When I was a child eating at Five Happiness Chinese restaurant in New Orleans, I opened a fortune cookie and received this advice: “Beware of little expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship.” At the time, my parents still paid for the clothes on my back, so I tossed the fortune away. Now, as an adult, I find that that proverb proves very true and useful. Good habits in personal and household financing can save so much money per year. The key is to finding tricks so that while your cost of living goes down, your quality of life remains high.
While some among us may watch Extreme Couponers and think, “My, oh, my, what a waste of time and energy, and they just ended up with a bunch of free things they don’t need,” there is always a tinge of jealousy over the fact that they never have to pay for toothpaste, detergent or canned soup. Now, as most of us don’t have the time and commitment to put into couponing, twitter alerts can give us quick tips and feeds on how to save money in a functional, manageable way. Whether it’s links to coupons, household energy-saving methods, or just breaking of bad habits, here is a list of 10 Twitter gurus who can help pad your pockets with a little buzz alert.
1. Coupons.com – @Coupons Twitter Bio: http://Coupons.com has printable coupons and coupon codes updated daily! Followers: 186K Need for Feed: Yes, you can save tons of money couponing. But what you save in dollars, you spend in minutes. @Coupons does the dirty work for us, tweeting an average of four coupons per day, not only for groceries, but also clothing and travel.
2. Wise Bread – @wisebread Twitter Bio: Personal Finance and Frugal Living Portal. Tweets by Ashley Jacobs (@CollegeCents) and Meg Favreau (@MegFavreau) Followers: 36.6K Need for Feed: Wisebread has an amazing website that teaches all about wise frugal living. Best of all, it does so in the fun and easy to read listical format. It lists inexpensive recipes, how to earn frequent flyer miles, and basic life hacks to help you save.
3. Military Saves – @MilitarySaves Twitter Bio: Military Saves, a partner in the Dept of Defense’s Financial Readiness Campaign, seeks to motivate & encourage military families to save money & build wealth. Followers: 1,400 Need for Feed: Military Saves is a great place to start planning a household budget. It helps the beginner saver make plans for long-term and short-term expenses, and delivers its information simply and clearly.
4. Frugal Follies – @frugalfollies Twitter Bio: Laura – founder of http://FrugalFollies.com – home of frugal recipes and money-saving tips! Followers: 13.9K Need for Feed: Through her blog, Frugal Follies, Laura recounts her shopping trips and tips, explaining in exquisite detail how she cuts her coupons and BOGO’s her groceries to get extreme savings.
Got cooking questions? Tweet me and tag it #DearBrokeAss and I’ll do my best to help!
5. Gabi Moskowitz – @BrokeAssGourmet Twitter Bio: Saving the world, one inexpensive recipe at a time. Followers: 5,178 Need for Feed: Need: The name “broke ass gourmet” clearly sums up this feed: how to make fancy food without breaking the pig, just cooking it. Gabi Moskowitz’s twitter is connected to her blog that has tons of recipes, including her $5 desserts (like how to make sweet crepes with strawberries and black pepper), tips on what cheap wines are the best, and zucchini ribbons with feta. The best part is that you can contact her directly with cooking questions.
6. Pet Coupon Savings – @PetCouponSaving Twitter Bio: Pets don’t have to be expensive…come save with us! Followers: 9,018 Need for Feed: The average cost of having a dog or a cat per year goes over a grand, and pet food is about 20% of that cost. But some pet owners lower that cost by barely paying for pet food through coupons. Pet Coupon Savings sends out about one tweet every other day with a great savings for pet food. It also throws in some DIY tips, like how to make your own homemade dog toothpaste.
7. The Home Depot – @HomeDepot Twitter Bio: Let’s do what it takes to go from to-do to done. Get the latest tips and tricks to unleash the doer in you. Tell us what project you are working on! #LetsDoThis Followers: 193K Need for Feed: With the economy crashing, unemployment resulted in people having little money and much time. DIY (Do-It-Yourself) grew enormously, with people saving money around the house by fixing their own home. Home Depot not only offers great products, its twitter page also recommends cheap, DIY tips and projects for home improvement.
8. ENERGY STAR – @ENERGYSTAR Twitter Bio: ENERGY STAR is a U.S. EPA program that helps Americans make the best choices to save energy and fight climate change. Followers: 41K Need for Feed: Energy Star gives households the basic knowledge on how to save energy and money, as well as information as to what technological products are the most energy efficient. Its website is not only chock-full of information, but it also has a podcast.
9. ALL YOU – @allyou Twitter Bio: Enjoy life for less! Follow us for freebies, coupons, money-saving tips, recipes, budget beauty & more from ALL YOU’s editors. We love a good #bargainbrag. Followers: 32K Need for Feed: Some feeds just focus on money-saving lifestyle habits, some just on frugal recipes, some just on couponing. ALL YOU magazine does a lovely summation of all of the above and more, giving alerts on coupons, advice on spending, and tutorials on DIY household projects.
10 Steps to a Cheaper Easter: Easter’s on its way, which means candy galore, expensive church outfits, and unt… http://t.co/zcptd7jvX1
10. Mint.com – @mint Twitter Bio: The free way to see all your finances in one place—from any place. Set a budget, track your goals and do more with your money, for free! Followers: 205K Need for Feed: With all these money-saving resources under your belt, the key is simplification through organization. @mint promotes its free app (no coupon necessary), which helps you see all your savings, loans, investments in one place and helps you set up a budget plan.
There you have it—a drop from an ocean (or at least a sizable lake) of good Twitter feeds for Saving Money How about you, Paste readers … what are some other good Twitter feeds for people who love to save money?
