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40 Ways to Save Money on Monthly Expenses - The Simple Dollar
Reduce Health Insurance Bills
Ask at work about your available options that might reduce your insurance costs, and look into family options if you have one.
To lower monthly premiums, consider a high deductible health insurance plan. Just be sure to weigh the expected savings against the additional amount you may have to pay out-of-pocket each year.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Keep everything as simple as possible
Don’t ever let your “future self”...
Your future self might have more income, but it’s also fairly likely that your future self might have less income and you’ll find yourself in a really bad situation.
Even if your future self is doing well, there are probably going to be other big expenses that you’ll want to deal with at that time, like buying a house.
Focus on...
- Building an emergency fund: set up an automatic weekly or monthly transfer from your checking account to your savings, then leave the savings alone until an emergency appears.
- Eliminating high-interest debt: Set up a simple debt repayment plan by organizing your debts by interest rate, then attempt to make a double payment on whatever debt has the highest interest rate.
- Saving for retirement: It will actually end up being a much smaller burden than you expect, lifted up by the pleasure of knowing that you’re securing your retirement.
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Key Ideas
A Monthly Budget For Your Money
No matter how little or how much money you earn, creating a monthly budget is one of the most important aspects of managing your finances. What gets measured gets managed.
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The Envelope System
The Envelope system is a way to track your variable expenses like food, entertainment, and drinks.
This method, preferably used weekly, allocates a certain amount in each category in labeled envelopes (food, drinks, movies, etc.). Once the envelope is empty, you are done spending in that category.
How to Create a Good Budget
The principles that make a good budget, something you can stick to:
- Being Realistic: Being too strict is a recipe for failure.
- Making Adjustments: A budget is not set in stone, but a fluid thing.
- A Team Sport: If you live with a partner or spouse, you have to agree mutually on how to budget the financials.
- Expect the Unexpected: Keep an emergency fund, ideally 3-6 months of necessary expenses.
- Budgeting the Expected: Certain upcoming expenses need to be budgeted in advance, like property tax, holiday shopping, etc.
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Key Ideas
Single-Cup Brewing
It is more efficient to brew one cup at a time and you can choose from a great variety. However, it can be very costly. The excess packaging also causes environmental problems.
Microwave Popcorn
Popcorn is a great, healthy snack.
Instead of buying popcorn in microwave bags, one can also pop corn at home for much less than the bagged kind.
Bottled Water
Bottled water drinkers give 3 main reasons for their choice:
- Taste: Many claim their tap water tastes bad, but a simple pitcher filter can probably fix it.
- Safety: Bottled water is not necessarily safer than public water sources. A high-end filter can remove impurities from tap water.
- Convenience. A decent filter and a reusable bottle or stainless-steel flask can replace bottled water.