save money

Flashback Friday: 36 Things You Should Buy Second Hand

Chrissa Hardy — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:30:31 +0000

Just because you need to buy something new, doesn't mean it needs to be brand spanking new. There are plenty of items that are perfectly safe to buy second hand that will still be new to you. And most used items are marked down so much that it's hard to argue with the amount of money you'll save by doing so. Here are 36 things you should really buy used.

7 Household Items That Are Better Second-Hand — Do you really need to pay top dollar for new flatware and appliances? The answer is no! You can find plenty of gently used kitchen and home goods that are still in good shape.

9 Car Parts That Are Safe to Buy Used — When it comes to your car, you always want everything to have as little wear and tear as possible, right? Well, that doesn't mean every car part has to be new. These are the items you can replace that are safe to buy used.

Thrifting the Perfect Designer Wardrobe — Most of us can't afford to splurge on brand-new designer clothes and accessories, but head to the thrift store and those same items can be found gently used and deeply discounted. You can still look like an A-lister on a savvy saver budget.

8 Things You Should Always Buy Used — Cars! Homes! Books! Tools! Why buy them new when they're an absolute steal second hand? Another item on this list: rescue dogs. And are you really gonna turn away from the aged face of a pup in need?

8 Creative Ways to Upcycle Used Baby Furniture — Buying used baby furniture isn't always a good idea since safety regulations are often changing, but you could still buy any of these items and upcycle them into something chic and useful.

3 Great Reasons to Choose a Secondhand Engagement Ring (and Where to Find One) — Thinking about popping the question? Luckily, there's absolutely no need to spend two months' salary on a beautiful diamond ring when you buy one second hand for way less. Besides, does your beloved want a giant rock, or a blissful, debt-free life?

This article is from Chrissa Hardy of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Flashback Friday: 40 Best Budget-Friendly Travel Tips Ever

Chrissa Hardy — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 10:30:33 +0000

Life gets hectic, work gets overwhelming, and we all daydream about packing our bags and jetting off to another country. Travel isn't just an escape, either. It's a love affair that enriches the soul and expands the mind by getting thrown into the middle of other cultures. Wanderlust doesn't need to suck your bank account dry, though. Here's how to do it on the cheap.

9 Simple Ways to Save on Hotel Stays — Saving money on hotel stays has nothing to do with knowing a secret password provided directly by the owner or using a celebrity's name. You can reduce your overall hotel bill by making easy, simple moves when you book and at checkout.

7 Easy Ways to Save on Travel Gear — Depending on where you're going, you might need certain travel gear to take along. Luckily, you don't need to sacrifice quality when shopping for said gear. You just need the right shopping strategy.

One Surprising Skill That Can Save You Money When You Travel — Nobody wants to look like an obvious tourist in another country. So to blend in, there's one skill that can help you save money, mingle with the locals, and see the coolest sights. Master it, and you're in.

9 Affordable Travel Items That You Shouldn't Leave Home Without — So you want to pack light, eh? I feel you. However, these travel items are budget-friendly, and extremely helpful when you're on the road. Don't leave home without them!

Eat These 6 Foods to Stay Healthy While Traveling — Travel and healthy eating typically do not mix. Blame the vacation mentality, as it makes you feel like immortal royals who can consume endless amounts of salty grub and booze without any health repercussions. Since you're not a vampire with a sack full of cash, make sure to keep these healthy foods on you at all times and you'll fare better throughout your trip, and beyond.

8 Costly Flight Booking Mistakes You Make All the Time — Booking flights is like a dance, and scoring a cheap flight to a faraway land is like executing a flawless pirouette with zero ballet experience. It's tricky, but not impossible. It takes practice, patience, and guidance from an expert. Lucky for you, we have a stellar expert to guide you.

This article is from Chrissa Hardy of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: Spend 30 Minutes Now to Save $1,000 Later

Amy Lu — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 10:00:12 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found articles on ways to use half an hour now to save $1,000 later, how to create happiness with your own talents, and strategies for making leftovers great again.

