Ten Things You Can Do to Save Money: Four

4. Cancel your magazine subscriptions. You'll reduce waste, free up some time, save money, save some trees and reduce your carbon footprint (those magazines have to be shipped to you on airplanes and trucks) and have less clutter around the house. Some other ways to enjoy magazines for free or cheaper:

• Request back issues on Freecycle.
• Check them out of your local library.
• Share a subscription--or swap--with a friend.
• Redeem rewards. I collect Coke Rewards codes and then cash them in for prizes. Most recently, I got a year's subscription to O at Home magazine.
• Get someone to give you the subscription. Every year, my Dad and stepmom give me a year's subscription to the magazine of my choice. And every year, I give one friend a subscription to BUST. (BUST lets subscribers give away one free subscription every year at Christmas when they renew for another year.)
• Participate in a magazine swap. In my area, there are several. At the Cup and Top cafe in Florence, for instance, there's a magazine rack where people drop off their unwanted back issues and others can take them home or read them on the spot. If there isn't a magazine swap in your neighborhood, why not start one?
• Read online. (I personally hate reading things online, which is ironic since I make my living writing things online, but, if you don't hate it, this could be an affordable alternative to subscribing to a magazine.)

As with all of my tips, it's first and foremost about quality of life. If you absolutely LOVE your magazine(s). If you look forward to the day it arrives and read it cover to cover and recycle it when you're through or keep it on your shelf and return to it again and again, then, by all means, keep your subscriptions. If, however, you don't really have the time or energy to read them all, let them go. If you want them bad enough, you'll find a free way to still enjoy them.

If you find yourself buying them regularly at newsstands, however, stop that immediately and go back to your subscription. It's much more affordable.