Friday 3 June 2011

Money Saving Tips #1

One of the first things you need to do, if you’re serious about finding ways to save, is to track your expenses for at least six weeks.

Keep track of every single expense and track them according to categories (e.g food, utilities, mortgage or rent, entertainment etc).  At the end of six weeks you will most likely determine that you are spending more than you thought on something.

As soon as you know where your money is going you’ll be ready to make the changes necessary to increase your savings. 

Here are a few tips to start:

- Save coupon money. Shopping with coupons is a great way to save a few dollars, but if you don’t put your coupon savings aside, eventually you'll spend it. Try putting the money in a jar at home

- Pay cash for big ticket items in exchange for a discount. Credit card companies charge retailers between 2 and 5 percent every time you use your credit card. That leaves you negotiating room.

- Haggle over the price of anything costing 500 dollars or more. You’ll be surprised. You can save up to 20 percent. It never hurts to ask.

- Save a lot of the money you spend on lunches. If you eat out for lunch every day, add up what you can save: somewhere around twelve hundred dollars a year just by bringing lunch from home
 
I'll have more tips later.

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