Clever Budgeting Tips
Clever budgeting tips will show you how to live within your means. Not only give you money saving tips , but also to give insights into developing a frugal consciousness about personal money management. Incorporating some clever budgeting tips into your every day thinking will give you an awareness of what's happening with your money in the short term. However, over time you'll want to be able to accumulate sufficient wealth to establish financial independence. Therefore, the long term benefit can mean developing an instinctive habit of applying budgeting tips whenever you're about to spend money. As opposed to most who never give managing money a second thought and find it easier to live in the comfort zone of spending now, and then later, wonder where all that money went afterwards. True financial freedom is only attained by 1% of the population which should be food for thought. We work all of our lives until we're 65 (67 soon) and daily there's the lurking stress of knowing that if the boss brought the hammer down on us tomorrow, we probably wouldn't have enough savings and investment to support ourselves for more than 3 months. Financial Freedom can mean...., if you're working, 'it's because you want to not because you have to'. That for most would be a wonderful feeling when you woke up each and every morning. Wouldn't it? Just up and take your family for a month's holiday and then, have the luxury of extending it for an extra two weeks. But, most are too busy caught up in this thing called the 'business of living' to ever put enough time aside to develop a personal money management plan, So, that's why, for most it will only remain a dream. Why? Because, you see, in most cases no one (parents, teachers, or the boss) ever told them, or showed them how to do it! Showed them that managing money frugally was the road to financial freedom! Often, a difficult aspect of a personal money management plan is moving the clutter of life aside long enough to find the resources and tools necessary to guide you to a personal budgeting plan that's tailored to suit for you. However, let's say, push has come to shove, crunch time has arrived and now willingly, or unwillingly you have now developed enough resolve to get on with it. The answerThe first step is to put aside an afternoon or an evening with your family, if you have one, and using the free budget planner start entering your cost of living expenses and also your incomes. If you put a lot of your purchases on credit cards, it's also a good idea to get the last 2-3 months statements out for each card so you get an idea of your spending habits and not miss anything. You'll find the free budget planner to be a useful tool as it will cover most items you're spending your money on and there's plenty of free space to create your own additional categories if they're not already listed. Some useful categories to consider are:
Budgeting Tip 1 - Journalling; If you're having difficulty in remembering all the items you've been spending your money on, then consider carrying a small notebook and pen around with you, so each time you buy something, note it down. Some people keep receipts and use them as a check list when they do their money worksheets. Especially keep your grocery receipts, because food can be one of the biggest of your cost of living expenses and in many cases the biggest area for savings opportunities. Take your time and continue to enter everything you can possibly think of into the free budget planner, canvass other family members for anything they can think of in the way of expenses that may have been missed. The idea is to get the picture as clear as possible of what your past spending habits have been. Once you're satisfied you've covered everything you can think of (of course if you've missed anything you can always add it later), then it's time to start reviewing and analyzing the different expenditure categories once you've filled them in. Then, you can see if there are any obvious immediate areas you can make cost of living savings in, and if so, resolve to change that as you go forward. Now, there are hundreds…….thousands of pages of household budgeting tips all across the internet, just 'GOOGLE' budgeting tips and you'll have more information than you can use. So, our purpose here isn't to fill up page after page of clever budgeting tips on how to make your own soap powder, or grow your own vegies. However, as mentioned elsewhere we want to help you raise your consciousness on how you can be more frugal with your money. So, following we're including some personal budgeting tips to get the ball rolling for you. Even small items can add upWhen you're working to complete your free budget planner money worksheets, contemplate all of the possible expenses you will incur for the coming year. Even if you leave out that $4.00 latte or cappuccino you buy everyday it can add up to leaving out a $1,460 expense. So, carefully scrutinize where you may be spending money on small seemingly insignificant items, because cutting out some of these small seemingly unnecessary cost of living expenses can add up to significant amounts of money over time. If you're not sure about the minor expenses you spend your day to day cash on like coffee, postage stamps, magazines, gum, sweets etc., then as we previously mentioned try painstakingly recording all of your expenses in detail for a couple of weeks in a notebook. For many this can be a revelation on how much money is habitually spent unnecessarily out of the household budget and alternatively could be channeled into savings and investment. Also, when analyzing how to budget it's important not to leave out expenses that are not immediate and it's easy to forget about some of these. So, our recommendation is you plan and set aside a regular amount into a reserve fund that you can tap into when it's required. Because, things