I’ve gotten fairly good at stretching my cash lately. Here’s 20 ideas to help you do the same.

1. Quit buying bottled water. Buy a filter pitcher, and refill your plastic water bottles with filtered water from home. On average, it costs only 4¢ (FOUR CENTS) per gallon to drink filtered water from your tap; on average, it costs nearly 50¢ for gallon to buy it from the store.

2. Install fluorescent energy-saving bulbs and install weather stripping on your doors & windows. During the day in summer, close the blinds or shades on the south windows of your house. It’ll cut your electric bill down and save energy. It also reduces the amount of dust entering your house or apartment, which means less vacuuming and dusting (thus saving more electricity).

3. Eat out less. Groceries are expensive, yes, but they go further in the long run. $100 at the grocery store will likely feed the average American family for a week, while eating out may eat that $100 up in a few days.

4. Speaking of the grocery store, buy discount brand items. Brand loyalties are the biggest farce in American culture these days, especially in world of groceries and the food industry, and mean nothing in terms of quality or taste. My mother makes six-figures a year and still buys the value-brand peanut butter, among other things.

5. Recycle. Aluminum cans have gone up in value the last few years, and that translates into spare cash. Some cities and suburban areas even have recycling collection programs that collect plastic, metal, newspaper, even compost, and reimburse you for it. Recycling is also inherently good for the environment, and will reduce the amount of trash you’re putting out on a daily basis (and thus saves you money on your trash bill).

6. Ride your bike to work. That is, if you’re close. Of course, it’s impractical to try this if your commute is over 10 miles, but who knows: maybe you’ll beat traffic for once.

7. Use rechargeable batteries in everything you own that requires batteries. Sure, they’re expensive to buy at first. But they pay for themselves after their first use, and they’re interchangeable with anything.

8. Save your loose change. All of it. In a jar, in a bank, whatever. Especially if you pay for a lot of things in cash. In recent years, I’ve managed to save up to $120 in a two month span just by throwing my stuff in an old tequila jar.

9. Don’t use credit cards to buy groceries, gas, or other necessary expenses. Or, better yet, don’t use them at all. Stay away from rent-to-own stores (like Aaron’s or Rent-a-Center), which often engage in predatory lending schemes that can land you in a bind in a hurry if you don’t read the fine print.

10. Speaking of lawns, water them only at night or in the early morning. Watering during the daytime and especially the afternoon is not only a waste of water, but is banned in most cities anymore for that very reason.

11. Again with lawns, plant drought-tolerant or resistant grasses such as bermuda or even buffalo grass. Sure, it’s not nearly as green as fescue or blue grass, but it won’t need to be watered once an hour to avoid going brown when it’s 105° out in July.

12. Use coupons. Or, sign up for those in-store discount cards. They’re often effective at saving some cash, unfortunately at the cost of driving you to most of the name-brand items that cost more to begin with.

13. Change your own oil. It’s not that hard, trust me. Buy the oil yourself (5 quarts usually runs about $15 for standard 5W-30 or 10W-30) and the filter, and take a Saturday afternoon to crawl underneath the vehicle and get acquainted with your wheels. If you don’t know how, learn. Most places that do quick-lube oil changes do sloppy work and charge you $40 for it.

14. Save your leftovers. Throwing food away is wasteful, expensive, and downright insulting to some people. Avoid all 3 by investing in some storage containers and putting the leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow. They make a good option for a quick lunch, and they buy you an extra meal, which makes your groceries go further.

15. Save electricity. On top of using the suggestions from #2, shut off your lights, TV, computer, cable boxes, and other electronics when you’re not using them. Some items have a low-current draw, but why waste your money on something you aren’t using when you’re not at home?

16. Do laundry and dishes in large loads. Running the dishwasher or washing machine for small loads wastes water and uses up detergent faster. If your laundry loads are small, combine them, or do laundry with someone at the same time (surely you can keep track of your own clothes); wait to run the dishwasher until it’s completely full and properly loaded.And don’t use too much detergent–you’re just wasting it anyway.

17. Buy cheap liquor instead of the good stuff; avoid bars and clubs outright. Or quit drinking altogether. If you don’t drink, then this doesn’t apply to you.

18. Carpool. Sure, it’s a pain in the butt, but it saves you and everyone else money on gas, especially if you rotate drivers and cars over the course of the week.

19. If you’re a smoker, quit smoking. Health risks and social taboos aside, smoking is retardedly expensive. Why would you pay $6 a pack to light something on fire for a few minutes? That alone is a decent enough reason to quit, especially if you’re a pack-a-day smoker–that runs to $42 a week, or over $180 a month.

20. Print your own pictures. Sure, it’s nice to just drop off your film or memory card at Walgreens or Wal-Mart and get 4×6s of all your favorite shots. But a pack of glossy photo paper from Wal-Mart will yield far more photos over the long haul (provided your printer and it’s cartridges are up to the task), and often allow you to customize your photos before printing.

There’s tons of ways to save cash, but you have to be inventive and adaptable, and sometimes willing to cut some corners (and amenities) in the name of not going flat broke. But remember, sacrificing things to save money doesn’t mean sacrificing your dignity either (so whoring yourself out isn’t advisable, nor is selling a kidney). -BW