With so many families
struggling to make a living these days, I wanted to make up a list of
some helpful hints to budgeting, and saving money that we don't even
necessarily realize we are spending. Trust me, I am no genius with
finances, but I do my best to provide what I can for my family,
within our budget. It isn't always easy, and some weeks are tougher
than others to accomplish the ultimate goal of making it until the
next payday, the next month, or fulfilling a dream in the next year.
Many different factors go into a personal budget, and many depend on
what you believe to take priority over other expenses.
I'm going to start by
asking you a couple of personal questions. I just want you to think
about your answers while you read through, and when you decide to
start a personal budget, see what has priority for you then.
- How many times per week do you go out to eat, including lunches at work?
- Do you regularly buy a soda or an energy drink to keep you going throughout the day?
- Do you stop for coffee in the morning on your way to work, or do you make a pot at home and take it with you?
- Do you buy lottery tickets?
- Do you use alcohol or tobacco products?
- Are there features of your cable, Internet, or cell phone bills that could be reduced?
- How many times per week do you run to the store for items that you need?
- Do you pay somebody else to perform duties that you could be doing yourself?
We all have our own ideas
of what we “Need” to spend our money on, and it may be completely
different from person to person. That's okay, but if you are looking
to save money, or looking to have more money to pay necessary bills,
you need to take a close look at how you are spending what you make
now. I use an online banking app for our checking account that has
payroll direct deposit every week, and I was shocked at the amount of
money that my family spent on unnecessary purchases.
I fill the gas tank of my
truck every week, so it has a full tank for the following work week,
and yet when looking through my bank statement, I noticed multiple
charges, sometimes as many as three per day, coming from our local
convenient store/gas station. I am guilty of purchases made here
almost daily, to grab a soda or an energy drink, and when kids are
with me, they usually end up grabbing a snack as well. It doesn't
seem like it would make a huge difference in our budget, but when the
average purchases are $5, and some are multiple times per day, that
adds up rather quickly.
Another problem area that
I recognized was taking the kids to a fast food restaurant to grab a
quick meal while we're on the go during the week. I noticed that
usually one week day, and one weekend day, there are charges of at
least $20 spent at various fast food restaurants. Although convenient
at the time, it is costing my family a considerable amount of money
each month that could be applied to bills, or savings.
The biggest shock for me
this past month was receiving my electric bill. The bill had doubled,
with having house guests for a couple of weeks last month, and the
fact that we run an electric heater in our bedroom that has no heat
register. Since discovering the $400 bill, I have been on a mission
to get my family on board with turning lights off, shutting off
televisions and game consoles when not in use, and I've even
scheduled certain days to do laundry so my machines aren't running
non-stop all week long. I'm setting a time limit for showers that use
the hot water, and we're limiting the use of the electric heater to
only nights that get extremely cold. I went a step further and turned
the furnace down by three degrees, and I am insisting that if someone
gets chilly, they put on a sweatshirt or cover up with a throw
blanket while sitting watching television.
My newest challenge for my
family started the first Friday of 2017, and that is to put away $10
in an envelope every week, and not touch it until it is time to shop
for Christmas in 2017. Every year, the Christmas season hits our
budget hard, and I decided to change that for this coming year. At
$10 per week, I won't likely miss that amount of money, and if I
stick with less spending throughout the year, I will still have
enough to pay our bills, and by Christmas 2017, I will have $500 cash
to spend on my family members.
Although I only live less
than five miles from town, I have started making a list of items that
I need from the store, and I plan on going to town once a week for
necessary items, rather than running to the store every time I
realize that I wanted to pick something up. My plan is that this will
save drastically on gas for our vehicle, because there were weeks
that I was making a special trip into town every day, just to grab
something that I wanted or needed from the store.
Upon looking over my
cable/Internet bill recently, I discovered that I could save almost
$30 per month, by dropping our package down to a few less channels
that we don't watch anyway, so it is a win/win for my budget as well.
I couldn't live without my
cell phone, but signing up for a contract was not for me. I have
pre-paid cell phone service that gives me unlimited everything, and I
never pay over $50 per month for this service. If I didn't need a
smart phone to help me run my business, I would drop my service down
even further, and only use my cell phone when I absolutely had to,
but I consider part of the bill a business expense, and my business
profits cover the entire bill each month.
I strongly suggest you
take a look at where you spend your money, and what items you can
eliminate, or reduce, to give you more money to pay necessary bills,
or to put in savings. We all have some things that we can change,
even when you are living paycheck to paycheck.
If you would like to earn
a second income, I suggest you join my team for FREE, and see what
you can do to build your own business.
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