Best Money Tips: How to Save $1,000 by Black Friday

Amy Lu — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 09:30:34 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found articles on ways to save $1,000 by Black Friday, over a hundred cleaning and organizing hacks, and tips to save money when you’re traveling by yourself.

Best Money Tips: Organize These Areas to Save Money

Amy Lu — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 09:30:32 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found articles on areas to organize if you want to save money, how to speed up a sluggish day, and state fairs with free attractions that the whole family can enjoy.

9 Dumb Ways You're Going to Waste Money This Summer

Dr Penny Pincher — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 10:00:09 +0000

There are a lot of great things about summer: long days, warm weather, and vacation season for families to do things together. But summer presents some unique opportunities to waste money. How many of these summer money hazards will leave you wondering where all your cash went? (See also: 7 Surprising Ways Summer Will Cost You)

1. Junk Food

It seems like summer is junk food season. Soda, chips, hot dogs, and ice cream are everywhere! If you go out for ice cream a few nights a week, this can quickly add up — as well as adding extra pounds. I remember when I was younger, I would get a 32 oz soda refill or other sugary drink at least once every day during the summer. Now I try to limit junk food for special treats instead of making it my regular summer diet plan. You'll be healthier and keep more of your money in your pocket by limiting your spending on junk this summer.

2. Air Conditioning

Sometimes on a pleasant evening or cool morning, I can hear the air conditioners running at many houses on my street. Once you get your windows closed and your A/C turned on, it is easy to leave it that way all summer. I try to leave the A/C off and windows open as much as I can. Using fans to move the fresh air around, I can often stay comfortable without running the air conditioning. It is expensive to keep your house like an icebox all summer, and keeping your windows closed isolates you from fresh air and the pleasant sound of birds chirping in the morning.

3. Driving Around

For some reason, people seem to spend a lot of time in their cars during summer. An air-conditioned car can be a comfortable place to be, but it costs a lot of money to drive around or even to run the A/C while parked. Sometimes going for a drive for something to do or to cool off ends up leading to a junk food purchase, adding to the expense of going for a drive. Instead of going for a drive to cool off, I like to relax in a lawn chair in a shady spot or sit outside after the sun goes down and the air cools down.

4. Movie Theaters

Another escape from summer heat and boredom is going to a cold movie theater for a few hours. This is even more expensive than going for a drive. The movie ticket price is often just the beginning of the cost of going to the movie theater. Many people buy popcorn and snacks, and it is easy to end up eating at a restaurant while you are out for a long activity like going to a movie.

Movie theaters are often attached to shopping malls, making it easy to walk around the air-conditioned mall before or after the movie and spend even more money. I don't mind going to see a summer blockbuster if there is a good one, but going to a movie once or twice a week is going to make your money evaporate.

5. Vacation

It seems like so much time and money are spent to travel far away from home for a vacation. Is what you are looking to find on vacation really that far away from home? Sure, it's nice to see different places and experience new things, but the most important part of a vacation is to spend time with people you care about. Is hustling around airports and moving from one tourist trap to another at an expensive vacation spot the best way to spend quality time together? Instead of spending big bucks to travel somewhere, I would rather spend time with my family at home doing projects and working on things together.

6. Summer Living Gear

Stores are happy to offer you ways that you can buy a great summer experience. How about some new patio furniture, lawn chairs, a sun shade, or even a new grill or lawn mower? Don't forget some brightly colored new summer clothes to wear while you are using your new summer stuff. You don't want to miss out on summer fun, so you'd better buy the required summer gear to make sure you have a great summer...

Think back to a great summer event or summer memory that you have. Now, can you even remember what kind of chair you sat in or what clothes you were wearing? Chances are that it doesn't matter. You can't buy a great summer experience by spending a lot of money at the store.

7. Pampered Lawn

I get a lot of flyers in the mail offering to make my lawn look great. With a little fertilizer and weed control, I'm sure my lawn could look more like green carpet. Not only do I get lawn improvement offers in the mail, but I even got one in person. My neighbor offered to let me use his giant lawn tractor and sprayer if I would buy chemicals to apply. It would be easy to spend hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars in pursuit of a more perfect lawn.

