Does anyone have any good budgetting tips that they can pass on? About cutting bills down, shopping, coupons

Question

or anything to help save some green

Answer 1

sorry to tell you this they still haven't posted it, maybe if i type an answer they will it seems to have worked with the other one, thanks for the email

Try only going to the grocery store once or twice a week and don't go unnessary places cut out driving places that you don't really need to go.

You can also cut out expenses, shop at thift stores for clothing, but meats when they are on sale, cook dinner instead of buying fast food, start keeping track of every penny and don't shop when you are sad or upset or angry b/c you will tend to spend more.

Answer 2

hello -

here are some tips and ideas - a budget only works if you know where your money is going - so:

List out how much money you have coming in each month (paycheck, alimony, side jobs, etc.).

List out what your fixed costs are (rent/mortgage, car payment, car insurance, phone, cable, student loans, commute costs etc.) If you have credit card debt look at how much per card and which has the highest interest rates.

Track it by category -

retirement (401K, etc.)

home

car (payment, insurance, etc.)

gas

cable/electric/water

groceries

eating out

clothing

movies/plays (include the popcorn)

books

newspaper (if you already paid your news paper or magazine subscription, figure out the monthly cost and include that)

hanging out with friends (bar, pool etc)

non meal related drinks/snacks (Starbucks, diet coke, snacks)

other

other

(other could be alimony, whatever, things I did not list out but you have to pay)

and you will see quickly where your money is going to go. Then you can see if it is all the right places, or if you want to make a change and not buy so many clothes, see so many movies (or pass on the popcorn) etc. Do you need to have the car you have or is there a way to get a vehicle without a car payment? Do you need HBO?

Consider what is really important to you and what is not and spend accordingly.

Be sure to put all left over money into retirement savings somewhere and not just spend it on something else (or put it towards paying down credit card debt). And keep tracking what you spend for at least 6 months. that will help you get into habits and patterns that are good ones.

Retirement savings are very important, so if you have a 401K or the equivalent, dont stop contributing to that. I see so many questions here about stopping contributing or taking the money already saved out, dont do that. The value of the compound interest is huge.

feel free to email me for more info if you like

good luck

Answer 3

My budgeting guru is Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com). He's taught me a lot about the same things you're asking about now. Here's a few other tips I've adopted:

-don't be brand loyal. If you have a Save-A-Lot or Aldi's, USE THEM! I usually get twice as much food when I don't name brand shop.

-Use coupons only if it's an item you use, and only if it's on sale. I paid 25 cents for a tube of toothpaste because I waited until it went on sale, THEN I used the coupon.

-Best time to get good prices on meat is first thing in the morning. That's when most stores mark down meat that hasn't sold by the sell by date. Make sure to wrap well and put in freezer and use within 2 days after thawing.