Put more of your hard-earned cash back in your pocket.
Many families are looking for ways to stretch a dollar. With the cost of life's necessities such as housing, transportation, insurance and food being high, you have to look for other areas of the family budget that can be trimmed to help make ends meet and save. Many of these solutions involve changing habits on a small scale. However, those small changes can add up to big bucks.
Phone Use
The advent of cell phones has caused many people to have both a home phone and a cell phone. Truthfully, you may only need one of these in order to communicate with family, friends and loved ones. Consider ditching the home phone and using VOIP technology through the Internet, or simply just use your cell phone. If you pay $50 a month for that landline, you can save $600 per year by making the switch.
Insurance
If you own and operate a car as well as a home, you are required to have insurance. However, just because you bought a policy does not mean you should not continue to shop around. Make sure you are receiving all possible discounts, such a multi-policy discounts and good driver discounts, if they apply. Also, see exactly how much coverage you have, and how much you need. For instance, if one of your cars is only worth a few thousand dollars, then it might makes sense to only cover it with liability. Why? Because in the case of an accident, just a few repairs might cause the insurance company to scrap it. Other ideas for lowering insurance policies are raising deductibles and detailing exactly how many miles you drive. A few thousand fewer miles driven per year can reduce an auto insurance policy significantly.
Food
After a long day at the office, or running kids from activity to activity, it can be easier to just order in for dinner. But in a family of four, each member can easily spend $10 or more for take-out. Instead, plan meals ahead for the week. You can make food ahead of time, freeze it and then defrost it when you want to use it. Suddenly that $40 take-out bill just shrunk to about $15 to feed your whole family. Not to mention, you can also determine exactly what ingredients go into the food.
Purchase Used
Depreciation can be a serious killer of wealth. Many people know that the moment a new car drives off the lot, it depreciates significantly in value. Extrapolate that example to other household items you might purchase. Instead of buying new clothes, purchase gently used clothes at thrift stores. This can save a lot of money on seasonal items such as winter jackets, which are only worn during certain times of the year. Also, instead of buying the new television from the bog box retailer, look to find a used television of the same model.
Tags: cell phone, home phone