Saving

If you're the parent of an infant or if you are expecting, finding cheap diapers is probably on the top of your must-save-cash-somehow list. Fortunately, diapers don't have to break the bank. Unfortunately, finding these little pockets of absorbency on the cheap isn't always easy. But if you follow a few basic save-cash-on-diapers rules, you can walk away with a little savings in your pocket. Here's what I found through trial and error with my first daughter.

Go Cloth

When I learned recently that my sister is moving to Florida, I was so excited that I almost peed my pants. After the screaming subsided, my sis asked what all the commotion was about, and I proceeded to respond incoherently, mumbling, laughing and hooting like a crazy person. She hung up.

Recently, we brought you some ideas on how you can shave some of those pennies off the price of a gallon of gas. Now we're back with a few more ideas that can take the sting out of paying at the pump. With a bit of weighing your options and some planning on your part, you can help maximize the minimizing of your gas use.

Make A New Plan, Stan

Our family, like many others, is always looking for ways to trim back our budget and save money. For me, it was starting to really plan out meals using what we had on hand and bumping up my couponing game. My dear hubby got swept up in the savings frenzy, too. Here's a bit of a personal experience on our foray into a rebate that managed to do absolutely nothing for us. Well, that's not fair – it did manage to give both of us headaches.

It All Started With An Ad

Whenever the subjects of shopping or the household come up when I'm talking to a neighbor, she almost always will offer up a variation of this advice: "The dollar store is the best place to get ." While I'm all for saving money and getting things my household needs and uses at a good price, I'm not totally sold on the idea that the dollar store (the DS) is the be-all, end-all of great deals. Sure, everything costs one buck. But does that mean it's really providing you the best bang for said buck?

The Q's Have It

Congratulations, MomVesting reader. You've made it through yet another Christmas season. Who's for looking ahead to next year's holiday season? Now, don't click away just yet; hear me out. Yes, many of our seasonal lights are still blinking away after the sun goes down, and many of us have just finished carting out the large garbage bag stuffed full of wrapping and tissue paper. And some of us – the lucky ones – still have a few Christmas cookies or goodies hanging around the house.

There’s no doubt about it: saving is hard work. Especially when things are tight. It may feel impossible at times to save any amount of money, let alone enough for an emergency savings account or a retirement fund. Thankfully, there are a few ways to save without feeling like you’re giving up every fun aspect of life. Let’s take a look at a few.

Moonlighting for Savings Cash

When I was younger, I could not save. If I had cash in my wallet, I spent it. If I overspent the funds in my checking account, I transferred money from savings. In fact, my robbery of my joint savings account got to be so frequent that I earned the nickname "Sticky Fingers."

Whether you are trying to get out of debt or are developing your nest egg, your first step to both is to pay yourself first. Lucky you, right? Well, this really can be just as easy as it sounds.

However, it is not nearly as fun as it sounds. The idea of paying yourself first simply means that you will work on a percentage basis to allocate your funds, not that you will spend money on whatever you please. Bummer? Not so much. When you pay yourself first, you are putting as much of your cash toward saving as possible to spend on bigger things (like retirement) later.

You've probably heard the saying "a penny saved is a penny earned." Makes, sense. A penny is a penny, right? It's actually not exactly true. In most cases a penny saved is actually better than a penny earned. “What?” you ask? Well, thanks to federal taxes, earning a penny typically leaves you with only a fraction of your hard-earned coinage, while saving a penny post-tax leaves you with an actual full, shiny, copper coin. In fact there are many benefits to saving versus earning, so let's take a look.

Taxes