Well, for some of you, this may be something to work towards, but some of you may have already mastered the skills possessed by a good budgeter. Either way, it’s not about making a budget and then….that’s it. It’s not about simply having a budget for a week and then going back to blowing your money on whatever you see. It’s about continuing down a certain path of fiscal fortitude and keeping yourself in check so that you can still have grocery money and money to pay the bills with. What I am hoping, is that you will continue with the budget practices and soon have enough money saved up to reward yourself with what you would like.
By now, you’ve probably started to get really sick of hearing that you need to save money here and there on little things, but you really just need to write down how much you spend on a certain something, whatever it might be, and then write down the small amount you might save on it one time. It all adds up. Say you are spending 300 dollars on your electrical bill. Well, try unplugging your TV while you are at work. If you want to watch TV, all you have to do is plug it in when you’re ready and it’s fine. Plus, you might just end up not watching TV all day and you’ll increase the amount you save from one energy-sucking appliance. Continue this with other appliances while you’re at work. Microwave, VCR, DVD player, video game console, etc. They can all be considered money thieves when you leave them plugged in and sitting there. They’re quite sneaky that way.
Say you save twenty dollars just by unplugging one of them. Well, you just cut off a third of your bill by unplugging all of them. That adds up to 1200 dollars a year.
My point is that little things add up and someone who is going to continue saving money really needs to know that. Once you know it, you won’t even need me to explain how to save money.
You’ll see how you can do it in every part of your life and you’ll be able to save even more. Just try to save and you’ll be happy about how much extra cash you have by the end of one month.
Another really good way to achieve long-lasting savings is to find something you enjoy doing and turn it into monthly cash. It could be something small like taking care of your neighbor’s garden or neighbors’ gardens, or something that you’ve been dreaming of doing for a long time, like writing a book. It’s best to find something that’s easily done so that you can enjoy the benefits more so than picking up a few extra hours working construction or any other difficult vocation. Once you have that extra cash flow, you will be saving money all the time.
Remember, you got along just fine with the money you had coming in before this extra stuff. You don’t even need to spend any of it. It’s there for emergencies and a little reward every so often. But, if you’re really set on spending some of it, hold off for three months. That way, you’ll have three months of extra cash sitting in your bank account and it’ll act as your cushion in case of anything bad happening. A cash cushion is one of the most important things to a person on a budget. I know that when you’re trying to spend wisely, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep 800 bucks in the bank, but what if you need to fly out of town for an emergency? What if someone steals your credit card and racks up a large bill? What if anything at all happens and you’re forced to spend 500 dollars right away?
Well, would you be better off just dipping into your emergency fund, or would you be better off with 1000 dollars in credit card debt that keeps growing? Would you be better off with spending some money that you’ve saved, or would you be better off with spending some of your rent money on that emergency plane ticket? Exactly. Those events always pop up unexpectedly and then you’re stuck without the money you need to live off of. But once you develop a small fund for such occasions, you’ll be on the winning end of your battle with financial stress.