I think my lawn looks fine as long as I keep it mowed neatly. I don't like the idea of spraying chemicals on it, and I don't really mind if my lawn is a bit more natural than the lawns you see on TV. My dogs do a great job of fertilizing my lawn for free. (See also: How to Get the Greenest Lawn on the Block — Naturally)

8. Big Summer Toys

It is easy to get swept up by the appeal of a fun summer toy that the entire family could enjoy. Wouldn't it be great to have an RV, camper, boat, jet ski, swimming pool, or new bikes? You could get the toys right now to enjoy this summer and make the payments later. Some of these toys might fit on a credit card you already have, but if not you can sign up for a new loan and make easy payments. Don't forget to pick up a truck with towing gear for some of these big toys.

One problem with big summer toys is that you can only use them during the summer, but you will be paying for them all year long for many years. Plus, you may need to find somewhere to store your big toys when the summer season is over. What seemed like a great idea on a nice July day might seem like a dumb move only a few months later.

9. Expensive Summer Activities

Taking on expensive summer projects is a weakness for me. I would rather do something productive than relax, but it usually costs a lot of money to do projects. Projects such as landscaping or building a storage shed or playhouse are expensive and do not usually provide a good return on investment. A good way to work on an interesting project for free is to help someone else do a project at their house.

Some people like to relax during the summer, but this can still be expensive. Golf comes to mind as an expensive summer activity with all of the gear and membership fees that are required to play. Other expensive activities include some summer camps, sports camps, amusement parks, and horse riding lessons. If you check around, you might be able to find some affordable activities that are conveniently located close to home to keep your family entertained instead of spending a lot on more expensive activities.

What are some dumb ways that you waste money in the summer? Share with us!

This article is from Dr Penny Pincher of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

8 Ways to Save on Accommodations Online

Nick Wharton — Mon, 23 May 2016 09:00:05 +0000

The online accommodation landscape is changing quickly. New websites are popping up every day, each with a unique way to search for different types of lodging. But sometimes sites like Airbnb have hefty service charges, while booking engines like Expedia and Booking.com often take a 25% cut from the hotel, which is sometimes passed on to the guests. I've traveled for over six years and have stayed in over 400 different hotels, hostels, and apartments around the world, and I've found a few ways to get cheaper (or even free) accommodation online. Here they are.

1. Try House Sitting

The idea of house sitting, while gaining traction, is still very foreign to most people. When I tell people that I've house sat in beachfront villas on the Caribbean Sea and in casitas in the jungles of Costa Rica, they often expect that I knew the owners or that I've somehow solicited myself door-to-door.

The fact is, finding beautiful homes to house sit all around the world is easier today than it's ever been, thanks to websites like TrustedHouseSitters.com. This site has the largest collection of available house sitting jobs on the web and it's really easy to get started.

All you have to do is sign-up for their yearly service ($8.25 per month) and you'll have access to thousands of potential house sitting gigs around the world. I've seen everything from mountain top bungalows in Fiji, to vineyards in France, and even castles in the UK. It seems too good to be true, but it's really not.

To better your chances of landing that perfect job, create a profile with your picture and a brief write-up about yourself, get some reviews from other people you've house sat for in the past, and complete a police check (usually done at your local police station for a fee).

Once you've created your profile, you'll receive an email in your inbox every couple of days with potential house sitting jobs. Then all you have to do is wait until there's one that suits your needs, send the owner a message, and hope to get chosen!

If you are chosen, you typically do a quick Skype call and then a few weeks later, you'll be flying off to your temporary dream home... where you'll stay for free.

Usually the listings include pet sitting, so you'll have to take care of an animal during your stay, but sometimes there aren't any pets and you just get the house to yourself. The jobs typically don't pay, but we have had some experiences where the owners give us a small salary for staying.

