April 15th, 2009
There are many ways in which you can reduce your daily, weekly, or monthly costs. Below are a few ideas on how you can cut back your spending and save a few dollars.
Make Your Own Coffee
Instead of a cup of gourmet/specialty coffee at Starbucks or another coffee shop, invest in a coffee maker and brew it at home instead. If you can’t brew your own coffee consider trading down to McDonald’s coffee or somewhere else that offers more competitive prices.
Bottled Water
Don’t buy bottled water. Instead fill up a reusable bottle with filtered tap water from home. Numerous bottled water companies get their water from the same water source that you get your tap water from anyways.
Breakfast from Home
Instead of going out and buying breakfast in the morning, make your breakfast at home or bring a breakfast bar to eat on your commute to work.
Brown Bag It
Bring your lunch to work instead of going out to eat or buying from the cafeteria; this will almost always be cheaper (unless your place of employment offers free food). You don’t need to bring your lunch everyday; just brining your lunch 1-2 times a week can save you hundreds of dollars a year and help to enforce healthier habbits.
Avoid Vending Machines
Don’t buy snacks from vending machines, delis, or convenience stores. You can get the same items from your local grocery store at a much better price, so stock up on these snacks and store them at work or in your car.
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tim
Categories: Frugal Living, Saving Money
April 9th, 2009
Having trouble saving money? Start by saving $3.
$3 may not seem like a lot, but if you cut your spending by $3 every day, that will equate to over $1000/year in savings.
$3/day x 365 days = $1095/year
The same holds true for $20/week
$20/week x 52 weeks = $1040/year
…and $85/month
$85/month x 12 months = $1020/year
Take a close look at your spending; are there any daily, weekly, or monthly expenses that you can cut out?
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tim
Categories: Frugal Living, Saving Money
March 25th, 2009
What is an Emergency Savings Fund?
An emergency savings fund is money that can be easily accessed when an unexpected financial need arises. This money can be kept in a savings account, money market or short-term CD. The only time you would take money out of this account is in an “emergency”.
Why?
Having an emergency fund will ensure that you’ll be able to support yourself and your family without taking on unnecessary debt during times of financial need.
If you lose your job, your roof starts to leak, your car breaks down… You can draw from your emergency fund instead of running up your credit card or taking out a high interest loan.
How Big?
At a minimum, you should keep at least 3 months worth of living expenses (e.g. Rent, Food, Transportation…) in your emergency fund. Ideally you want to have enough to cover 6 months – 1 years worth of living expenses in your fund.
How to Start
Start by putting 10% of your paycheck into your emergency fund. If you can’t afford to save 10% on your current lifestyle, consider cutting back on some of the convenience/luxury/entertainment expenses until you have at least 1 month of living expenses saved up and then continue to add to that monthly.
If you already have some savings on hand, you can designate that as your emergency fund and use it as starting point and build on that.
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tim
Categories: Saving Money