Top 10 Ways To Save Money -
Your're buying a home and with that comes a lot of unexpected expenses. Home owner's insurance, property taxes and appliances that you may have to purchase, just to name a few. It's time to create a serious budget and start saving some money.
To help you get started, here's a list of 10 ways to save money by cutting down a little on your expenses. A little goes a long way and is my hubble opinion that no one should be spending more money than needed.
1. Have a Budget - And stick to it. How many of your have one? I need to start on mine right away.
2. Cut Your Food Costs - I eat out a lot. I don't even try to add up all my restaurant expenses because I know it will make me depressed. Even if we cut down by a day or two, it helps. It also promotes health since we can control what goes in our food at home but not in a restaurant (i.e. salt, msg, fat, etc.). That dinner out can cost you more than what you pay for your weekly groceries.
3. Don't Stop At Starbucks - Huge one. It may not apply to you but I can safely say that a lot of people could save a ton of money by cutting down the Starbucks drive-thu. By the way, they've just jacked up their prices. In CA by quite a bit (if not mistaken, $0.30 a cup). I'll make this my motivation.
4. Avoid Brand Names - Often times there's actually no difference between the band names and the generics. It really doesn't matter who makes the foil or the toilet paper you use (well...some would question this last one...).
5. Kick Expensive Habits - Smoking is a good example. It can become even more expensive than just the packs you smoke a day. Once I read "if you have an expensive habit, saving money is probably just one of the many reason to drop it."
6. Go Easy On The Plastic - This one is a "no-brainer". There's a lot of wisdom on Shakespeare saying "NEITHER A BORROWER OR A LENDER BE."
7. Use Coupons - My husband is wonderful on this. He almost never pays full price for anything. If you really take the time to look, there's a coupon for basically anything you buy. It just takes a little bit of work and organization to make sure you get all the discounts. We go out to lunch every Sunday after church and it's been quite a while that we've paid full price for our meals. Go to restaurant sites and sign up for their news. Most likely you'll get emailed coupons. Mimi's Restaurant is a great one for this, if you have one in your area.
8. Don't pay unecessary fees - Some examples: $1.50 fee for using the ATM sitting right next to you, late fees for returning videos, etc. I'm sure we can find plenty of those unecessary fees everywhere.
9. Pay less for long distance - Take a close look at your phone bill and check how much you're paying per minute. I've just discoved that I was paying way too much for mine and had no clue.
10. Have Direct Deposit - Money going directly to your savings, IRA, etc. will be money not spent with unecessary "stuff".
I hope this list of the top 10 was to save money gets you inspired to make some changes and save some cash.
If you need someone to help you with your home loan, please contact me. I can save you some money there...
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