Practical Money Saving Tips

Here are some simple ideas that will save you a good chunk of change over the long run:

1. Think twice about your coffee or tea habits. If you purchase this from your local coffee shop daily, why not bring it from home? Use a thermos and bring your daily dose with you to work. It will cost significantly less! Same goes for that snack you might buy with your coffee or tea.


2. Do you really need all those "Frills"? By frills I mean extras. For example, do you pay extra for call waiting or call display? Do you really need 200+ TV stations? Why do you have more than one cell phone in your home? Think about it...everyone did just fine 20 years ago without all this stuff! Go over this and think...Do I really need this or is it just a "Want" or something "Cool". Separating this can save you a lot of money.


3. Pay your credit card weekly! Don't wait an entire month as you will likely not save the money you may have set aside 3 weeks earlier. As you charge items on your credit card, pay it off ASAP! I personally pay mine within 2 days of every purchase so I know my balance is always 0!

Make a budget and stick to it!

If you want to save money, I truly believe you MUST have a budget. Without a budget to stick to, you can easily spend more money than you think. You don't need to be an accountant to put a budget together either! Just make it simple. Gather all your expenses and enter each one into a spreadsheet. Subtract them from your Revenue and make necessary changes to fit you. I include all my known expenses, which is anything that stays the same month over month. This includes my cable, Internet, insurance, etc. For other things such as gas or food, I make an educated guess, based on previous history and buffer in a few extra dollars to be safe.

Another thing I would try to avoid is using Interact or Debit cards to pay for your purchases. If my food allowance for a week was $100, it's much easier to keep track of this if I keep the cash on hand so I know what is left each time I go to the grocery store. If I use Debit, I find it a lot easier to lose track and over spend!

Put a budget together ASAP and I'll bet it will be much easier to manage your money. Good Luck.