Start getting ready to save some pennies for holiday shopping...

Here are a few little tips to help you put some pennies aside for the holidays. Thank you to billshrink.com for this information.

Lay Off the Starbucks = $160 savings over next few months

A tall coffee at Starbucks approaches $2.00. If you drink one of those every weekday, you’re spending $10 a week, $40 per month and roughly $520 per year. (And this is one of the cheapest items at Starbucks!)

If you absolutely need a caffeine fix every day, consider making your own coffee. After about $15 to buy the coffee maker and the filters, a bag of coffee only costs $8 and will keep you awake for weeks.

If you’re not a coffee drinker, see what other “daily luxuries” you may enjoy. Whether it’s micro-brewed beer, gourmet chocolates or a Ben & Jerry’s addiction, cutting back -- or substituting a cheaper alternative -- can easily buy a few gifts for the family.

Bottled Water = $78 savings over the next few months

Water is one of those things that you should try not to pay for. With 2/3 of the world covered in water and filters that convert “tap water” to filtered water (such as a Brita) for about $20, you should stick to filling up a water bottle rather than shelling out $1-2 for bottled water. If you buy bottled water a few times a week, you can save over $200 a year and about $80 by the time Christmas rolls around.

Gas = $87 savings over the next few months

BillShrink.com found that gas prices vary as much $.50 per gallon in the same neighborhood. This means that by simply driving to a nearby gas station, you can save $260 a year. Use BillShrink’s gas comparison tool to find the cheapest gas on your commute for the next 4 months and you could be looking at an extra $87 bucks in your pocket.

Ease Up on Eating Out = $520 savings over the next few months

Eating at home is not only healthier, but it is also much cheaper. When you eat out, you are paying a mark-up for not only your meal and drinks, but also for the service that comes with it. Try staying in two nights a week and save about $30 a person. If you continue this until the holidays, you’ll have saved $520 – enough to treat the whole family to a nice Christmas dinner.

If cutting out dinner is too hard, try packing your lunch rather than going out and dropping $6 during work. This will also save you about $30 a week and by combining the two, you’ll double your savings and have some delicious leftovers to bring for lunch the next day.

Quit Smoking = $347 savings over next few months

The cost of smoking is not getting any cheaper with an average pack costing between $4-6. If you smoke four packs a week, you’ll pay over $1000 a year. Since quitting smoking is easier said than done, it may be worth it use some of those savings on nicotine patches or gum to help you quit.

The caveat of this strategy is that you’ve got to want to quit smoking in order for this to work. While you can save some money doing this, you’re not going to be able to use that as motivation alone. You’ll need to weigh the other benefits of quitting as well and determine the reason why it’s time for you to quite now.

Turn Down the Monthly Fixed Costs = ~$200 savings over few months

According to BillShrink, most people are overpaying for their cell phone plan. By simply visiting BillShrink or other comparison sites, you can quickly analyze your wireless, credit card and cable plan. If you’re paying for more cell minutes or texts than you need, you could be losing $420 a year and the same goes for the cash-back rewards you could be missing out on from your credit card and the extra channels you pay for that you never watch on your TV. By only paying for what you use, you could save nearly $200 over four months.
If you already have the best plans for you, feel free to call up your phone or cable provider and try to negotiate a better price. Since it is cheaper for them to retain current customers than get new ones, they want to keep you from leaving and keep you happy. See if they have any specials that will entice you to stay.

And if you still find yourself short of Christmas cash, just remember: you can always sell things on eBay. After all, getting rid of old stuff is the best way to prepare for this year’s new stuff.

A note to advertisers...

We are officially announcing an extended launch date for the upcoming issue of
Southern New England Woman Magazine from August to September

After putting our ear to the ground and thoroughly researching "quarterly print publication advertising statistics" we've made a decision to extend the release date of our upcoming SNEWoman issue. Our findings concluded that a September-December issue would be most beneficial for our advertisers giving them an opportunity to promote products and services during a more effective time period. At which time they could include

"Fall Sales"
"Holiday Specials"
"Bridal and Wedding Services"
"Gift Certificate Purchases"
"2011 Programs and Events"
"New Years' Resolution Programs"

Our Premiere Issue has been tremendously successful for our advertisers and has received more press from the media than ever anticipated. 20,000 copies were HAND delivered to over 750 locations including 52 Walgreens, libraries, hospitals, coffee shops, boutiques, high traffic restaurants, salons, spas, hotels, doctor and dentist offices, influential women related business offices, etc. To our delight, magazines flew off the shelves faster than imagined, and left drop off locations looking for more copies, which we happily accomodated. Most encouraging for a new publications' "FIRST" issue!

SNEWoman is taking advantage of the extra time by increasing the amount of pages as well as diving deeper into more editorial content. The pages and printing of the publication will continue to be of the highest quality.

Since we want to make our relationship with you long lasting and successful, we feel comfortable extending the deadline and wanted to inform advertisers who have already signed on to this issue as well as ones who were not able to get ads in for the original deadline. Advertising rates start at $350 for three months (full color 1/8th page) with a 3.4 readership bringing you approximately 70,000 consumers to potentially view your business advertisement!

Please let us know by September 1st if you would like to be included in the September-December issue. It is important for us to place your advertisement in the best possible location which makes sense to the category, product or service further enhancing your ROI.

Thank you for your continued support.
We would love to have you part of our SNEWoman Family!