According to CNN, roughly half of Americans are saving five percent or less of their incomes, with 18 percent of those having no savings at all. To help get your savings jump started, here are some tips that can save money just by changing the way you do things you already do!

Around the House

• Weatherproof your home. Caulk holes and cracks that let warm air escape in the winter and cold air escape in the summer. Your local hardware store has materials, and quite possibly useful advice, about inexpensively stopping unwanted heat or cooling loss.
• Use low-flow shower heads. They can reduce water flow by as much as 40 percent.
• Live relatively near your workplace. While this isn’t always possible, driving 5,000 miles less a year can lower transportation costs by more than $1,000.
• Repair dripping faucets. A slow, steady drip (100 drops per minute) wastes 330 gallons of water in a month. That’s nearly 4,000 gallons per year.
• Choose home repair contractors wisely. Favor contractors who have successfully performed work for people you know. Insist on a written, fixed-price bid. Don’t make full payment until satisfactory completion of the work.

Other Ways to Save

• Never purchase expensive items on impulse. Think over each expensive purchase for at least 24 hours. Acting on this principle will mean you have far fewer regrets about impulse purchases and far more money for emergency savings.
• Substitute coffee for expensive coffee drinks. The two dollars a day you could well save by buying a coffee rather than a cappuccino or latte would allow you, over the course of a year, to completely fund a $500 emergency fund.
• Keep your car engine tuned and its tires inflated to their proper pressure. Doing both can save you up to $100 a year in gas.
• Save your loose change. Putting aside fifty cents a day over the course of a year will allow you to save nearly 40 percent of a $500 emergency fund.
• Borrow books rather than purchasing them. Borrowing books and reading magazines at your local library, rather than purchasing reading material, can save you hundreds of dollars a year.

These are just a few way to save every day. Being prepared for an emergency expense will help to reduce stress and provide you with the peace of mind to know you are ready if something goes wrong. In addition to these 10 tips, check out more money saving tips here.

To find out how SLWA can help provide you with budget-protecting peace of mind, visit www.slwofa.com.