Before you Buy

When you live in a community of average folks, chances are there are going to be a lot of people with similar and different interests to your own. I happen to be enthusiastic about cycling, gardening, writing, and crafts, but my neighbors like reality television, music, and horseback riding.

Sure, there are a lot of differences between us, but when one of us needs a specialized tool the other might happen to have it, and that can save a ton of money when extended over the course of a month or a year's worth of weekend and evening projects.

I recently found myself trying to hand some posters without a hammer, nails, or sufficiently strong adhesives. Sure, I could have made a run to the local hardware store and kitted myself out, but instead I didn't spend a dime, bonded with the neighbors, and borrowed all that I need with an open invitation to take whatever I wanted, since they had a lot of leftover supplies from a construction project last year.

You can easily save 5-10 dollars a week by borrowing tools and supplies that you might need, a savings of well over 250 dollars per year!

Get Plants for Free

Play your cards right, and you might be able to snag a tree, bush, or other plant for free just for giving a call to your city or town planning and public works departments.

Lots of tree species are encouraged for use in cities and towns due to their air purification qualities and a generally metropolitan aesthetic. If you are looking for new feature plants for your lawn or garden, give a call to your city government and save $300  or more in plant costs.

Stay Simple on Paint Color and Save

If you can stand a simple interior, toning down the colors and styles of paint in your house or apartment could save you a bundle over the more vibrant hues.

Simple colors like white, beige, and brown are a little boring but also much cheaper to acquire and touch up than bright reds, yellows, and other colors. There are usually discounted cans in the right color available, and you never have to worry about furniture not matching the paint color or using the wrong can of paint in a certain room.

To make matters even better, neutral colors of paint are often better for home sales and can help your home appeal to renters and buyers, saving you time on the market and a bit of money too!

Clean on your own terms, and save a bundle

If you are like the average American household, you don't worry a bit about dropping 4 or 5 dollars a month on cleaning supplies.

After all, a clean home is a healthy home, and a healthy home is a happy home!

But if you are regularly buying an average household's worth of home staples, you might be able to save about 50 dollars a year by using them to clean your home too.

Distilled vinegar, baking soda, used tea bags and a few other common household ingredients can do wonders around the house, and are useful for cleaning tile, glass, metal, and even hardwood surfaces to shining glory.

For more information, check out The Green Guide, but you can also look into Pinterest for a ton of great recipes for home-cleaning solutions that you can prepare yourself!

You'll be squeaky clean while you laugh all the way to the bank.

Pre-Pay your Bills and Debts to Save Fees and Interest

If you have a particularly good month, quarter, or year, there are a number of options to take.

You could increase your savings rate, and bank the money.

You could increase your spending rate, and improve your lifestyle by purchasing goods and services you want or need.

You could invest the money, and try to build wealth for the future,

Or, if you carry a large debt burden, you could try to pay down debts faster.

I like the idea of getting a guaranteed return on my money, and by paying down my loans faster I can reduce my principal and cut down my payments overall.

Even other bills, like rent, insurance, and phone service, can usually be negotiated ahead of time and paid for, so that it is possible to go for a considerable length of time with no impending bills other than utilities and unexpected expenses.

While you might be sacrificing some flexibility with that money, you are gaining security in that you are guaranteeing that you will have no late fees, no lapses in coverage or service, and a better track record with those companies.

The best part of paying down a loan early is that you are reducing the overall cost of that loan. Especially early in the repayment process, reductions in the principal, or amount of money that is accumulating interest, can drastically reduce the amount of interest paid. For my student loans, for every dollar that I pay down now I am saving 2 dollars in interest payments over the term of the loan, and for people with mortgages and lines of credit, this is doubly true.

Save Money by Buying Items in Stock

I've got no qualms about saving 50 dollars and buying an open box appliance instead of waiting for an equivalent device that is more expensive to arrive, and if the savings could be as high as $300 on a big ticket item like a dryer or washing machine, then it is probably worth at least comparing in store prices with what is available online.

Even better, when you are in the store you can look over items before buying, point out any cosmetic or structural flaws to a sales associate, and identify any discounts or price reductions in real time.