2. Use Local Property Sites

When big companies like Expedia and Airbnb charge a fee to the hotel or apartment owners, that cost is usually passed on to you, the guest. To avoid this, you can sometimes find the name of the property owner on these sites, and then run a Google search to see if you can find the same property listed on a local website.

Local websites generally have much lower fees, so you can potentially save 10%-15% off of the total cost of your accommodation. In Malta, for example, you can find many apartments online through large websites, but Malta also has a few locally run sites like ShortLetsMalta.com, where you can find the same properties much cheaper. In Guatemala, there's Atitlan Solutions, and in pretty much every town or country, there's a local website that will have cheaper accommodations than the big search sites.

3. Contact the Owner Directly

This is a particularly good trick if you're looking for short let apartments around the world. The way to contact the owner directly is similar to finding local websites in the previous tip. You just have to go into Airbnb or Villas.com and find a place you like, then look at the owner profile and see if they list their name or the name of their property management company.

Once you have that, you can run a Google search to see if you can find the owner directly online. Sometimes they have their own website for the property, and sometimes they don't. If they don't have a website, they probably won't show up in Google, but there's another tactic you can use.

Head to Facebook and search their name and the destination where the property is located. For example: "John Doe Puerto Vallarta."

Facebook will show a list of people by the same name in or around that city. You can match the person's profile photo to their picture on the booking site, and then send them a direct Facebook message asking them about the property.

4. Check the Hotel Website

A lot of hotels don't like the fact that when they have 100 rooms occupied in their establishment, they're paying 25% of their total revenue to big booking sites.

This is why many hotels offer financial incentives for booking directly on their websites. Once you find a hotel on a booking site, consider running a Google search with the hotel name and see if you can go directly to their site.

Compare the prices between the booking engine and the direct website and you'll often find that you can save upwards of 15% by booking directly with the hotel.

5. Haggle, Haggle, Haggle

Once you contact the local rental agency, the apartment owner, or the hotel's website, you can bargain. With hotels, they may not have as much leeway to give you more of a discount, but you can send the owner an email and ask for a percentage off the room rate if you're staying more than a couple nights.

Usually with rental agencies and apartment owners, there's a fair amount of negotiating space. You can save a lot of money, especially considering that you'll already be saving the fees from the big booking sites. I rented an apartment in Malta for two months and I ended up saving nearly 30% of the cost by contacting them directly and bargaining for the price. It really works!

6. Consider Couch Surfing

Saving money is great, but free lodging is even better. The term "couch surfing" is becoming more mainstream, but there's still a misunderstanding of what's involved.

Many people hear it and think, I don't want to sleep on someone's couch!

But in reality, there are thousands of couch surfing opportunities where you have your own room, a queen-sized bed, and even your own bathroom. Couch surfing is now a universal term for staying in someone's home for free, not just crashing in someone's living room.

The great thing about couch surfing is that you get a real local experience when traveling to a new destination. What better way to immerse yourself in the culture than by staying in a local's home?

To start couch surfing, head to CouchSurfing.com and sign-up for free. You can then browse through 400,000+ hosts around the world, and in no time at all, you can arrange to stay with somebody overseas. It's a great service.

7. Try Home Exchange

Another great way to get free accommodation is to do a home exchange. Made famous by the 2006 movie: The Holiday, home exchanges are a really cool concept. Head to LoveHomeSwap.com, sign up for $20 per month, and start swappin'!

Of course, some downsides of this option are that you have to own a home, and you have to be willing to let a stranger stay in your home in exchange for getting to stay in theirs. But if it means you can fly to London and stay in the historical city for free... why not?

8. Check Out Volunteer Exchange

Websites like WorkAway.info and HelpX also offer travelers a great way to earn free accommodations all around the world, while helping out the local communities along the way. Basically it's an exchange. You sign up for a fee and then you have access to all of the volunteer opportunities on the website, and there thousands in over 135 countries.

Browse through the listings, find a rewarding placement, and enjoy free accommodations (and sometimes food) in return for your services. Whether you decide to work on organic farms in South America, teach children in Asia, or help out at orphanages in Africa, your lodging will be earned, but the experience will be priceless.

