budgets Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

Cheap and Cheerful: Easy Ways to Reduce Your Cost of Living

Money is the leading cause for stress in the US. Approximately, 30% of adults report significant financial stress. Additionally, stress can easily creep up on you, especially if you’re raising a family. Fortunately, there are some obvious ways to save some money. For example, buying simple, healthy snacks for your kids over pricey store-bought packaged ones. Have you seen the price of hummus? Here are additional way to reduce your cost of living:

Manage Credit Cards

Lines of credit are useful. Especially, in times of financial difficulty. However, it can be easy to lean on them a bit too much. Doing so, could end up costing you more than it has to. Many companies offer a helpful perk of transferring your balance from your current card to theirs. Additionally, some offer no interest or lower interests for a few months, so it’s worth looking into. The window of time without payments and/or added interest could be very beneficial in helping you catch up on bills. You can even use the extra money that you’ve saved for a rainy day or emergency fund.

Cut Extra Services

Many membership based services lure people in with a free service for a certain amount of time or another appealing offer. After the trial window, you might find yourself paying money each month to a service you don’t really use. If it’s something that legitimately benefits your family, then by all means take advantage of it. On the other hand, if it’s costing you even a small amount of money each month, and you won’t really miss it, cut the proverbial cord. What you will save can help reduce your cost of living, versus rationalizing it as inexpensive fee each month.

Save When You Can

Another way to reduce your cost of living is to set aside 10% of your net pay. The following year you’ll be able to start buying food or even services in bulk. This will cut down on your grocery bill. You can get a better price on the cost per roll for toilet paper by buying it in a bulk package. Even phone service providers are now offering a cheaper price per month, if you buy several months at once. Unfortunately, the problem is that it costs more up front. Oftentimes, people just can’t afford that initial upfront cost. By making a few cuts, you may be able to afford it the following year.

Finances can be stressful, but with a bit of strategy to reduce your cost living, the stress-relief alone is well worth it.

15 Tips To Save Money

February 5, 2015 by Rhonda Gales

Are you wondering how to save money? I look back over my life when I first moved out of my parent’s house and out on my own, and boy have I come a long way. For most of my life I have been a single mother. Budgeting, scraping, and sacrificing was a way of life for me. However, I’m proud to say things got better as time went on. I learned how to budget and save money. As a result, I was able to purchase my own home, send my daughter on a international vacation, college educated her, purchased a new car for her college graduation, travel, and built a significant savings account and retirement nest egg. This is not a boast, but a blessing and an empowering experience. As a result, I want to share my tips on how I saved money:

Pay yourself first – First, bank a portion of your check regularly. Put it into an account and forget about it. I’ve cried broke my entire life, and I act as though the money doesn’t exist. People say they can hear me squeak.
Limit credit cards – Instead of multiple lines of credit, why not drop it down to just one line of credit (or maybe even none). The Citi Double Cash review I read looked pretty promising. Additional tips to save money is cash and carry. It was my motto for most things. Buying budget furniture and refinishing items cut down on household expenses.
Shop wisely – I shop at thrift stores, yard sales and second hand stores. You can find brand new items, name brand items and gently used items. Don’t by-pass the Dollar Stores either, they’re great for school supplies, coloring books, crafts and snack items.
Use coupons and discounts – You can save tons of money by using coupons and taking advantage of discounts.
Look for free activities – Take advantage of free activities during the summer and holidays for family activities.
Bank a part of your child support – If you’re single parent bank a portion of your child support. If you can’t bank half, bank what you can. I was able to send my daughter to Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria on child support that I saved for her.
Drive an inexpensive car with low maintenance – My first car didn’t have an air conditioner and it was a straight stick. At this stage in my life I couldn’t handle either of the two, but I sacrificed when I was younger and able to endure.
Pack your child’s lunch – My daughter was a brown bagger until high school. Packing her lunch relieved me of having to pay another bill.
Start a Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) or 401-K – I invested my money for the past 25 years, and again acted as if it didn’t exist. When I needed a loan, I borrowed from my TSP at a much lower interest rate. When I retire, I will have a monthly check from my employer as well as everything that I have saved and earned for 25 years in my TSP. I plan to use this money to travel the world.
Purchase clothes off season – I purchase clothes on clearance at the end of each season for the following year. I’m now able to shop where ever I want whenever I want, but I still purchase the majority of my clothes off the clearance rack and the kid’s clothing there as well.
Start a vacation club – I’m able to vacation several times a year. I treat my daughter, son-in-law, 2 grandchildren and my friend each summer to a week at the beach.
Prepare meals for the week – This will eliminate stopping at fast food places and spending money unnecessarily.
Become a DIYer – After I purchased my home, I did my own painting, mowed the lawn, trimmed it and fixed minor things around the house. I saved thousands of dollars by doing my own work and banked it.
Assess your household expenses – Tips to save money can be applied to your household expenses. Get rid of unnecessary expenses and bank that money. You were spending it initially, so you shouldn’t miss it if you bank it.
Be Creative – When I break a dollar, I throw the money to the bottom of my purse. I empty my purse at the end of the week, and place the money into jars. Once the jars are full I head to the bank and place it into my travel account.

These tips to save money have worked for me over the years and I’m sure they will work for you too. Start out doing 1 or 2 tips and increase the tips as you go. Remember, pennies add up to dollars, dollars turn into hundreds of dollars and eventually thousands. What do you do to save money?