There are many ways to save money when finances are tight. Fiscal awareness and budget conscious spending will help reduce financial stress.
Budgeting Tips When Money Is Tight
Everyone experiences times of financial hardship at one point in their life. Whether it’s while you are away at school and studying while working or early in your adult life as you climb the corporate ladder. Throughout recent times, the pandemic has caused many to become more fiscally aware as well. Budgeting is an absolute must when trying to save money.
The first thing to do is to create a list of currently monthly expenses. Compare this list to incoming money. If you do not have at least 20% of your paycheck to set aside in the event of an emergency cost it is time to re-evaluate your monthly expenses. Break down the list of monthly expenses by necessities and luxuries. Mortgage, rent, electric, gas, water, insurance, and transportation expenses are all necessary. Extra expenses such as cable, magazine subscriptions, subscription boxes, monthly club memberships and fun money for going out or leisure shopping are all non-essential and can be cut from the monthly expense list. Cutting extra’s that are not essential will free up some monthly money and help you successfully put at least 20% of your income monthly into a savings account.
Monthly subscriptions and extra’s such as cable are definitely nice to have but during times of hardship, these are not necessary. Many services will allow you to suspend service and deliveries and then re-start them when you find yourself in a better financial situation. By getting rid of these non-essential extra monthly bills you will free up money and relieve stress on covering the expenses for your essential monthly necessities.
Once you have eliminated the extra monthly expenses move onto the essential expenses. Often you can reach out to your Oncor Energy utility providers and inquire about budgets or ways to save money on your monthly bills. If you already have the cheapest rate you can think of areas of where you might be wasteful with your energy usage. You might be surprised at the amount of money you can save by making small changes such as using ceiling fans (so the AC doesnt have to do all the work), turning off appliances when not in use, installing blinds or curtains. Other ways you can save money areYoby touching base with your mortgage lender and inquire about lower interest rates and possibly refinancing to reduce your monthly mortgage payment.
Money-Saving Hacks When Money Is Tight
Once you have gone through all of your monthly expenses and eliminated unnecessary ones and reduced the necessary ones you can still find ways to save money in other areas. Learning how to live frugally with stick with you even during times when money is not tight. Ultimately, but learning how to save on every day things, you will always be able to tuck a little extra money aside for a rainy day.
These hacks will help you save money
- Pay attention to sales when grocery shopping
- Download gas saving apps to your smart device
- Find a side hustle
- Shop Resale and use consignment
- Always check Groupon and other deal offering sites
- Trade services
Following these hacks will help you to save money every month on your expenses. Paying attention to store sales and coupons will cut money off your grocery expenses. By downloading a gas saving app you will never over pay on local gas for your vehicle again. This will cut some money off your monthly gas expenses. There are plenty of survey and opinion sites that pay via PayPal or gift cards. By spending 30 minutes each day filling out surveys or offering opinions you can earn enough in gift cards to cover birthday gifts for loved ones or put a serious dent in holiday shopping. Resale and consignment are other great ways to save money. You can also utilize sites such as Groupon to find buy one get one deals on dining and activities so you can still do the things you love for a fraction of the cost. The last hack to save money is to trade services. Swap babysitting for cleaning or maintenance. Many communities have social media pages for things like this, it encourages those in communities to help one another out and promotes thriftiness.
Learning how to cut expenses and live on a tight budget is an asset that will stick with you for all future spending. These hacks will help you live more modestly and grow your savings account over time.