Tips and lifehacks

In all of my scouring around the internet, I've compiled a few more tips and lifehacks to save you money. I've tried to list a few that are a little less obvious this time.

10. Abandon your on-line shopping cart - A pretty nifty idea that I was unaware of, but makes sense. If you have an item or two in your shopping cart in an on-line store, and go away for a few days (intending to decide on your purchase later, right?), there's a chance the seller could offer you a discount of sorts. I've heard of this mostly for Best Buy, and different clothing/shoe sites like Levis and Zappos. It's an incentive to get you to go ahead and make up your mind. I intend to try this at some point soon.

11. Canceling services, but... - I mentioned in a previous set of tips the idea of taking a break from services like Netflix or Hulu for a month or so at a time as a means to save money. I forgot to mention that companies like these will often offer you a discount if you threaten to cancel your plan. I had this happen with Gamefly a couple times now. For me, I got an email a month later inviting me back for a dollar. I could have my old rental plan for a month, if I just came back, and all I had to pay was a dollar for it. Awesome. How can you say no? This applies to a rather large list of companies and services. I'm sure a longstanding subscriber status helps. Go ahead, make threats.

12. Recycle - Take your stuff like metal and aluminum to scrap yards for a dime or two (no, really a bit more than that). Recycling old printer ink cartridges is apparently worth money too. I don't see how an office or small business wouldn't already be doing that, but you could potentially strike a deal to handle the recycling of such items. Pinterest has probably raised the value of items like wine corks, mason jars and other dealiomabobbers, so reselling things like that on eBay could net you, uh, some change. Another idea that falls under this umbrella is salvaging anything remotely important from stuff you would recycle or throw away as well. Soda bottle caps, like Coca-Cola for example, have a reward codes on them. I'm in the habit of hanging on to mine and entering them in at www.mycokerewards.com. It's a long shot, but you get 3 points per cap and can enter sweepstakes for $500 Visa gift cards among other things. Just use your noggin before you toss stuff out.