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It may be easy to talk about saving money, the hardest thing about it is the doing part.

It may be easy to talk about saving money, the hardest thing about it is the doing part.

I do not claim to be the best when it comes to saving money, but I do have some trick up my sleeves. Here is some money saving tips that I have personally experienced and applied throughout the years:

1.) Be electric consumption conscious - Considering that electricity cost is very expensive nowadays, this is probably one of the best money saving tips I could offer. By simply monitoring your electricity consumption, you could save a lot of money. All it takes is turning of appliances and lights that are not in use. Other measures include shifting to energy saving light. What we personally do is that we turn off our electric water dispenser and our refrigerator during the night time. Buying new home appliances certainly helps reduce electric consumption. It is a well known fact that new home appliances are more energy efficient than old appliances which enables you to save electricity in the long run. Our bill went down by almost 25 % when we started becoming more electric consumption conscious.

2.) Save loose change - My mother has taught me a lot of money saving tips, but this is one good habit that is very difficult to break. It may seem insignificant to collect loose change at first. But if you are religious in collecting it, it will start to grow. There was one time when the loose change I saved reached more than P 10,000.00. ($200.00 U.S plus)

3.) Recycle - I have just started to implement this program. Instead of throwing away plastic, glass bottles and containers I started collecting them. Currently I have 4 sacks of recyclable materials that I am planning to sell at the end of the year.

4.) Not buying from the convenience store - Filipinos have commercialized "convenience stores" but there are also neighborhood convenience stores which we call as "Sari-sari" stores. This is where most Filipinos go to when they run out of shampoo or cooking oil. If you badly need the stuff and you do this once in a while, that may be all right. However buying your everyday needs in the sari-sari store might prove to be more expensive. Sari-sari store are definitely more expensive than the grocery stores because they buy their stuff from the grocery stores.

5.) Eating out less - This is one of the money saving tips that most financial experts agree upon. I think nobody would argue with me bringing lunch from home to work is definitely much more cheaper than buying lunch outside. Frequently eating outside especially in restaurants will surely make a dent in your pocket book. If you are a "leisure eater" and would like to satisfy your gastronomic cravings by trying out new restaurants, just try to schedule and limit your restaurant visits to once a week or once a month.