5 ways to save money with minimal changes

As a sequel to my 5 Ways to Save Money Without Sacrificing Anything, I thought I would post this-
5 Ways to Save Money With Minimal Changes

The tips listed here are primarily intended to get you to rethink how you spend your money.  Sometimes our habits or the things we think we "need" have become so second nature that we don't notice what a waste a lot of it is.

1. Use men's deodorant
You get more. It works better. It costs less.
But you don't want to smell like a man.- so get unscented.  Sure unscented doesn't smell "pretty" but do your armpits really need to smell like watermelons?

2. Lower the temp on your hot water heater 10 degrees F  
But you like hot showers, you say.  Here is where I point out that even when taking a hot shower you turn on the cold water with the hot water.  Add less cold to your shower and you wont even notice the difference. I promise.

3. Cruise Control
If you do any amount of highway driving use this feature to save yourself some money.  Many people don't know that 90 km/h is the ideal speed in terms of fuel utilization. So get yourself to 90, hit cruise control and enjoy your drive knowing you're saving about 10% on your gasoline costs. And unless you're driving massive distances going 90km/h instead of 100km/h will not actually make a noticeable difference on your commute time. Really. Do the calculation
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4.  Try a toy rotation for your kids
You know it happens. Your little one gets a new toy and he TOTALLY loves it!!!! For two weeks. Then, he doesn't seem to care about it anymore, Honestly hes a bit bored of it.  How frustrating for you and your toy budget!
 So divide up your toys into toy boxes, mesh laundry baskets or plastic bins. Then put all the bins but one out of sight.  When your little ones start to get bored with their toys, just swap it out for the other bin. (I personally do the swap every two months) Zero dollars spent and all the excitement of Christmas morning for your kids. 100% win situation.

5. Turn off the TV.
I'm not going to get into how cancelling cable is a huge money saver, and something you honestly wont miss after two weeks (I say this from experience as my family is now well over a year cable free and I will NEVER go back to cable). But if nothing else at least reduce the screen time. Cut it down by an hour a day and watch your life transform.

 The benefit here is several fold. Powering that giant screened TV everyone owns is not free, multiply that by the number of TVs in your home and that's a pretty big cost commitment just to keep them on!

Those commercials playing every 7 minutes - they are not by accident.  The more exposed you are to them the more you start responding to the "needs" they are inventing. and buying the products they tell you to.

Once the TV is off you will discover a bunch more time than you thought you had. That time will motivate you to be productive. Maybe you will use it to go for a run, starting a healthy lifestyle that cuts down on your medical costs. Or maybe you wrap your own holiday gifts in your new found time instead of paying someone at the mall to do it. Maybe you finally roll your jar of change and find $60 you didn't even know was there. Every hour of reduced TV time is money in the bank, so start small because before you know it big changes will be very easy to do.

Happy money saving and Merry Christmas, gentle readers!!