Making Cents of the Dollars 33 Proven ideas to make your budget work and get your Debt under control: Re-shop auto, home and life insurance to see if you can bring down your payments. Downgrade your cable package, or get rid of it entirely. Disconnect your home phone if you have adequate cell service at your home. Or downgrade to a cheaper package. Buy and sell clothes at your local consignment or shop at Goodwill. Have a massive garage sale. (If you’d rather be out of debt than have an item, choose to sell it to help you get you there.) Advertise higher quality items on Craigslist, Facebook, or your local newspaper to get better prices. Focus on buying mostly sale items at grocery store or generic brands to reduce your cost. Use a grocery store awards program to earn money off gas. Cancel unnecessary expenses like magazine subscriptions, newspapers, manicures, pedicures etc. Anything that could be considered a “want” instead of a “need” should go until you are out of debt or greatly decrease your debt. Go to the matinee movies instead of paying full price (and skip the concessions). Or better yet, use the Red Box for at-home movie entertainment. Get temporary work or seasonal part time work to boost your income. Read books from the library or take a few trips to Barnes & Noble to complete a book. Buy your most expensive groceries in bulk at Coscto: meats, breads, cheese, produce, paper products. Establish a monthly grocery budget for the additional needs at regular grocery stores. When eating out, skip the soft drinks and stick with water. Skip the extras too (dessert, etc.). When eating out, share a large entrée or have small appetizers instead of the costly meal. Plan your errands more efficiently to conserve gas. Find friends that you can trade services with…haircutting, handyman, photography, babysitting, pet-sitting. Give home-made gifts, baked goods, or service IOU’s rather than expensive presents. Boxed cereals are expensive; switch to oatmeal, eggs or fruit for more nutritional and financial bang. Call the utility companies and get on a budget plan to give you more consistency with expenses each month. Set a spending limit with family at Christmas and/or draw names. Use exercise videos, walking or hiking instead of paying for the gym. If your haircut is too expensive, find a less expensive stylist or see if your hairdresser will cut you a break on price temporarily – ours did. Say “no” to hosting and/or attending in-home parties where you feel pressure to purchase. Does your family live nearby? Once a week dinners with mom or dad saved us a meal out of our shopping budget. Additionally, it usually led to leftovers and our parents looked forward to our visit each week. Make your coffee at home instead of buying it each day. Pack your lunch – not once a week, but regularly. Make extra dinner servings on purpose to have leftovers for lunch. Our dentist advised us we could skip the fluoride treatments if we were using a daily dental rinse – which we did… and bought on sale. Program your thermostat for savings on heating/cooling when you’re not at home. Tempted by certain retail stores? While digging out of debt, avoid window shopping these places where you’ve failed to control your impulses before. Give**.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 20:24:41 +0000
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