Pitcher Water Filter Systems

Buying bottled water can become very expensive.  A 30 pack of .5 liter bottles of water is about $5.  Even if you drink only one bottle a day, that's still $60 dollars for the year for only 48 gallons of water.

However, the use of a pitcher water filter can get you more water for your buck.  For example:

The Brita Pitcher Water Filter is $25 with one filter included.  Additional filters are $9 each.  The average Brita user uses 6 filters per year.  This would put your yearly cost at $70.  The money saver is in the actual amount of purified water produced.   Each filter purifies 40 gallons of water.  Annually, one will purify 240 gallons of water.  

Grocery Store Savings - Don't Shop Hungry

Grocery stores know that wonderful smelling, great looking food sell! In order to save some extra money on your groceries, make sure you eat before you shop. NEVER shop for food when you're hungry because you'll end up spending too much money and buying far more than you need.

Quit Smoking - Save Money

Quitting smoking has more than just health benefits. It has HUGE financial benefits too. Quitting smoking saves money, simple as that.
A smoker who spends $3.00 on a pack of cigarettes and smokes a pack a day, could save over $1000.00 a year! QuitrSavr is an innovative to see how much money you save once you quit.

Netflix Saves Money

Netflix is an easy, fantastic way to rent movies from your home. Not only that, studies show that using Netflix is a much cheaper way to rent movies than at a video store.

The following information was found here:

Cost Per Movie:
Blockbuster (in store): $4.82
Netflix: $1.62
Difference: Netflix costs $3.20 less.

Total Cost For 415 Movies:
Blockbuster (in store): $2,000.30
Netflix (3 out plan): $673.74
Difference: Netflix costs $1,326.56 less.

Total Cost For 1 Movie Per Week for 3 Years:
Blockbuster (in store): $751.92
Netflix (1 out plan): $339.82
Difference: Netflix costs $412.10 less.

This study shows that someone saved over $400.00 using Netflix instead of renting from a video store.

The Costco Chronicles: The Return Policy

Similar to the return policy at Nordstrom, Costco Wholesale offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee on EACH and EVERY product they sell. Like Nordstrom, one can return any item* at any time as long as they have the receipt. This is a great policy to take advantage of because it puts a lifelong warranty on every product they sell. From milk and eggs to Playstations and DVDs, Costco will take anything back, with NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

* All items sold at Costco Wholesale can be returned or exchanged at ANY time except televisions, computers, MP3 players, digital cameras, and camcorders which have a 90 day return policy.

How to pay for your child's college

My brother Paul is the smartest guy I know. He is the CEO of an internet startup and is my mentor on a lot of subjects. One of those subjects is personal finance and saving. I'll share with you guys what he does for each of his daughters to give them a huge helping hand in creating a middle class lifestyle.
When his first daughter was born, he started putting $300 per month away in her college fund. By the time she's 18, Paul will have plenty saved for a good education at a California state school. He won't have to make cut backs or change anything for this increase in spending, because he was preparing for 18 years.
Pretty smart huh? What a nice thing to do for your offspring.

Cheap Gas Prices

We all know how painful on the wallet filling up the ol' tank can be. Now, with MapQuest - Gas Prices and Gas Buddy, people can see the high and low prices of gasoline at gas stations in their area. This allows drivers to save time and money when refueling their ride.

Mint.com

Mint is an awesome site where users can easily keep track of everything they are spending, and have it show up in one simple interface.
I have used this tool for a couple of months, and I'm totally in love. It's super easy to use, and shows you exactly what you are spending your money on. Great for anyone on a budget, or just curious about their flow of money.

My only criticism about Mint is that you really have to make sure the automatic categorizing is working. Once I bought a concert ticket for a band called Architecture in Helsinki, and Mint thought that that was a home related expense because it had the word "architecture" in it. It's still great though.

Shedding Credit Card Debt

I found this interesting excerpt from MSNBC that might help those in credit card debt as we begin 2008.

