This is dedicated to Grant. I don’t know him or her, the mysterious person has chosen to remain anonymous. But regardless of their identity, they’ve expressed interest in how to budget, save money, and live a lifestyle that allows you to avoid using payday loans.
While I don’t know much about money stuff, I thought at the very least I could share different things that have allowed Jess and I to live virtually debt free, simple, and happy lives (up until today at least!)

• Spend less than you make. I’m not being sarcastic at all. In our day and age it’s no longer an assumption that you shouldn’t spend money you don’t have. If this is something that you cannot seem to avoid then you should cut up all your credit cards and force yourself to only spend money that you have.
• If you don’t have enough money to pay your bills get another job or go through each and every dollar that you spend and figure out how you can spend less. Try selling stuff on craigslist or ebay. Babysit someones child or something. Anything.
• Get rid of one of your cars. Most american families have multiple cars. This means more money in gas, more money in car insurance, and more car payments.
• Ride your bike. Jess and I are in the process of getting our bikes fitted for commute riding this summer. We decided that if we could use our bikes most of the time we could save upwards of $200 in gas!
• Get rid of cable. It’s expensive and if you have the Internet you can stream anything you would want to watch anyway.
• Budget. There is absolutely nothing to replace this. Little else is as important to saving money as to creating a working budget and then actually following it. This was the hardest thing for Jess and I to do but has had the largest rewards. The challenge is to dictate how you use your money in life rather than allowing your money to dictate your life (I’m sure Dave Ramsey or someone else has some pithy or witty way of saying that…but I don’t know much)
• Give your money away. I don’t mean like random doling out of cash, but be purposeful in setting aside “first fruits” to give away to worthy causes. I can tell you honestly that Jess and I have found that the more we give the better we’re able to pay our bills in the long run. It’s not intuitive to say the least, but for us it’s been true (as a Christ follower it makes perfect sense since God made promises that if we give to him first he would provide the rest)
• Switch to Geico. They can save you %15 on car insurance
• Make a shopping list before you go grocery shopping.
• Invest in quality when the opportunity presents itself. Don’t buy a $20 pair of shoes that will hurt your back and wear out in two months when you can look and find an $80 pair on sale for $40. The better quality pair will last longer and make your body feel better. That’s just an example. Often buying something of a little higher quality will save you time in the end.
• Consume less. Duh. Try joining The Compact and not buying anything new for a year. You’ll find that you don’t need as much crap as you thought. Do you really need 20 purses? How many pairs of shoes can you wear in a months time? Can you just get the book at the library instead of buying it (this is a tough one for me. It hurts bad.) If you consume less you’ll save lots and lots and lots and lots of money.
• When possible purchase things that are more sustainable. It may be more expensive at first but in the long run it will save you money. Energy efficient light bulbs will cut your electricity bill down. A push reel lawn mower will save you money on gas, upkeep, and on the initial purchase. Gardening has huge benefits financially. Using a clothes line instead of your dryer. Not over drying things. Washing clothes in cold water rather than hot. Shorter showers. Not only does all this save you money but it also creates a healthier world to live in.
• How much money do you spend on getting your hair cut? How about on hair products? Well maybe you should get dreads? In our family alone we save at least $30 a month.
• If you want local, orgainc, and quality produce you should check into a local CSA (community supported agriculture). It is cheap, it supports a local farmer, and it challenges you on how to cook new and intruiging foods (leeks have rocked my world the last two weeks. They’re delish).
• Invite someone over for dinner. It’s so hard to get into the habbit of making dinner instead of eating out. So if you invite someone over you’ll be forced to make food instead of eating Wendy’s. Your body will be happy with you and you’ll be saving money on eating out.
• Ride the bus. This would obviously depend on your comute and lifestyle. But potentially bus riding saves you a ton of money and also gives you time to read.
• Get a vespa.
• Steal. If you become proficient in stealing money or easy to sell items, you’ll find that money will soon not be a problem.

I don’t know much about 401k’s or roth iras or any of that stuff. I don’t know much about anything, so if you’ve got some good tips we’d love to hear them. Grant, I hope this offers some decent suggestions for you. I hope you can avoid those payday loans! ‘Cause they’re sucking up your cash flow!
So do you readers have any good tips to add to this?