Get more green!By Donna Freedman
Think the only way to save money is to scour newspapers for coupons? Think again! Put down the scissors and discover how these smart women stash away big money annually. Photo by Getty Images.
1. Tax Tip
Name: Linda Billingsley
City: Seattle
Superpower: Adjusts her withholding and saves thousands each year.
Linda, a married dental hygienist, has taxes withheld at the "single, no dependents" level. That way she and her husband typically get thousands of dollars back at tax time-and it goes directly into their Roth IRAs. "We call it our 'payroll savings plan.' I never see it, so I don't miss it."
2. School Savings
Name: Meghan Pembleton
City: Medford, NJ
Superpower: "Matches" school expenses. She says she saved $166 last year.
Meghan pays most bills online, but when she does write checks they're usually to her kids' school: for book orders, field trips and the like. "So I write one check to the school and another to myself for the identical amount, which I deposit in my savings account," she says.
Related: Learn about 10 things you should never say to your kids.
3. Cash-Back Bonuses
Name: Melissa Hurst
City: Phoenix
Superpower: Saves more than $600 through cash-back shopping.
Sites like MrRebates.com and EBates.com get paid to send shoppers to online retailers and split the fee with the shopper. Melissa, who blogs at SavingCentsWithSense.net, gets 1% to 30% back for items she was going to buy anyway. "When I cash out, I put that check into savings," she says.
Related: Discover 9 buys that are cheaper online.
4. Laundry Loot
Name: Nancy Munro
City: West Palm Beach, FL
Superpower: "Launders" money. Nancy saved $300 in cash last year.
Whenever the NotesForMyNextLife writer (Nancymn.WordPress.com) has to do laundry, she puts money into a jar. She started out paying herself $2 per load and worked her way up to $5 each time she hit start. You can do this with any chore you'd just as soon skip-you'll accrue a nice little sum with which to reward yourself.
5. Clever Cards
Name: Abigail Perry
City: Phoenix
Superpower: Redeems coupons; earns points for gift cards. She recently saved $700.
Abigail, who blogs at IPickUpPennies.net, earns 10¢ per grocery coupon redeemed through InboxEarnings.com. She also shops and prints coupons from MyPoints.com and SwagBucks.com (these sites pay in points that she trades in for gift cards, which she uses like cash). "Then I bank the money I would have spent," says Abigail.
6. Side Savings
Name: SonyaAnn Mott
City: Antioch, IL
Superpower: Puts away money that she earns on the side-to the tune of $850 last year.
SonyaAnn makes it a habit to save extra money she earns on survey sites such as PineconeResearch.com. The questionnaires are easy to fill out while keeping an eye on dinner in the evening. In just six months last year she saved $156. During that time, SonyaAnn also banked nearly $700 from her rewards credit cards.
Related: Check out these 20 super sandwiches. .
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