The June 2009 Consumer Reportshad a section on savings tips from staff and readers. While some of them were of questionable utility, I found several to be innovative and insightful, or in many cases, something I've already tried and reported on at Everyday Finance, saving thousands per year. Here were a few of my favorites.

1. Buy No-Iron shirts instead of taking them to the dry cleaner. I haven't really focused on this, but if the shirts look acceptable, I'd end up saving a fair amount. Neither my wife or myself enjoy ironing, so we probably drop several hundred per year on this service.
2. Pay attention to the unit price in the supermarket. I always do this, but judging by observation, many people (yes, you too wife), don't. You almost always save by buying larger (although oddly, sometimes not - seemingly by trickery - need to read those labels), but if you're looking at two different brands that are essentially equivalent in terms of quality, but they're different sizes, this is the only way to know which one offers the best value. Unless you're the human calculator!
   
3. Be your own landscaper. I had detailed the 10-year savings of mowing your own lawn in detail here, in my money-savings tips series.
4. Call your internet, phone and cable company to get a reduced rate. Check out how I'm saving $250 per year with Comcast for Life!
5. One reader puts every $5 bill they get as change in drawer. I never heard of that one, but it sounds interesting. Since you don't tend to end up with a ton of $5 bills, it won't necessarily send you to the MAC more often, but will tend to add up to several hundred dollars per year for a rainy day fund.
6. Bring Coffee to work in a thermos. I had this epiphany last year and estimated my annual coffee savings here. Totally easy and I'm ashamed I didn't start doing it sooner.
7. Avoid Bottled Water - another one I started last year and estimated some great savings. I must have been on to something!
8. Start using white vinegar and baking soda as a cleaner instead of expensive toilet and counter cleaners. Hey, if it works, much cheaper!
   

Ideas (no offense) that were really useless in my opinion:

1. "Skip going to a concert and watch a DVD of the concert instead." Apparently, this was written by someone who's never attended a live show. It defeats the whole purpose. It's like saying the same of taking your kid to a baseball game or just watching your kid's holiday concert on your wife's filmed home video instead of going.
2. "Cut your fabric softener sheets in half". This is one of those "extreme frugality hacks" as I like to call them. So, the whole point of the fabric softener is to wear clothes that don't feel like cardboard. Now, they'll just feel like partially weathered cardboard. And how much can you really save a year doing this? 10 bucks?
3. Flatten the toiler paper roll, it "doesn't spin around as much". Look, I'm a sheet counter. Whether it's flat or round, when I need it, I count out...well, OK, too much information. I don't see how this saves toiler paper though. My 2 year old spins the toiler paper roll. I'm a bit past that stage.
4. Cut out wine and beer. Well, we don't consume much of it here anyway, but these "cut out this, cut out that" ideas are usually useless. If you can "replace" something or find a cheaper way to do something, great. But it's like don't eat any more. Don't brush your teeth, you'll save money on toothpaste. If you're entertaining or have a beer now and then, that's a routine luxury that you probably aren't inclined to just cut out solely for financial reasons.
   

Don't Miss:

Net Present Value: Why you should use it in Everyday Life

Buying a New Car - Strategies and Findings

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone to Save Money Daily

By the way, if you don't subscribe to Consumer Reports, you should consider it; between the reviews and the tips, the series probably returns 10x on the nominal investment each year for a subscription.

Any other simple tips you want to add here?

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