"Of course, the best way to avoid creating problems for yourself in 2008 is to use your credit cards cautiously and sparingly, always being sure to pay the entire balance off in full and on time each month. But if you’re already in a serious credit-card pickle as 2007 winds to a close – as millions of people are – try this: Transfer your credit-card balances to a card with a lower interest rate ASAP. You’ll save $730 if you transfer a $2,000 balance from an 18-percent card to an 8.25-percent card and then pay off your balance at a rate of $50 a month. Better yet, transfer balances to cards with rates of 0, 1 or 2 percent and concentrate on paying them off entirely while those low rates last."
- Laura T. Coffey

Freecycle and Craigslist Free Ads

In addition to the Craigslist free ads, there is also a great site called Freecycle. They are both exactly what you think they are: a place to find or give away stuff for free. Great when moving, or when looking for a Rachel-from-Friends-style haircut.
To view anything on Freecycle, you have to be a member, because it is just a Yahoo group, so it's not quite as simple as CL, but it's great nonetheless.

Savings Calculator - MSN Money

The Savings Calculator by MSN Money is an interesting tool that allows users to see a variety of things including:
how much money they could potentially save, how long it will take to reach a certain financial goal, and when the user can reach their first million dollars.

The Savings Calculator is not only fun, but a great way to plan your finances for the future.

Coupon Mountain Website

Coupon Mountain is an excellent site for finding online coupons. These coupons apply to stores like Target, Old Navy, and Toys R Us. Some of Coupon Mountain's most popular coupons are for Dell Computers.

Where and how to cut back

When thinking about how to save money, it's helpful to look at where you're money is going. Stuff like rent or insurance is usually fixed, and there is little chance of that changing, but variables such as food and entertainment are good opportunities to get creative. For instance, I spend about $10 a day, five days a week going out to lunch. That's $200 a month, or $2400 a year just on lunch. Ouch! If I were to bring a sack lunch from home that cost 3 dollars two days a week, I'd be saving $672 a year. That's like getting a $1000 bonus!
I don't think your quality of life should always have to suffer when cutting back, the point is, that saving is pretty easy, very gratifying, and extremely effective.
I need to start making lunches, I'm gonna be rich.

Starbury Footwear

In this world of insanely overpriced footwear, N.B.A. superstar Stephon Marbury has created an affordable line of athletic shoes for men. By affordable, I mean dirt cheap. Seriously. A pair of "Starburys" can run anywhere from $9 - $15 a pair! Exclusively sold at Steve & Barry's, these kicks are worth the price and might even help that pathetic jump shot of yours.

Don't fake the funk on the nasty dunk.

A Dollar Saved is 2 Dollars Earned

Awesome post over at mymoneyblog.
A Dollar Saved is 2 Dollars Earned.

Saving Ten Percent of your Income

The trick to being rich is to always save more and more. If you keep more coming in, and you're not spending it, it is literally a matter of time before you can afford anything you want. But in this land of instant gratification, a matter of time is too long. We want it now, and if we had it now, we would be so happy. So we take loans, or get on payment plans, and do everything we can to have it now. This is not the answer. The answer is to only buy what you can afford while saving.
I've heard a couple of different rules to go by when saving money. One is to immediately save 10% of every paycheck. Don't even look at it. Don't even think what you could be doing with it, and don't you dare blow it on a vacation. Just know it's there, ready for a wise investment after you have had some time to look at your options, while all along the money in growing.
Another is to only by what you could afford two of. I like this rule, though I haven't followed it in the past. It's extremely tough, especially when buying something like a car, or putting a down payment on a house. It's not for everybody, but if you have the will power to seriously live within your means, you can set yourself up for a life of financial freedom free of stress and budget headaches. Also, if something were to come up– say your son needs a Oprah-show surgery– you have a great pillow of cash when you really need it.
Anythoughts on these ideas?

