tips for saving money?

Question

i need tips on saving money becuase me and my husband liveon our own and pay rent and other bills and car note and babesitter and neither one off us make much money so we need to save where ever we can. any ideas??????

Answer 1

if each of you carry a small notebook and commit to writing down everything you spend money on for a month, you will have very useful information on how you are spending your money. then you can focus on saving on the things that will have the greatest impact. for instance, if you eat out a lot, because of hectic schedules, you sometimes don't realize how that adds up over time, and when you see it, you are more motivated to make your lunch vs buy it at work etc.

Answer 2

First keep track of your expenses that you have to pay. Can you cut back? Can you eliminate some things? Next control your spending. Stay home more don't shop unnecessarily, Just buy things that you need. Don't charge Christmas this year. Establish and live by a budget. Plenty of books at your local library. Make necessary adjustments. Plan your big purchases and bills. Take so much out of your pay and set aside. Every little bit helps. Only carry some money and not all of the plastic, cuts down on impulse buying. Now, you have some ideas. At least get a couple of library books and they will give you a lot more ideas to consider. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Look over your bills and see what can be cut out. For example, on your landline phone bill, do your need those extra fee services like call waiting? Are you paying line maintenance fee? You can cut about $15 off your phone bill by getting rid of those.

Groceries: plan menus for the week from the grocery sale ads. Make a list and don't buy anything not on the list. Grocery stores just love those impulse buys!

Also, buy store brands. Even with coupons, name brands cost more. Most store brands are good quality -- probably made in the same place as the name brand, just a different label.

Answer 4

Wow, there were really some great answers to this question. But, I would like to elaborate.

The basic answer to the question is: "Stop giving away your money". Now, that sounds simple but there are two basic ways we give our money way. The first is we shop and buy food, clothes, automobiles, etc. The second way we give our money way is through the devaluation of our property. After all, if you needed to earn some cash one day you might want to sell something. When your net worth is going down, it's just like spending hard earned cash and its taking away from your savings.

Thus, NO CREDIT, is a good policy. If you can't pay cash for it, don't buy it. When you buy a car on credit, you are spending future money and paying interest on an asset that is devaluing. So, if you can get rid of a carpayment and don't pick up another one you'll have several hundred dollars a month extra. We have to be reasonable though and many times we need to invest in our careers so we buy some nice cloths, get a haircut, etc. But, in the grand scheme of things you don't need much credit at all and especially no credit cards or financing of automobiles.

The first step is evaluate how you are doing. I liked the idea of keeping track of what you are spending. Many people will find that just the mear act of writing down what they are spending, they will actually spend less. This leads to making the first of two lists. The first list is of things that you need. This is like electricity, phone, water, clothes for work, toothpaste, etc. Remember, if you don't need call waiting for work and are not reimbersed for it then you don't really NEED call waiting. As well, if you have a home phone and your company provides you with a cell phone or you have cell phones on your own, then you might not need the home phone at all. Thus, with the list of things you need, you budget for.

The second list is of things that you want. Like I want to buy an old corvette one day. So I am saving for it. My wife would like to buy herself a Dooney Boorke purse (sp?), so she is saving.

Thus, we save for things we want and we budget for things we need. Be sure and put retirement savings on the NEED list. Also, if your work has direct deposit, have a portion of your paycheck go into your checking account and a portion of your paycheck go into a savings account.

Good Luck!

Answer 5

There are 2 types of expenses - Inflationary and Non Inflationary. Non Inflationary are the ones like EMIs, where the amount of expense is fixed. Can't do much about them. Inflationary are the ones like your monthly grocery bills, phone usage, etc. which you can control. So you need to save on these - like eatout less often or eat less expensive foods, walk when you can instead of using the car, do not use your credit cards, save on electricity etc. These may appear to be small measures, but in the long run they save a lot of money.

Answer 6

Speak to a financial planner in your local bank. they might be able to help you set up a financial plan and budget you could live with.

My suggestions to you would be:

1) Sell one car and share one car, if both of you can live with that. If not, both of you should downgrade to smaller cars, preferrably hybrid cars.

2) Connect with other parents you know well and help each other with babysitting duties. When both of you are off, you could babysit those other parent's kids. When you are working they could babysit your kids and come to an agreement not to charge each other babysitting fees.

3) Stop buying brand name groceries and try to buy non-brand names that taste just the same. Always fuel or tank up the gas tank of your car on Tuesdays when gas prices tend to be the lowest.

4) To reduce your energy bill, always turn off and unplug your electronics from the wall, except, of course your refrigerator. Make use of sunlight and turn off all lights during the daytime, until it becomes dark.

5) Put your air-conditioning thermostat set at 78 to 80 degrees during the summer and set it to 65 to 70 degrees during the winter time.

6) If you have washer and dryer at home. Only wash when you have a large load and sun drry your clothes instead of using the dryer. Another tip would be just using the local laundromatt instead because it will reduce your energy bill costs.

Answer 7

Suggest your husband to get a second job. Or you do some part time job to get some money like babysitting the other babies. Make sure you don't spend money on junk like stuff you already have. Or is expensive.

Answer 8

Do not pay anything you don't need. Put money in the bank first, then pay off debt. Take a second job, have a garage sale, sell things you do not need....check out daveramsey.com or get one of his books form the libary.

Answer 9

with a debit card
save and make, make and save.: my brother spoke with a salesman of insurances who offers a good commission to him by each sale
making disposable diapers, you need a machine is very easy, good money good market
I found interesting information about your answer here. http://all-work-at-home.blogspot.com/2007/08/work-at-home.html Good luck!