Ten Ways to Save a Little Money, or Make a Little Bit on the Side

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Create a little side business to take advantage of the recession-era atmosphere. Start raising some chickens. Avoid car dealerships for oil changes and routine maintenance. Consider selling your home and relocating to a cave. And other ways to improve your financial outlook, if not necessarily your quality of life.

1. Twitter for savings, and otherwise utilize social media to locate feebies and deals.

2. Kiplinger offers 20 Ways to Waste Your Money. So naturally, in each case, all you need to do is the opposite (i.e., DON’T carry a credit card balance, or incur ATM fees, or dine out frequently).

3. Start moonlighting with your own recession-era business—say, something along the lines of a “pay what you want” taxi service.

4. Raise some chickens. I have to note that, in a story I edited not long ago for the now-defunct Wondertime, the writer said you can’t expect to save much, if anything, compared to buying your own eggs—though raising chickens proved amazingly entertaining to her and her family, and there’s no comparing the taste of supermarket eggs to ones gathered in your own backyard.

5. Bring your car to a local mechanic, where you’ll easily pay 25 percent less compared to services at the car dealer.

6. Live in a cave. This guy is doing it in Utah.

7. Switch to a prepaid cell phone or other of these recession-busting gadgets.

8. Run a strip club in your basement. Potentially lucrative, but unfortunately, totally illegal.

9. Stage a tag sale like a pro, with silly little sales tricks that actually work, like playing music and stringing up balloons.

10. Save money on your water bill by imitating the water usage practices of golf courses. Doing imitations of Billy Murray in “Caddy Shack” probably won’t decrease your bill further, though it may make conserving water (and saving money) more fun.