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YahooNow, don’t scream at the idea before reading these useful tips. You will soon discover that step by step, your monthly habits will not suffer as much as you think as the cuts are minimal. The results will put a smile on your face as you will be able to reach your goal sooner than you think without surviving on bread and water. Take a look!
Don’t go caffeine-free, simply make it a luxury! Did you know that coffee shops make most of their profit on coffee alone? In fact, a cup of coffee may cost them (including the cream, sugar, coffee, hot water and the cup) a total of 25¢ at the most and if you pay $1.50 per cup, they make 500% in profit alone. Of course, they LOVE YOU for it. Although you may enjoy a good cup of coffee, why not do the same for cheaper than 25¢ as you do not pay for the cup and treat yourself once a week? This way, you will save more than $7.50 per week and $30.00 a month. And this is only by cutting down your expenses, not your caffeine.
Treat yourself to restaurants instead of living in them! Restaurants may be easy and in some cases, a fast solution to living life in the fast lane. Well, guess what? If time is an issue, prepare your meals in advance on weekends. Separate them into portions and freeze or refrigerate them. Then all you have to do is put your meal in the microwave for a few minutes and “Voilà!” As the cheapest meals you may purchase in the restaurant costs you $7.00 a day, if you enjoy it once a week, you will save $42.00 weekly and $168.00 per month. Also, by making such a change, you will trade fast food for good food and your body will thank you for it.
Use public transportation, your bicycle or your own two feet to get to work! Nowadays, the gas companies are making more money than King Midas himself and on top of that, pollution levels rise quickly as most families own at least two vehicles. If your workplace is not too far, make a healthy decision and use a bicycle or walk to work. You will get in shape and you will feel better for it. On rainy days of if your workplace is far away from home, use the transit bus or the subway to get to work. You will not only save on gas, diminish the pollution level, avoid the frustration related to traffic and save on parking fees but you will also save on car insurance as you will pay less if you drive for leisure instead of using your car for work. Insurance companies will thank you for it as fewer cars on the road mean less car accidents and less money to pay for damages.
Pay with cash, not plastic! Take the habit to pay cash, not with credit cards as they charge high interest fees. Take some money out, making sure to use only what your monthly budget allows you. If you can’t pay cash, you simply can’t afford it right now. If it is important to you to have it, save for it instead. This may take more time but your budge will be free of an extra debt. Use credit cards only for emergency or pay them in full every month in order to avoid outrageous fees.
Pay with bills but keep the change! Simply by using bills and keeping the change as savings, you will be amazed at how much you can save each month. Also, it will be easier on your back and shoulders as your pockets, your wallet or your purse will be much lighter to carry around. For our family, it means an additional $100.00 a month. What about you?
Save on checks and banking fees by paying online! Nowadays, most bills can be paid online, eliminating check fees, some banking fees as well as paying for envelopes and stamps. For example, if you pay ten bills on a monthly basis and you pay $1.50 per check, 50¢ per banking fee, 10¢ per envelope and 50¢ per stamp, you would save up to $26.00 per month. Interesting, isn’t it?
Communicate by email or through the Internet instead of paying for long distance calls. Emails and some communication programs such as MSN Messenger can allow you to use both audio and video to talk face to face and it is FREE. How can you beat that?
Reading the newspapers? Can one be enough? Reading your newspaper over a cup of coffee may apply to most of you but who can read more than one newspaper during breakfast time unless you are on vacation, retired or out of work? Keep only your favourite newspaper and you will be surprised by the savings. In our family, this means a $20.00 monthly saving.
Do you need all these channels? Nowadays, time is of the essence, which means there is not much time available for watching TV if you consider most people’s busy daily schedule. So, be honest, how much time can you actually enjoy watching all these TV channels? Are you really getting your money’s worth? Why not find other productive ways to enjoy it by saving it to reach a goal? You will be surprised by how much money you can save each month simply by cutting down on the extra channels that you rarely watches anyway.
Keep it light, keep it simple! When you purchase something such as an iced cappuccino, ask yourself: Do I really need to top it off with crumbled brownies and whipped cream? “ It does not only mean more money but also more calories. Once in a while, as a luxury, it is not bad but if you do it on a daily basis, you will lighten up your wallet and load on extra pounds.
Compare your needs to luxury! When you shop, make sure to have a list of what you need as temptations will be along the aisles. If a temptation comes your way, use your list and your logic by asking yourself: “Do I need it? Can I use it enough to get my money’s worth?” You may not like to fight the temptation but in the end, you will not regret it.