Have you tried any of these accommodation hacks? Let us know in the comments!

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This article is from Nick Wharton of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: 29 Quick, Easy Ways to Save Money

Amy Lu — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 11:00:12 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found helpful articles on super quick and easy ways to save money, weight-loss gimmicks to avoid, and how to get the biggest tax refund possible.

Best Money Tips: How to Save Money in March

Amy Lu — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 10:30:48 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found helpful articles on how to save money in March, good goals for a more organized life, and spring gardening tips to help you save on produce.

Best Money Tips: Painless Ways to Save $1,000 by Summer

Amy Lu — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 20:00:03 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found painless ways to save $1,000 by summer, great deals for January, and ways to eat well on a budget.

Best Money Tips: How to Save $10,000 in a Year

Amy Lu — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 20:00:04 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found ways to save $10,000 in a year, holiday habits that train your wallet, and scientific ways to raise healthy and happy kids.

Best Money Tips: Fun, Easy Ways to Save Money in December

Amy Lu — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 20:00:05 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we fun and easy ways to save money in December, how to conserve energy and home, and tips to entertain on a tight budget.

14 Fridge Tricks That Will Save You Big

Max Wong — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:00:55 +0000

One of the most painless ways to reduce your carbon footprint and save money is to stop wasting food. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that 40% of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten. While there is significant waste in every link of the supply chain between the field and the dinner table, the average American family throws away more than $2,275 in food each year! And $2,275 is a lot to spend on wilted lettuce and leftover pizza.

In the kitchen, as with pretty much every other aspect of life, a little asset management goes a long way when it comes to saving money. Here's where to start.

Audit Your Stash

The first step in organizing your refrigerator and freezer is to go through and throw away any spoiled food. Be thorough. Open and examine all condiments. Check the sell-by dates on frozen food. Absolutely everything over a year old should be dumped outright, but use Still Tasty or Eat By Date to check the viability of everything else in your freezer and refrigerator. I know, this sounds like pure drudgery.

However, once you do this step you'll know where you are wasting the most grocery dollars. Is your crisper drawer really the compost drawer? Are there 12 different jams at different levels of decomposition taking up room in the door? Is your freezer a morgue for on-sale hot dogs? What's your food-wasting Achilles' heel?

If you take the time to do this step, you will also have a clearer knowledge of the storage life of your favorite foods. Many people throw away perfectly edible food because they don't know there is a difference between a sell-by date and a use-by date.

Once you've purged your refrigerator and freezer of all the spoiled food, look at the food that is on brink of going bad. One of the easiest ways to save money is to shop your refrigerator first, before buying new food at the store. Now is the perfect opportunity to make Thursday Night Soup. Use a recipe calculator to find recipes that use up the food you already own. Your first step in stopping food waste should be to eat through your fridge and freezer. Menu plan for the next week around your existing food, and tailor shopping trips around purchasing ONLY food that will help you use up your nearly stale food.

Speaking of old food, eat your garbage. Stale bread is the key ingredient to croutons, French toast, and bread pudding. Make vegetable stock out of those wilted vegetables or puree them into a green smoothie.

Now that you have a clearer view of what foods get wasted in your house (I recommend doing twice yearly trash audits to further refine your shopping list and schedule), it's time to go to the grocery store. But wait! Before you step foot out of your house you need to menu plan and make a shopping list. Every single article about how to save on food costs includes menu planning and list making, because Americans over-shop for everything, including food.

1. Consider a Smaller Refrigerator

Take a cue from college and consider buying a smaller refrigerator when it is time to replace your current appliance. With an average capacity of 17.5 cubic feet of storage, Americans have the largest refrigerators in the world. American refrigerators have gotten huge over time due to our uniquely American once-a-week food shopping schedule. But here's the truth: the average American family of four cannot eat through 17.5 cubic feed of perishable food every week. Just because there's real estate in the fridge, doesn't mean it should be filled.

But it is. In fact more than a quarter of American homes have a second refrigerator, and 15% of those refrigerators are over 20 years old. So, on top of food waste caused by over-buying, Americans are also wasting hundreds of dollars every year storing beer and ice cream in the garage. Ditch the second refrigerator.

