|
Expert Answers to Biz Questions Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.
Quick Ways to Trim Unnecessary Spending
Achieving financial freedom doesn’t just mean giving yourself the opportunity to spend money whenever and however you want. Although we’d all like to be able to buy anything we choose as frequently as we’d like, the truth is that most of us simply don’t have this freedom. Unfortunately, failing to recognize your limitations could mean that you give in to the temptation of unnecessary spending. Figuring out the best way to make the most of your money isn’t always easy. However, it’s important to seek out ways of trimming unnecessary spending if you want to avoid making dangerous choices with your money and getting into difficult positions. Here are some quick and simple ways that you can keep unnecessary spending to a minimum. 1. Put Bonuses into SavingsThere’s nothing better than discovering you’ve got some hidden money in the pocket of an old pair of jeans or finding extra cash in the car. Instead of pocketing the cash and potentially losing it on something that you don’t really need or want, put the extra money you get straight into your savings. The same applies when you earn a bonus at work or get an unexpected tax refund. If the money you find wasn’t something that you were expecting to get anyway, then you won’t miss it if it goes straight into your savings. This is a quick and simple way to start growing your safety net without having to worry about things like having too little left over in your account for bills. 2. Make Your Meals at HomeIt’s often difficult to find the energy to make a meal after a long day at work, particularly if you’ve been stressing about cash all day. However, spending money on things like fast food can seriously eat into your budget much faster than you would expect. Start out by making sure that you cook at least a couple of times a week if you tend to eat out frequently. This way, you can gradually build up to cooking more frequently. If you really can’t find a lot of extra time to cook on most days, then it might be worth putting a few hours aside on your weekend so you can cook meals in advance and place them in the freezer. Don’t forget to make your own coffee for work at home too. The couple of pounds you save on a trip to the coffee shop can save you a small fortune over time. 3. Know What You’re Shopping ForBefore you get a loan, you carefully figure out how much money you need to borrow for something like a new car or kitchen and request the cash that you need without going over or under your ideal number. Omacl has some great tools for helping calculate this sort of thing. However, most of us don’t take the same carefully measured approach when it comes to going to buy food or clothing. Whenever you’re going shopping for anything, you should always have a list of exactly how much you need, and exactly what you’re expecting to pay. This will stop you from picking up unexpected extra items, or telling yourself that you’ll just make do when you find a product for a slightly higher price than you originally expected. 4. Embrace the Power of DIYAlthough you might not think that you spend much on things like people painting your living room for you or repairing the shelves in your garage, you’d be surprised how much of your cash goes towards those services. Learning a few DIY strategies can make your life a lot easier, by ensuring that you can handle repairs and other strategies on your own. You can even use your DIY skills to cut down on costs elsewhere in life. For instance, you could stop buying facemasks and start making your own with tutorials that you discover online. Or you could even make your own home décor with a little creativity. 5. Cancel Unnecessary SubscriptionsThese days, most of us have a lot of subscriptions in our day-to-day lives. It’s easy to forget about the recurring expenses when you’re not careful. If you have a gym membership that’s been in your possession for months, but you never use it, now might be the time to cancel it. On the other hand, if you have cable but you’re constantly watching Netflix, you can see whether it makes sense to cancel your cable bill and stick with the streaming services instead. Look at the subscriptions in your life that you don’t really need to thrive and remove them from your day to day schedule. You’ll be saving more in no time.
Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News
Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc.
DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business, CyberSchmooz, and BizCafe.
|
|