Nordstrom - Return Policy

Buying nice clothes can be rewarding. You look good, you feel good. However, as the seasons change, and current styles are forgotten faster than MC Hammer pants and slap bracelets, many are left with a closet full of unwanted clothes. The solution? Buy your clothes at Nordstrom.

Nordstrom sells all of their clothing, footwear, and accessories with a lifetime warranty. What does this mean? It means you can return anything you buy at Nordstrom at ANYTIME (the only catch is that you must have a receipt). This means you can return those huge jackets you no longer need in the Summer. It means you can take back those jeans that no longer fit. Is this stealing? NO! Here at Cash Lobster, we look at this as a full proof investment into one's style.

The Food Saver Plus

I know what you're thinking, "Is this a blog, or an infomercial." The answer is neither... or both... or just a blog. Yes, it's just a blog, but that doesn't mean I can't put out a plug for one of my favorite money saving products. The Food Saver Plus is absolutely as cool as you think it is. Despite being shamelessly promoted on television, this is a very high quality product, and keeps your food fresh three to five times longer! I'm serious!
If you do the cookin' (and if you're a money saver, you do), then the food saver will serve you well. You may think, "Well I live alone, so it probably doesn't make much sense for me to use this scary machine." On the surface, that seems viable, but lets dig a little deeper. Saving food makes sense when dealing with large quantities, but when you live alone, you don't really do that. Now get ready for your mind to be blown. The FSP allows even the tiniest chefs to make large quantities because you can save everything you don't want for that specific meal. Now you can buy in bulk, save more, and waste less.
At the $139.99 price tag, this item may take a while to pay for itself, but when you bite into a deliciously fresh tasting 3 year old crab cake, you'll curse your days before the Food Saver.

The Costo Chronicles: The Membership

Costco Wholesale is company that prides itself on selling high quality goods in bulk, at competitively low prices. Set in a warehouse, Costco Wholesale sells EVERYTHING from produce, to furniture at very low, affordable prices. The catch? In order to shop there you must have a membership. Fear not, these memberships only cost $50 dollars a year, and they completely pay for themselves. For example:

90 tablets of generic Prozac cost $117 at Walgreens, $115 at Eckerd and CVS but only $12 at Costco. That's $105 in difference.

180 pills of Metformin are $110 at Walgreens, $106 at Eckerds, $113 at CVS, but only $33 at Costco. That's an $80 difference.

Costco's biggest price advantages resign in their jewlery, meats, medicine, and gas.

Retail Me Not– Instant Internet Savings

If you guys haven't yet heard, Retail Me Not is an excellent site for finding free coupon codes for popular online stores. At first I thought it was too good to be true, but when I tried it during my check out at J Crew, the free shipping code posted here, worked like a charm! I was thrilled, never has the internet saved me money so quickly and effortlessly.
I have also used codes for Vista Print, where I got 80% off my entire order, and GoDaddy, where I got a .com domain for $8.
Not bad at all. If you think it's too good to be true, give it a try, there is really nothing to lose but financial worries!

Cash Lobster is born

Welcome one and all to Cash Lobster– the premiere source of money making/saving tips on the web. Sound like a bold claim? You bet it is, but the only thing that is greater than our love for saving money, is our love for this blog. Like a pregnant obese Amazon woman, you can expect big things.
We want Cash Lobster to always provide the most timely and effective advice on the subject of saving money. Check here often for updates, and please subscribe to our RSS feed. Chances are, you'll learn something that will save you some serious cash, and if not, you will at least be mildly entertained.
You may be wondering, "What sets Cash Lobster apart from all the other money saving blogs?" The answer: Us. Differentiation can only come from one thing, and Adam and myself are hear to go on the record as saying we are the bomb, in every sense of the word. Except of course the literal sense. If you don't enjoy reading Cash Lobster, we don't want you here, and if you think you can write better than we can, get your own blog. Cash Lobster isn't for haters. It's for lovers.
More to come very soon.
-James Edmondson