Food is a necessity, but you can still save on it. It might only seem like a few bucks, but we all need to eat every day and it really adds up. Just saving $20 a week can convert to saving over $1,000 per year. Here are some tips on how you can save money on food.
1. Plan in advance. Know what you need beforehand. If you go without a shopping list, you’ll end up buying a lot more than what you need.
2. Don’t go to the store hungry. When you haven’t eaten in a while, everything you look at tastes good. By the time you know it you’ll end up with a cart full of junk food.
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A house cannot be run without having a budget. If you’ve never done a budget before, start with a simple budget. First, total your monthly income. Second, track all your expenses for that month. Lastly, do the following math: income minus expenses. That’s the gist of what a budget is.
If your result shows more income than expenses you have a surplus. You can use this money to pay down debt to eliminate it faster or you can put it into a savings plan.
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Remember the days before debit cards? We actually used to carry cash around in our wallets. Well that and the couple of credit cards that were strictly for emergencies. Nowadays we are so dependent on just swiping those debit cards everywhere we go. It’s fast, convinient and costly. For people on a budget it’s easy to loose track of expenses and find yourself with less money than expected in the end. So the rule of thumb is carry cash for your everday expenses and leave the debit card at home or atleast in the very back of your wallet.
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Often times when it comes to spending and cutting back we think of “big ticket” items like a vacation, a new car or a new TV. But you can really make a difference in your budget by making minor changes to your monthly bills. This is where minor changes can really add up. Here are a few things you can do..
- Check your cell phone plan and see if you’re on the best plan for your current usage. Downgrading a plan to a lower one results in $10/mo change ($120/yr or $600 every 5 years). Remove add-ons like a protection program or roadside assistance. You’ll rarely if ever use these.
- Air conditioner / heating usage. You can make sure you close all your windows and seal them up as good as possible. You can turn it on for a 30 minutes then leave it off for a while, then repeat the process as needed.
- Happy hour. If you eat at restaurants from time to time, go during happy hour. At most places, appetizers are half price and this can really add up in the long run.
- Driving. You waste less gas on freeways than on streets, so find the quickest route to the freeway possible. Go anywhere between 50-70 mph without accelerating and decelerating too much for better gas mileage.
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