Cutting your monthly home expenses can actually be easier than you think. If you want to save some money, you can use the ideas below to make it happen fast. Take a look and you’ll see what you can do this year to have access to extra funds.
Start Being More Eco Friendly
Start being more eco friendly around the home. Looking for issues around taps around the house, turn off the lights as much as possible, drop the heat in the winter,avoid using the AC in the summer time if possible, try to have eco friendly appliances and more… Not always easy to experiment new habits, try to have the family onboard to help on this new journey.
Write Everything Down
Make sure you write everything down, including your expenses and your incomings. You can use this to make an accurate budget that will allow you to control your income in an effective way, so you have enough money for everything, from your bills to your entertainment at the end of the month. Don’t worry if the first month you don’t see much improvment with time, it will happen.
Cut Out Takeaways
Takeaway food, coffee, and even going out to eat can cost you a lot of money. You probably spend more than you think on it. Look at your bank statement to have a idea on your spendings, on my side i have one day out of the week where i eat and drink anything i want, Friday! The rest of the week, i save as much as possible!
Make Changes And Build With The Right Company
If you’re planning on making changes to your home at some point, or even building a new one, make sure you go for an award winning home designer. If you go for somebody cheap, or worse, a cowboy builder, you’ll end up having to pay twice to fix mistakes. Of course, if you are a handy person,why not do any repairs or improvements yourself. It could be scary at first but you will save at the end.
Use Your Car Less
Walk, or even bike when possible. Using your car less is healthier for you and the environment and will put cash back in your pocket as you avoid unnecessary wear and tear and fuel costs.Easier said than done right! I feel you, driving less could be impossible for some of us… Try maybe one day per week if possible without your car, commute with another co-workers or even take the bus-train! Trust me , it was not easy at first but once in a while is not bad.You should try ?
Buy Second Hand
If you can, look at buying second hand before buying new. When looking to buy a car, it is so tempting to look for a new car with the crazy lowest interest rate! Wanted to go for the latest gadget why not online for bargains on sites where peoples will advertise any articles they may want to sell. The savings are accessible, you will be surprise to find some articles that are almost brand new on those small advertising sites or even local newspaper. Happy Saving.
Go For Cheaper Brands
Whether you’re looking at your food shopping or something else, see if you can go for cheaper brands. You might find there’s very little difference and that over time you save a lot of money. However, bear in mind that with some items if you buy cheap, you may end up having to buy again. Some things are worth having a slightly larger budget for, for example, your furniture.
Always Go Shopping With A List
Never go shopping without a list. Better yet, online shop so that you’re not tempted by any offers! Again so easy to say that right? Who will go to the store with a list, the only list i have is the one i use at the grocery store. What i do, i know exactly what i’m looking for and not changing my mind. If i know, i’m looking for a pair of black jeans! I don’t derive and stay in my lane and keep looking for this only item. Again, it is not easy to focus on one item when you have access sometime to crazy bargains. Try to keep your focus as much as possible , if it’s too difficult? Just go for it as long your budget is not impacted:)
Use Cashback Sites
You’d be surprised at how much cashback you can get on the things you were already going to purchase. Is it a interesting topic because not many of us ,will use those sites.We may think it is a scam, not worted, just take too long to do the process. Something you may try ,is to have a card that generate points that you could redeeme after for available articles in the store. Always do your due diligence, i have a bad lock once…Didn’t look at the small print and at the end, i was spending a lot but collecting so little points on my card.
Cook Your Meals in Bulk
Cook some meals in bulk at the start of the week, and don’t forget to take your own lunch to work! I’m sure i will get much reactions for this one and even for me it is difficult to prepare in bulk. What we do, is to prepare on Sunday 2 major meals for the week so we have enough until wednesday or thursday as much. Of course there is some weeks that are difficult and we don’t do it and at the end of the we look in our bank account, we notice the difference. You don’t have to do it every week but once in a while will help you without a doubt.
Save An Emergency Fund
An emergency fund means you can avoid using borrowed money when an emergency arises. Saving just $1000 will put you in a better position than most people. Ohhh boy that one was not easy to accomplish trust me. We have easy access to our credit cards but a real emergency fund is money set aside that we have access in a manner or 48 hours.
