This year’s top 10 most popular articles on ways to save money

Because so many of ABC’s readers have started reading this website just in the last few months I know that many of you haven’t been reading ABC since the beginning, and missed many of the first several articles published here.  For those that are new to ABC, or those that might have missed an article or two along the way here is a recap of this year’s top 10 most popular articles by the number of page views.

10. Is the T-Mobile Jump! program a good deal? – T-Mobile has been advertising how customer friendly their plans are, but I don’t think the deal is anything special.  In this article I discuss why the Jump! program is nothing special, and tell you a better way to find a T-Mobile phone. This article is no longer relevant, because in November Republic Wirelesscame along and made itself the only cell phone company worth considering. If you are looking for a great deal on a cell phone just go ahead and skip down to #1.

9. Removing PMI from your mortgage– What PMI is, why you should get rid of it as fast as possible, and how to get rid of it.  A couple of really smart people told me this was my best article, so I’m not surprised this made the top 10 list.

8. Chromecast vs. Roku If you are looking to get rid of cable, or if you just want to watch streaming internet television on your big living room TV you will want to get either a Chromecast or a Roku player.  In this article I look at the differences between the two.

7.  Cost of car ownership calculator A calculator that shows you how much it costs you per mile to either drive your car.

6. Does waking up early make you rich? This article probably won’t save you any money, it’s just kind of a fun idea that had been on my mind for several years.  I had noticed years ago that people in more expensive houses start their garage sales earlier than other people and I did a small study to see if the correlation was real.

5. Fraud Alert! Stolen phone number  What happened when an acquaintance of mine had their phone number stolen?  I published this article so people would know what was going on if their phone number was stolen, but I haven’t really heard about this kind of fraud being too popular.  That’s a good thing.

4. Recipe cost calculator No advice here, but a java calculator to help you figure out how much a recipe will cost to make.

3. Buying gift cards at a discount One of the easiest ways to save money is to pay for things with gift cards you bought at a discount.  The great thing about this deal is that it is completely stackable with whatever other coupons, sales, or deals you can find.

2. Target Red Card  If you shop at target you should have the Target Red Card, which gives you 5% (sometimes as much as 10%) off all your purchases, with no work.  This deal goes hand in hand with #3 because you can use your Red Card to buy gift cards to other restaurant and stores at a discount.  This is also stackable with any other deals you can get at Target.

1. Review of the Moto X and Republic Wireless’s phone plan No surprise here.  This article was a huge hit and had almost 5 times as many page views as #3 on this list for two reasons.  First of all, Republic Wireless quoted my article on twitter and facebook which drove tons of traffic to my site.  More importantly though, it’s easily the best deal out there in cell phones and is saving people lots of money every month.  So many ABC readers are now RW customers that if you aren’t with RW yet then other ABC readers will soon be making fun of you behind your back.

Bonus #1

How I saved money getting married in Las Vegas– Actually, my most popular article didn’t even appear on ABC, it was published on budgetsaresexy.com.  This occured after I met blogging expert J Money who explained to me how I would need to start discussing myself a little more in my articles if I want anybody to care about what I write.  I published this article on budgetsaresexy.com  as a way of transitioning writing about myself a little more.  Anyway, getting married in Las Vegas isn’t for everybody but it was fun for us.  You can read the full story here.

Photo by Stock Monkeys. Link to Republic Wireless is an affiliate link.