around the house are going to wear out like household appliances, water heaters, paint the house maybe, new tires for the car etc. If you're working with other family members to prepare a family budget get their opinions within the realms of practicality of what any future requirements are going to be when considering things like holidays, new furniture, their individual wants and needs etc. and make allowances for these aspects also. This is an essential part of any household budget. Because, by assessing your ongoing cost of living expenses and how to budget, it will help you to constantly live within your means. Then, a big surprise expense won't all of a sudden pop up and take all of the emotional wind out of your sails. Beyond the home mortgage or the rent, usually the largest area of expenditure when assessing how to budget money that shows up on your budget worksheet will be food and this is one area many will find major cut backs in, especially restaurant meals or take away meals. As we mentioned previously there are 10,001 ways how to budget money to be found on the internet search engines. However, we're all different, so developing the right personal budgeting plan can be problematic in itself. We all know, there's a myriad of claims out there throwing around the 'Good Advice' that's 'Just Right' for us! Applying your personal money management planThe important aspect of budgeting tips is to help you develop the resolve to 'apply yourself' in developing a how to budget money consciousness for your ongoing personal money management plan. In the meantime though, following are a few clever budgeting tips we've gleaned of the internet from Go to www.alwaysfrugal.com to get you started. However, although American, I've listed a number of their how to budget money tips below. But, you may want to go to the web site, because it'll provide you with many more clever budgeting tips beyond what I've listed and most of the content is easily adapted to the Australian lifestyle. Additionally, if you want more information with a local slant to it, about 30 years ago we came across a book by Ann Marshall, titled 'Live Better on a Low Budget'. We Googled it recently and it's still there. So, maybe you'd like to take a look at it and see if any of the budgeting tips there suit your personal budgeting plan. If you would like a website with more Australian content on budgeting tips, look at Go to www.savingsguide.com.au they cover a diverse range of topics that will give your personal budgeting plan a real boost. However, once on the internet search engines you'll find a wide choice of how to budget money ideas you can use for your personal budgeting. How to Budget Money
Budgeting tip 2 - Groceries; Look to buy fruits and vegetables in season. Health experts say it is not only frugal but better for your health to eat in harmony with both the environment and climate. One of the cleverest budgeting tips is turn the TV off and sit down one evening or on a weekend and plan your meals in advance for a whole week. Never go to the grocery store without a shopping list, or when you're hungry or tired. Now you don't have to religiously stick to the list, but if you follow these grocery shopping budgeting tips, you'll find you won't want to wander too far off of your list. If convenient buy nonfood items such as detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, napkins, and facial tissues at discount or warehouse stores. Buy cheaper cuts of meat and cook them in a crock pot to make them tender and flavorful. Crock pots are also great for chili, stews and soups. Use up leftovers to make soup. Make soup broth from leftover meat, bones and vegetable scraps. Go out to eat for lunch instead of dinner. The menus are often the same, only with much lower prices for lunch time. Avoid buying packaged and processed foods. Make foods from scratch using preservative free ingredients. You'll save money and be healthier for it, too. As an initial personal budgeting goal you can aim to cut $50.00 a week of your food bill (groceries, lunch, restaurants, fast food etc.). Bank the savings, or if you have one, put it towards your mortgage. You can calculate the savings account benefits on our compound interest calculator (under construction), or the mortgage savings on our mortgage payment calculator (under construction). Budgeting tip 3 - Keep a folder; Collect and save shopping coupons from papers, magazines recipes and other interesting information you find each week that will help with your personal budgeting in a folder for future use. Keep any coupons and carry out menus in plastic cover sheets in a big binder so you can find them easily when the occasion arises. If you have favorite stores you shop in, see if they have loyalty discount cards for you to use. Be aware though, most merchants increase the price to cover the cost of the discount, but if you have to shop there you may as well get the discount. Budgeting tip 4 - Health; One of the best budgeting tips in time and money you can make is in your health. One way to consider improving your health is to develop inexpensive hobbies that allow you to get both exercise and fresh air. Favorite free things you can do are riding bikes and going for hikes. Look on the internet for clubs or groups you can join who are involved in these activities. Invest in your own gym equipment. Look in the Trading Post or on ebay to sometimes pick up gently used sets of weights, exercise bikes, rowing machines and similar equipment. If you're looking for any of this type of equipment you might also try a few garage sales. Resistance bands can be used at home. They are cheaper than weights and easier to store. Buy home exercise videos instead of joining an expensive gym. Or, if you want the faculties of a gym, consider joining an inexpensive gym. Some community clubs like RSL clubs now have amazing gyms. Check out your