TIPS ON HOW TO CUT DOWN ON YOUR MONTHLY EXPENSES
Trying to spend less money is one of the biggest challenges you can face in your personal finance as you keep seeing reasons to spend money every day. Saving money requires effort, discipline, and sacrifice.
There are many ways to cut down on your monthly expenses like internet bundle, cable subscription, transportation costs, and so many other expenses. The tips that are going to be listed below may seem difficult but there are side benefits to some, like a healthier lifestyle and main benefits like getting out of debt.
Write down all expenses
The very first tip on cutting down monthly expenses is to write down all your expenses. This will enable you to know where your money goes to every day. There are times you discover that virtually every day you spend #100 on something trivial, this might seem quite small but adding up #100 every day, you tend to discover that you have wasted huge money on something not necessary. Writing down all your expenses will help you discover where to cut costs in the future.
Work on your eating lifestyle?
Are you the type that prefers to eat out than to eat at home? Eating outside could be quite enticing especially when the price of the food seems “cheap”. For instance, there is a place you get a plate of rice with meat for #400, sounds nice right? Imagine spending #400 naira daily. If you sum it up at the end of the month, you discover that you have wasted money on food. To avoid this, it is better to always have breakfast at home before leaving, pack up a lunch bag, and then have dinner at home after the day’s work. This method could be stressful but is worth it as it could help you in saving a huge amount of money.
Buy your groceries in bulk
Buying your groceries in bulk once you get paid is another way to cut down on your expenses. There are certain food items we need every day like milk for breakfast. You discover that buying a big tin of milk saves cost more than buying one or two sachets of milk every day. It is also important to make a list of items to be purchased before going to the store to avoid buying on impulse. One thing is to make a list; another thing is to stick to it. Never go to the market on an empty stomach to avoid spending more than you need.
Cut back on your cable subscription, airtime and data bundles
With fast development in technology, one may say that the necessities of life are phone, TV and internet services. Spending money on airtime and data could look inexpensive in a deceptive manner, just like buying #100 airtime every day which will always sum up to be a huge amount of money at the end of the month. Cutting down on expenses made in purchasing airtime and cable subscription requires some self-discipline and strong efforts. This could be achieved by:
Discovering the best package that suits you and which you can afford monthly and stick to this package. Discipline yourself on how you manage your subscriptions to avoid running out of any of them before the month ends. In a situation where you feel you can’t keep up with cable subscription but you need to be updated on recent happenings, you could install these local antennae with free local broadcasts.
Break free from your addictions.
So many people are addicted to quite a lot of things making them spend money on things that are not adding any benefits to them. People like this can’t go about their daily activities without satisfying themselves with their addictions. Some of these addictions include smoking, drinking, for some it could be an addiction to junks like chocolate, coke and so much more. Imagine spending #500 or more on any of the aforelisted daily, summing it up at the end of the month, you will discover that you spent a huge amount of money on lowering your chances of living because these addictions are deadly. Think of what you are addicted to. What you can’t go a day without buying? Break free from them. This entails a lot of self-discipline.
Avoid weekend spending
We often think that because it’s weekend we should spoil ourselves by going clubbing, window shopping, or having that exquisite food in an exquisite restaurant. Discipline yourself to go an entire weekend without spending. There are so many ways to relax at home on a weekend without spending. You can prepare your favorite meal at home, drink what is available at home, read interesting books or magazines, watch movies at home, play games with friends and family, and even have enough sleep before the new week begins. This will help you save a lot of money and it will also help you rediscover that you can live a happy life without having to spend much
Try to reduce electricity bills
Electricity is another aspect that can sap money as people have spent so much on electricity bills. We indeed can’t do without electricity but we can decide to save energy that will in turn save money. We can save energy by using energy-saving bulbs and always endeavoring to turn the lights off when not in use. Unplugging all electrical appliances when not in use is also another major way of saving costs. Try as much as possible to manage your electricity, this will help reduce the cost of electricity bills.
Impulse buying
This is the most important of all the tips listed above.
Buying on impulse is the act of buying anything we see without even thinking. You never planned to buy it, you just saw it, liked it and bought it. Impulse buying eats deep into our finance in deceptive ways. It makes one to spend money on unimportant things and save less. Before you jump into buying that thing you just saw, always ask yourself these:
On a scale of preference, how much do I need this?
Is it on my list to buy this?
Must I buy it from here? Can’t I get it cheaper from somewhere else?
And most importantly will I die if I don’t buy this?
In conclusion, spending less money requires that you discipline yourself and sacrificing what you term “fun” for a healthy future finance.
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