I know a lot of people wonder if they should purchase travel insurance on their vacation. Airline costs are at an all time high, and having it will cover most flight cancellations plus it covers your baggage. It’s not very expensive and usually about 5% of your total trip. If you get sick or hurt on your trip, then it cover those medical expenses. You would want the most protection you can get, especially when traveling out of country.

Today’s thrifty tip is completely turn off or unplug your electronics and appliances that aren’t in use. I don’t mean the stove, fridge, or washer/dryer but things like your stereo, TV, microwave, and computer. I started doing this for the last few months and have noticed a difference in my electric bills. They still use energy even when you turn it off as it’s in standby mode. I have my computer on a power strip with a switch and have put my tv and dvd player on a similar strip. Now I just turn off the strip when I’m done with these items at the end of the day.

I am a big Dave Ramsey fan and started using a cash only system. I was already doing a cash envelope system before I read his book, The Total Money Makeover, but I became more disciplined after reading. It’s rare in today’s world to find a financial book telling you to use cash only and no credit cards. After we dug our way out of debt, we swore off using credit cards forever. I was very happy that he felt the same way he did about them.

The main reason I like using cash is once it’s gone in a certain envelope then we stop spending for the month. I do over budget in our food envelope for those great sales. On average we spend $250-300 a month in food. It was closer to $200-250 for a family of 3, but with costs on the rise then I upped our budget. I also had to increase our budget for gas. It was a $100 a month but not it’s up to $150 so not terrible but not having debt does make it easier to swallow.

We have $1200 worth of expenses monthly which includes everything from food, gas, utilities, gifts, household items, insurance, clothes, gas, and spending money. We put about $1,000/mo in savings. We have different things we are saving for like newer car, repairs, vacation and remodeling for the house. I have it marked how much money is in each category.

The main concern I hear is what if I have an emergency? That is why you put 3-6 months of living expenses into a liquid account so you don’t need a CC. I have a debit card linked to that account as well as checks so I don’t have to walk around with thousands of dollars on me. That’s the other concern I hear often. I might get robbed if I carry cash. I never walk around with lots of cash and most of the time have $5 or less on me. When I do plan to shop then I bring a certain amount with me and sometimes a little extra so I get take advantage of an unadvertised deal.

My tip for today is yet another laundry tip. I have a lot of these and not sure why but it seems pretty easy to cut back in this area. There is very little effort involved unlike many other tips I have read. I cut all my dryer sheets in half. I do hang most of our laundry on the line but there are times when I do use my gas dryer. A box of sheets will last twice as long and not as overpowering as the whole sheet. I also only buy when I get a box for under 50 cents but by using half the sheet I save twice as much on each box.

At the end of the month I’m starting a drawing for 3 Tupperware prizes. The top prize will be a $50 online Gift Certificate (I ask that you please spend it on my site), 2nd place will be a bowl set worth at least $25 or more, and 3rd prize will be a Tupperware item worth around $10-15. The drawing will start either start next week or the last week of this month and run thru Labor Day. The drawing will be Tuesday September 2nd. All winners will be emailed and I will post first names on the blog. There will be many great ways to win an entry and some things will give you multiple entries. Stay tuned for all the details coming soon.