local YMCA, many of them have a wide range of inexpensive services. Many apartment complexes are now built with fully equipped gyms. For exercise as well as stress relief, try a yoga class. You can often find inexpensive yoga classes through community adult education classes. Once you become familiar with how to do the postures, you can practice at home with just a book or video. Yoga is a great stress reducer too, and perfect for times like these when the economy is doing it tough, where many people are under stress from job losses and learning how to budget money is becoming an essential way of life for many. Budgeting tip 5 - Shopping;: Plan purchases in advance. Shopping with a list is a good idea not only for groceries but for clothing and other household goods purchases as well. Avoid impulse buys. See if the store will hold merchandise for 24 hours at no charge. If you aren't 100% sure something is a good buy, put it on hold overnight while you sleep on it. Make sure it is something you really need and the price is right before you buy it. That way you won't have to deal with buyer's remorse later. Studies show people tend to spend less when they pay cash instead of using a charge card. If you are a careful shopper, then instead of paying cash you can save money by charging your purchases and using a reward card. This only saves money in the long run for people who are very disciplined and careful shoppers. If that isn't you, then you may be better off sticking with cash. Also, these days you can obtain a 'Debit Card' where any purchases you make are automatically deducted from your bank account. You can enquire at your bank, as most now offer them. If you have the storage space, you can stock up on staples when they are on sale or go on a trip to a warehouse club. Aldi is already in Australia and there range of products is increasing as they continue to open more stores. Keep an eye out for Costco from the United States as they have big plans for Australia and they will be opening in selected locations soon. Budgeting tip 6 - Checking real deals; Keep a notebook of prices for items you regularly buy so you'll know when you see a sale whether or not the price is really a good deal. When shopping for gifts, consider inexpensive calendars. They make great, low cost gifts. For example, if you have a friend from Melbourne, a calendar with pictures of that city could make a cute gift. Or if you know someone who is a mom with a busy family, you can buy a calendar that is a mom's planner and organizer calendar. Learn how to budget money on petrol mileage as well as your time, when possible, pick one day a week to do all of your shopping and errands. Keep a running list during the week of every errand you need to do, and then use Go to www.whereis.com.au to plan out the most petrol saving route. Keep in mind the Petrol Companies weekly discounting cycle in your state or city and fill your tank when prices are at their cheapest. But, avoid emptying your petrol tank all the way until the petrol gauge is almost on empty. Sediment builds up in the bottom of petrol tanks and will get sucked into the engine system when the tank is emptied, causing unnecessary maintenance problems. Fill up when the tank gets down to a quarter full. Budgeting tip 7 - Housing; If you're renting it may be worthwhile for you to consider reducing your rent by finding more modest accommodation or sharing if you're not already doing so. The idea behind the sacrifice is to eventually put your savings into property investing and learn money making ideas on how to quickly build equity through fast mortgage reduction. If you're in the process or are considering buying your first house we suggest you consider less house than you can actually afford, or the bank will give you money for. The advantage is you'll be able to put more money into fast mortgage reduction. This delivers a huge benefit by allowing you to pay less interest to the banks and channel those savings into reducing your mortgage faster. If you are already ensconced in your own comfortable home, but you're paying off a mortgage you might also benefit from looking at our fast mortgage reduction section where we provide many budgeting tips on how to pay off debt faster. Budgeting tip 8 - Entertainment; If you belong to an Automobile Association, many activities and other attractions offer discounts to members. For family fun, have a board game night. Play classics like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or Chess. Try stocking up on board games at after Christmas sales when many of the toys are marked down (as well as next Christmas's presents). Put together a complicated jig saw puzzle and have the whole family work on it over several evenings. Plan a picnic in a scenic area like a park or the beach for a low cost day out. Take a ball or a Frisbee for excellent exercise. Visit the library and borrow books and videos for free. Many libraries also have free special activities for children. See movies in the afternoon if they offer matinee prices, or go on discount nights. Join clubs with free or nominal memberships. If you are interested in the environment or outdoors, consider looking for clubs who may have free outings, especially dancing, hiking or biking. At the end of the day much of how to budget money and in turn your cost of living is under your control and by using clever budgeting tips to develop a personal budgeting plan along with a frugal mindset you will find many ingenious ways of managing money and to help your personal money management efforts. Remember the Golden Rule. 'They who have the gold make the rules'. So, keep as much of yours as possible with clever budgeting tips. More information:
The Secrets of How to Save Money Return from Clever Budgeting Tips to Smart Money Management www.Discover-Financial-Freedom.com
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