- Does it seem you always run out of cash by the end of the month?
- Do you feel like you need to get a second job to make ends meet?
- Do feel that others are getting ahead and you are just falling behind in your finances?
- Does it feel like you do not make enough money to start an emergency fund or save for retirement?
There are several ways to work on the above situations.
- Make more money
- Spend less money
Now wait a minute, you might say. I have tried all sorts of things and nothing seems to help. I am working myself to death, dog tired at the end of each day and will probably need to work until the day I die and still will probably not have a penny to my name.
It seems, I am always running out of money.
First Pause and Hear Me Out
Well, let me make a suggestion. Before you go out and get another job or another side gig and make yourself even more wore out than you are currently. Maybe you should take a step back and look at where all of your hard earned money is going.
I am not saying track every penny you are spending for the next few years. I am suggesting looking at your prior months bank statements and understanding what type of expenses on which you are spending your hard earned money.
Look Back at Your Spending
Most banks and other online account allow you to download your transactions into a spreadsheet. If this is not the case, you can still do it yourself with a pencil and paper if you do not have an online means to do it.
When looking at your spending, look at similar items that do not add as much value to your time as they may have in the past.
Do you go to Starbucks each morning before going to work? Or eating out every night, or other spending items that you do over and over again during the month.
Review Subscriptions
Over the past years, you may have signed up for a few more streaming channels because you wanted to watch that specific movie or new series that looks to be very entertaining. You may notice that you have four or five streaming TV services that you may now only watch once a week each.
Ask yourself, if it is worth what you are paying or if you could live without it for a while. Even though they only cost $5 to $10 dollars per month, that is $50 dollars a month if you have five of these services.
Determine if you could reduce that service to two or three instead cutting your monthly expense in half saving you $25/month. That would equal $300/year that could be used for other things like starting that emergency savings fund or put to your retirement savings.
Restaurants or Fast Food Services
Look at how many times you eat out per week. Could you instead eat at home or fix yourself a lunch to take to work with you? Eating out normally runs over $10 per time. If you just cut out one time per week, this would give you another $50 per month which will give you another $300 per year savings (correction: This would add another $600 savings for the year).
Other Spending Items
There are lots of different things that we spend money on each month. None of us spend in exactly the same way but most of us do overspend a little or a lot.
Before rushing out to take another job or planning to work for the rest of your life, take a look at your spending. I bet you can find something that you could reduce that does not give you as much pleasure as it once did.
Doing this simple review could save you hundred if not thousands of dollars each year which can help reduce your stress and start you on the road to saving.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
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