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I am moving soon and am going to be on a very tight budget. My family consists of my husband, me and our one year old daughter and we live in NJ.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for saving money in general? Anything you have found helpful to cutting your spending down?

Thanks in advance!!

2007-06-29 15:15:42 · 7 answers · asked by Momma! 3 in Business & Finance Personal Finance

7 answers

1) Open an online savings account. Countrywide and HSBC both offer high yield accounts. Look into them to see which one suits you.

2) Do NOT eat out. Whether it is for dinner or for lunch break from work. Make your lunch at home and bring it to work.

3) Do NOT buy coffee from Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, etc. Just make your own in the morning. And please please, buy a pack of water bottles from a supermarket rather then buying $1 per bottle every single day from a vending machine.

4) By all means, avoid credit card debt. Only use credit cards if you are 100000% positive you will be paying back on time and hence not be paying interest. This way you can earn airline miles or whatever without paying CC debt.

5) Stock up on groceries when they are on sale. Try to avoid groceries that you don't need that are not on sale. Same goes for clothes; buy them on sale and buy them from MACY's or so instead of small, more expensive stores.

6) Learn how to invest. I'm not saying that you must invest right away. But at one point or another you must, and the sooner the better. Investing is MUST and it is NOT gambling like some people may say it is. You don't have to buy stocks if you are not comfortable but you should at least buy mutual funds when you are ready to.

Don't worry. If you work hard initially, save, and invest, soon you will be working less hard and will have more money.

2007-06-29 22:09:23 · answer #1 · answered by RockiesFan 2 · 0 0

I find knowing where I am spending my money helps me to be aware and not just buy anything I want.
I have been using a webbased budgeting program (calendarbudget.com) for almost 6 years now and find that it helps me to stay out of the red.
It has a calendar view of all my spendings and I can set categories for the different things. This way I can also see if I'm going to be over spending on my categories. In the blog for CalendarBudget it tells (well I'm the wife) how I was able to save over $500 in the long run (some little embarracement upfront... but worth it in long run). I found an awesome sale on something my family eats alot of... cereal.
I am a mother of 5 small children and know it can be expensive. I love having hand me downs for clothes and toys (clean of course). That saves alot on our pocket.
I'd say the biggest thing is other things the blog addresses. Being aware of wants and needs and putting low to no priority on the wants but put needs definitely first. Avoid debt as much as you can. We have chosen to not have cable to save some money there... some time.... and don't get influenced to HAVE to have the latest thing. Keep up with news off the newspaper, radio or internet instead.
Another link there is to Provident Living. At the bottom of that page it gives a link of how to manage household finances wisely.
Good luck in your new area. Hope this is of some help.

2007-06-29 17:33:03 · answer #2 · answered by Robin 2 · 0 0

first consider public transportation.. that will help you save on fuel.. it may take more time to get back and forth to work.. but it will save you money on fuel and other transportation costs.. also when grocery shopping it is important that you only visit the store when you truely need several things.. when my wife and I were young we followed the plan that her father had been using for quiet sometime.. make a list this way.. whether it is by the week or every other week.. plan your meals by the day and for the week.. meal by meal.. what you will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.. plan it by the meal by the day by the week.. or two weeks.. then buy what you are going to need.. nothing more.. I found that planning the menu this way helped my wife and I have a great variety of food to eat an then have plenty of money left over.. buy only what is on your list.. be sure that you buy enough to fullfill the meals.. you want to eliminate as many trips to the grocery store as possible.. because in most cases, if you were to go to the store for one thing.. you will wind up buying several things.. plan it by the meal by the day and by the week.. and use cupons on the things you buy.. you will not have much food left over.. but so what.. you don't need to be warehousing the canned stuff.. let the grocerer do that.. just buy what you will actually eat and eat it all.. you won't go hungry and you will save money.. good luck

2007-06-29 15:33:38 · answer #3 · answered by J. W. H 5 · 0 0

You have 2 options: increase income, decrease expenses or both. For income increase, consider a second job at nights or on weekends. For expense management, cut back on luxuries: going to movies, dinner out, vacations. Buy generic verses brand name groceries. Put together a budget of where you spend money each month and cut out the non-necessary items. Do you really need a cell phone? Is cable TV mandatory? etc.

2007-06-29 15:22:17 · answer #4 · answered by Frank Rizzo 2 · 0 0

When you move don't find the most expensive place you can afford then when you move in don't connect services like cable and telephone. Get a prepaid cell phone in case of emergency.
Look for a place that is small and well built so it is cheaper to heat or cool then try to get used to being slightly too hot or too cold.
Shop for bargains in food and don't shop at all for other things if you need something like a coat for the baby go out and buy it but don't look at anything else, do without anything that doesn't endanger your health.

2007-06-29 15:23:01 · answer #5 · answered by shipwreck 7 · 0 0

If you live close to where you are moving to, than move as much as you can yourself. If necessary get everything together, in one room, and hire a van, for a day. Load it up, and make several trips if you have to. If you can have someone mind your baby. Finally, when the movers come, they will only have the big pieces to move, which cuts down on their time, and charges.

2007-06-29 15:22:46 · answer #6 · answered by Beau R 7 · 0 0

part time job at a retailer where you do your food shopping (ie target, 10% employee discount & they accept coupons & much of their food is cheaper than the grocery store). thats what i'm doing & i save around 20%.

review the coverage on your auto insurance. increase deductible from $500 to $1000. what's the state minimum on liability, etc), change cell phone plans, landline phone plans, internet, dry cleaners/washing machine, movie/dvd, etc.

remember that anything you buy is an investment. and like all investments, you must take care of them.

good luck

2007-06-29 18:55:02 · answer #7 · answered by hi91977 3 · 0 0

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