What we did? We decided to invest 1000$ in a Reit’s (Real Estate Investment Trust, you could ask you banker or accountant on how to invest in this type of investment) so our money is working for us and if in the futur we need to have access to this money we just sell the stocks and voila. It is not the perfect option but it suit us really good because we know , if the money is easily accessible ,will plunge into it without hesitation!
Extra (Ultimate Budgeting Guide)
Discover the ultimate budgeting guide, the good, the bad and the ugly.
I think we are in a time , we need to take some drastic decisions. Help us change our financial situation.
- 2 much debt.
- Just purchase a new house
- Kids in private school
- Back to school
- Car need repairs
- Credit Cards
- Student loans
- and more…
The reality is most of the population don’t have a budget in place and why is that?
Simply a question of organisation, taking the decision, know from where to start, not simple.
A budget should be at the main core of your money control. This amazing appelation will help you succeed at the game of financial stress.
Budgeting is for everyone, even if your making 100k a year or 20k a year, it is the same just at a different level money wise. The surprise is most peoples don’t even save 10% of their revenue per month. Since there is so much to do around bills, the house, work, commuting and many more situations.
It is a duty to make sure we are abble to save at least 10% of our income per month until we reach , 6 months of survival money.
Let’s start…
Tracking.
Important indeed to track your expenses, it is fondamental to do so… You have to know exactly how much you have left at the end of the month.
Track everything without living a thing, even a pack of gomme or the muffin at the store. The difficult part, is to do it on a constant basis. Record every transactions you may have per day,per week and per month. How?
- Tracking with a software
- Have a excel sheet
- A Calendar
- A spiral book for notes
- and more…
Important, track with something that you know will make you comfortable. Don’t put to much pressure on you and more onward of having fun while in the process. We all know how hard it could be , to do something over and over again. To have the motivation to track all of your expenses could be challenging. Collaborate with your spouse or include a family member to keep you accountable. This will help you a lot.
Income.
Know your numbers is really important and i will repeat this word along my article, not to be annoying! We don’t realise that our income could fluctuate a lot from one month to the other.
- Part time Job
- Bonuses
- Extra hours
- Reward
- Less hours
- Sick
- and more…
There is no way we could control how our income will be from one month to the other. So we should always calculate with the worst scenario in mind. When working with a budget, will give you more chance to be successful.
Calculate also any vacations time or sick leave day that was not taken at the end of the year.To apply to your budget lets say for the month of January, this should give you a boost for that month. Take advantage to pay any bad debt you have or a high interest rate credit. Any extra money coming your way, take the necessary steps to apply the money to paying down a debt in full.
Expenses.
Ohhh boy, this one is a bit over the top. How could we control or have a number on our expenses! To me it’s impossible to track all the expenses that we have in a current month without forgeting a thing.
Think about…
- Your house (Insurance, repairs, mortgage,taxes…)
- Your Car (Insurance, definitely the repairs, loan if there is one…)
- Cable and Internet (a good 75$ a month and more)
- Groceries (Depend how you eat, paleo,vegetarian, meat lover…)
- If you have Kids (daycare, orthodontist, private school…)
- Entertainment (movies, restaurants, traveling…)
- Animals (food, cares, toys…)
- and more.
There is so many things that we have to think about in a given month, it is just crazy. I do remember when i was starting checking all my spending in a month, i was shock. When i say, i was throwing money in the garbage , it was not a joke.
- Having coffee in the morning
- Restaurant at lunch
- Online shopping issue
- Easy access to credit (line of credit, credit card…)
There is so much we are abble to do when we have money available to us and especially when the credit is easy to get.Don’t fall for it because once you have sign on the dotted line, it is another ball game. Most of the time, the bank win the game, be careful.
Continue to read the best Budgeting guide to help you save ===> Only Solutions
Budgeting is not easy but having a plan is the right way to go, automate the process to have all the chances of success on your side.
Happy Saving.
Stanley
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