2. Think Outside of the Ice Box

For extra refrigeration at parties, chill drinks in an ice-filled bathtub or utility sink. Our local liquor store has an instant beverage chiller that cools room temperature bottles and cans 25 times faster than our refrigerator. This quick chilling is offered as a free service to customers. Or use a cooler to keep holiday food overflow cold until you can serve it. If you actually need more freezer space to preserve high-ticket items such as meat and homegrown produce, instead of keeping a second freezer, consider paying a neighbor to use their unused freezer space. My neighbors regularly store backyard fruit that I don't have time to immediately can in their freezers in exchange for jars of jam.

I like to think of my tiny refrigerator as a closet for my food. Just like my clothes, I have a one-in, one-out policy for perishables. The small size of my fridge, combined with this minimalist attitude, keeps me from buying too much food.

After over buying, poor storage practices account for most food waste in the refrigerator and freezer.

3. I Can See Clearly Now

While it may save money on plasticware, storing food in old cottage cheese or butter tubs is a great way to waste a lot of food. For most people, out of sight equals out of mind, even if the containers are properly labeled. Restaurant kitchens use clear storage containers because they let the cook see, at a glance, the condition and quantity of the food. Borrow this practice at home. Mason jars are an excellent way to store food in the fridge (and double as microwaveable lunch containers and drinking glasses). Use clear plasticware designed to go in the freezer to store frozen goods. For people who are not plastic-averse, look for square or rectangular food safe containers. Square containers use less storage space than round containers.

4. Store Eggs in an Airtight Container

I use a 32-ounce Tupperware lidded tumbler to store my eggs. In addition to taking up four square inches of shelf space instead of the 48 square inches of an egg carton, the tumbler, which holds a dozen eggs, is stackable. The firm top and sides of the tumbler also protect my eggs from breakage. But most importantly, the tumbler is airtight. Eggs are porous. Eggs stored in an airtight container will stay good for an entire month.

5. Control Air Circulation

In addition to eggs, certain varieties of produce will last longer in an airtight container, including: asparagus, beets, mushrooms, carrots, celery, cucumbers, okra, radishes, summer squash, turnips, zucchini, berries, and all cut vegetables. However, most other vegetables like air circulation.

6. Don't Store Vegetables With Fruit

Many fruits produce ethylene gas, which is a ripening agent that can cause other produce to spoil prematurely. Fruits that produce ethylene include apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupes, kiwis, mangoes, nectarines, papayas, peaches, pears, plums, and tomatoes. Ethylene sensitive produce includes apples, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, lettuce, potatoes, summer squash, and watermelons. Keep 'em separated.

7. Wash Produce Before Serving, Not Before Storing

This goes against every OCD fiber of my being, but I extend the life of my fruits and vegetables by storing them "dirty." Adding moisture to produce speeds up spoilage by giving all the bacteria and microorganisms a nice big drink.

8. Separate the Greens From the Roots

Trim green tops from carrots, turnips, radishes, and beets before storing them in the refrigerator. The greens suck the moisture out of the edible roots, making them limp and chewy. By the way, carrot, turnip, radish, and beet greens are edible and super yummy! Don't throw them away!

9. Arrange the Food According to Your Needs

My Liebherr refrigerator came with unintentionally hilarious instructions about where to put my food… based entirely on the German palate. For example, Liebherr dedicates a large amount of shelf space to schmaltz storage. While I am sure that nine zillion dollars goes into the research and development of every refrigerator interior, it's just not scientifically possible to design a refrigerator that suits everyone's food culture and eating habits. So, if you are following the manufacturer's instructions and still wasting food because you are losing track of it inside of your refrigerator, you know it's time to rearrange.

My refrigerator is very tall and skinny, which means that I cannot see what is on the very top shelf, unless I get out a step stool, which I do approximately never. If I were less lazy, I could post a top shelf inventory list on the front of the refrigerator. But why? I just let the top shelf be the snack domain of my much taller husband. And, very little annoys me more than constantly having to rearrange jars in the refrigerator because I can never remember what's behind the first visible row of food.

