When looking for an effective plan to stretch your earnings and increase your savings, the first thing you may want to consider is your expenditure on luxuries. An in-depth discussion on what you need versus what you want is often the first step taken by debt relief service providers to help you make meaningful adjustments in your finances. Especially if you’re starting to sink in debt and considering a debt relief service to help you put your finances in order.
Besides cutting back on luxuries and recurring expenditures, there are dozens of ways to reduce your expenses every month. Some may take the help of a professional to figure out while some need little effort to figure out. If you are not sure of where to start, implementing these 10 easy ways to cut your expenses will be a big stride towards a turning point in your lifestyle and expenditures.
1. Cut back cell phone expenses
A cell phone is a vital necessity of modern life. The offers on mobile phones and mobile phone services vary from one service provider to another. The services can be purchased separately or bundled with the cost of the mobile device. Choosing the most economic option for cell phone services can be a challenge because most of the services include cryptic charges which most users don’t care much to understand. However, there are variables you can gauge; like how much data you use in a month, call time and the television channels you tune to in a month. When you know what you need you don’t have to subscribe to a service which includes packages you don’t use. This way, you will only pay for what you use and you will be surprised at how much money you can save in a year on cell phone services alone.
2. Watch what you eat and where you eat it
Where you eat and what you eat have a direct impact on your finances. For instance, eating out at restaurants is often fun but comes at a cost. How much eating out hurts your finances depends on how much disposable income you make every month. If you are running on a budget or considering saving, you may want to spend just enough money on meals to get you by. Eating food prepared at home will save you a fortune in a year. If a research conducted by U.S Consumer Packaged Goods Marketers is to go by, the cost of food prepared at home was on a consistent decrease in 2017 while the cost of food prepared at restaurants was on consistent rise in 2017.
3. Debt Consolidation
On average, a U.S citizen has a credit card balance of approximately $6,375. This balance is paid with at average interest rate of 16.49%. This means that an average American throws away at least $1051 on credit card interest charges. Did you know that a credit card counseling agency can help you bargain for lower interest rates or help you consolidate your credit card debts into a single monthly payment with a low interest rate? Call a credit card company and let them help you with a debt consolidation service which will not only lower your interest rates but also turn the credit card debts into a single monthly payment which will be distributed to your lenders as appropriate.
4. Reduce Electricity and Water Use
Electricity and water can be expensive if we don’t conserve them. You can cut back on water and electricity bills by regulating how much water and how much electricity you use. Energy saving bulbs, turning off appliances when you are not using them, using energy saving appliances, water saving taps, water saving sinks, water saving shower heads and water saving cisterns are some tweaks you can incorporate into our electricity and water systems to cut your expenses on electricity and water bills.
5. A kitchen Garden
If you have unutilized land in your backyard it is a great resource to save your expenses on foodstuff. For instance, why buy vegetables when you can grow some in your compound? All you need are seeds and a few farming tools, and you’ll soon be smiling your way to your garden and harvesting fresh organic produce while your neighbors will be digging deep into their pockets to buy not as fresh carrots, greens, tomatoes, berries and onions just to name a few.
6. Quit expensive habits
Some habits are not only unhealthy but also unnecessary and costly. The most common one which comes to mind when we imagine of an unhealthy and costly habit is smoking. According to a research by CDC; 3200 minors in America take their first puff every day. Cigarette smoking claims close to half a million lives a year in the U.S. If you smoke a packet of cigarettes a day, you are spending about $7 every day on a habit that will cut your life short. This translates to $210 a month and a whopping $2,520 a year. I bet you can make a better use of that lump sum.
7. Cut back on insurance premiums
Insurance premiums are a lot like television and mobile phone bills. Insurance companies will confuse you with jargons and make you pay for many services you don’t need. You don’t always need the whole package. Contact a professional or a trustworthy insurance agent to help you choose a cover which contains only what’s most relevant to your needs. For example, if you don’t drive your car often, request your insurer to reduce your premiums because if you hardly drive the car there’s only a small chance that you will be involved in an accident.
8. Hold off the urge to by a new automobile
Many people across America can’t imagine life without a car but if you are already struggling financially you don’t need to buy a new car, or at least hold the urge off for a few years. If you can live without one, use a bicycle, public transport or carpool; consider these alternatives whenever possible. If you are already in debt, there’s no need saddling yourself with a car loan.
9. Reduce your expenses on weekends
There’s a general trend of people spending more money on leisure activities over the weekends than they do during the weekdays, for obvious reasons. Well, you don’t have to. You can cut back on your weekend expenses and save the money. Eat what’s in your refrigerator instead of going out, invite your friends over to your place instead of hosting them at expensive joint or watch a film at home instead of going to the movie, etc.
10. Move into a smaller home
If your home is too big for your family, you can sell it off and move in to a smaller home. There’s no relevance in paying a lot of money for the extra space which you don’t need.
Cutting your expenses and growing your savings could call for making some painful sacrifices; foregoing some things you love for while so that you get your finances in order. Try out these 10 easy ways to cut your expenses and you will save more money than you can imagine.