Helping Your Money Go Further

How often do you look at your bank account statement and wonder where it is all your money is going? You could sit down with a pencil and paper and try to figure it out, but we’ve decided to help you out (although it is recommended that you take note of your monthly expenditures). In this article, we will show you 7 ways to save your money, which, in the long run, will help to make your money go further.

7 Easy Ways to Save

1) Cook At Home

Cooking at home is something that can save you a lot of money and is not as difficult as you may assume. You don’t need to take culinary classes to be able to cook for yourself. There are many cheap and easy to follow recipes on the internet. If you’re not lucky enough to be a bachelor/bachelorette and your significant other works a different shift than you, it may be difficult to synchronize home cooking. Make dinner at home 3 or 4 times a week – enough to reduce spending but still keep the stress of preparing meals for each other low.

2) Buy Generic Products

Do you really need that $15 jar of jam? The one that comes in a baby food-sized jar? You know, the Queen’s jam, made with little scarlet strawberries? Sure, it tastes delicious on those croissants your mother makes you, but the store brand will probably taste just as nicely and will cost you 5 times less. Take a look at the products you are buying. Are there store brand equivalents? Give them a shot. You’d be surprised how close they can get them to taste to your big name brands. You’ll also be surprised at how much you’ll be saving.

3) Pay Off Debt Quickly

Paying off debt quickly may seem easier said than done, but there are ways in which you can help yourself achieve this goal. First, nowadays banks can automatically withdraw bill payments from your bank account. This will make sure that you do not forget (it’s no longer up to you to forget) and have the bills pile up and get late fees on top of it. Another way to help pay off your debt quickly is to create a budget. Figure out how much you’re spending a month and subtract that from how much you make. Is it in the negative figures? That’s not good. Basically, you want to find excess money that you can use to pay off your debts faster.

4) Avoid ATM Fees

If you live in the big city your bank probably has a branch on every other block. Figure out the ATM fee you are getting charged each time you use another bank’s ATM machine and then multiply that by the amount of times you end up using another bank’s ATM. It can get quite expensive. Walk the extra block to your own bank. Figure out how much you think you’ll need for the next day or two. This will save on all those extra fees.

5) Avoid Impulse Buying

First off, do not go grocery shopping when you are hungry and or bored. Hunger or boredom can both be causes of impulse buying. If one has time to spare at the store, one may find things that they did not initially intend to purchase but begins to seem more and more like something that is needed. Make a grocery list. Squeeze grocery shopping in between appointments, where there is only a limited amount of time to get the shopping done. Secondly, online purchases should be avoided at all costs. It is a convenient way to shop that may result in impulse buying as it may be just a bit too convenient.

6) Scheduled Maintenance On Your Vehicles

Unfortunately there may not be a bigger money pit than a car. It is probable that parts of a car may break down at financially inopportune times. Sometimes these major problems cannot be avoided but smaller things like maintaining the oil or checking the air in the tires regularly can help you to save in the long run by making sure your car is properly maintained.

7) Regulate Electricity Use

Simple things like turning off lights when leaving a room and turning off your electrical devices when they are not being used can make a difference on electricity bills. There are some other ways to save electricity as well, like running the dryer at night and setting a program on the thermostat to use less electricity during the time when people are not home. These techniques will help save you money as electricity is generally cheaper when used during off hours.

Conclusion

These are only 7 of a plethora of ways that you can start saving yourself money. They can help you if you abide by them. In the beginning it may be easier to follow just a few and add to them instead of setting a whole list of new rules to be followed.