Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Ways to add money to your budget

I wrote down a list of ways I have 'found' money within my budget. Basically by cutting costs, shopping differently, and overall making different choices, you can find more money in your budget. Here is a list - I know there are many more -

1. Cell phone - change your plan, remove unused lines (with Sprint you can do *2 and say credit for drop call 20 times per month saving you $10 on your bill each month!)

2. Land line- If you still have a land line, do you use it? Do you have features 'bundled' together? do you use them? It might be cheaper to remove some features you don't use.

3. Cable - remove premium channels or cancel all together

4. Haircuts - Beauty schools in my area charged any where from $5-$10, sure beats the $50 I used to pay

5. Insurance - home and auto - have you shopped rates lately? looked at coverage?

6. Limit eating out

7. Take your lunch to work

8. Coupons! (see my other posts)

9. Utilities- Does your electric company offer budget billing?

10. Yardsales

11. Sell on ebay or craigslist

12. Rent movies instead of going to the movies

13. Shop at the grocery store once a week vs. running in when you need 1 thing. When I did that, I would always walk out with much more than I anticipated on buying.

14. Cut out daily trips to the gas station/ vending machine etc.. Its the little things, when added up, that make the biggest impact on the budget

15. Carpool

16. Gym memberships or misc memberships - are you using them? if not-- cancel!!!

17. Call your credit card companies to get your interest rates reduce, threaten to go to the competition and see what they can do for you

18. Have a clothing swap with friends

19. Have a dinner swap with friends (everyone brings something and then you can 'swap' and take leftovers home)

This is just a small listing of the ways you can cut expenses out of your budget. Once you start doing some of these, you will be surprised how quickly it all adds up!

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