So, instead of the daily search for jars in the back of the refrigerator, I store all the 32-ounce jars of pickles and mayo, all the tubs of yogurt and cottage cheese, the ketchup bottle, and my tumbler of eggs upright, in the pull-out crisper drawer. At a glance I can grab exactly what I need by reading the lids.

Using the crisper drawer for jars and bottles leaves the shelves open to store my produce, (much of which is packed into airtight Tupperware containers and mason jars to maintain freshness).

10. Maintain the Correct Temperature

It's worth buying a cheap appliance thermometer to make sure that your refrigerator is maintaining a temperature at or below 40 degrees and your freezer is always below zero. What's obvious to most people is that higher temperatures allow for faster food spoilage. What is not obvious is that inside of every refrigerator there are hot and cool spots. Move the thermometer around the inside of the refrigerator to check for temperature variation. Don't store the lettuce in the coldest part of the refrigerator where it will wilt, and don't store dairy in the hot zone.

11. Don't Stand With the Door Open

Your mother was right about this. Opening the refrigerator door for 30 seconds can raise the interior temperature of the refrigerator by five degrees. Also, certain foods, like dairy, are light sensitive. Years ago I bought a glass-front fridge, thinking I would save on energy costs by being able to find items before opening the door. What I saved on energy costs, I lost on soured milk.

12. Sometimes Labels Are a Good Thing

Use a permanent marker to write the date on take out food containers and partially consumed packaged food. Don't play Russian roulette with that open carton of chicken broth. Everything that goes into the freezer should be labeled. You might remember that you put the spaghetti sauce in the red container and the plain tomato sauce in the blue container, but will you remember this code six months from now? Why force your brain to memorize even more trivia when you can just write "plain tomato" on a piece of masking tape and be done with it?

13. Dry Freeze Individual Servings

Food that has been thawed once should not be refrozen. When buying meat in bulk, freeze each serving in individual containers or bags. If you have the space in the freezer, consider freezing meat, fish, and berries on a cookie sheet first before transferring the food to storage containers. This prep work guards against food waste by allowing you to pull exactly the right amount of food out of your freezer. Aren't you tired of banging the block of frozen berries on the counter every morning to break off the right amount of fruit for your smoothie?

14. Rotate Your Stash

New purchases should always be on top or up front, so you know what needs to be used first. Put the newest purchases on the bottom of the freezer compartment and toward the back of the refrigerator. This is especially important for meat, as it's so expensive to purchase.

Are you a wizard at refrigerator organization? Share your best tips with your fellow readers in the comments section!

This article is from Max Wong of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: Ways to Save $10 a Day

Amy Lu — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 19:00:16 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on ways to save $10 a day, mindsets that will change your money habits, and the best herbs for your fall garden.

Best Money Tips: Organize Your Life and Save Money

Amy Lu — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 19:00:24 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on ways to organize your life and save money, how to ask for a promotion, and ways to make your batteries last longer.

save money

Flashback Friday: 36 Things You Should Buy Second Hand

Flashback Friday: 40 Best Budget-Friendly Travel Tips Ever

Best Money Tips: Spend 30 Minutes Now to Save $1,000 Later

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Best Money Tips: How to Save $1,000 by Black Friday

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Best Money Tips: Organize These Areas to Save Money

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9 Dumb Ways You're Going to Waste Money This Summer

1. Junk Food

2. Air Conditioning

3. Driving Around

4. Movie Theaters

5. Vacation

6. Summer Living Gear

7. Pampered Lawn

8. Big Summer Toys

9. Expensive Summer Activities

8 Ways to Save on Accommodations Online

1. Try House Sitting

2. Use Local Property Sites

3. Contact the Owner Directly

4. Check the Hotel Website

5. Haggle, Haggle, Haggle

6. Consider Couch Surfing

7. Try Home Exchange

8. Check Out Volunteer Exchange

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