Cutting down your monthly expenses can be as helpful to your budget as increasing your income. By lowering your expenses, you will be increasing the amount of money you have left over each month. Money that you can save for the future.
By decreasing the amount of money you need to live each month you won't need to earn as much money to live on, so long as you don't start taking up additional expenses again. From then on out, you can continue to live on this lowered amount each month.
The best way to do this is to make a list of all monthly expenses. The best way to do that is to write down anytime you spend money. Use a piece of paper, notebook, journal, or anything that is convenient for you.
Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Complete Tightwad Gazette says in this video that people who do this (write down every penny they spend) don't need to buy her book because they will know where they are losing money.
Writing it down really does make a difference in how you spend money. It's like the old saying, what gets measured, get improved.
At the end of the month you can write down all of those expenses into categories, and look at what you spent in each one.
Once you figure out where your money is going it's time to see if you can cut some of those expenses. January and July are the months when I pay for my auto insurance.
Ask for discounts on your insurance premiums. I currently get discounts for safe driving, number of years with my auto insurance company, and a multiple driver discount. Some companies even offer discounts if you take safe driving courses.
At least twice each year I check with other companies to see if I can reduce my auto insurance costs. So far, my insurance company has been the most affordable to me for over twenty-five years, but I still check every year.
We, like so many other people, had our land line removed a few years ago. With cell phones there was no need for a land line in our home. We also save money on our cell phones by splitting the cost between three people.
There are multiple places to lower your monthly expenses, but no one can do this for you. You have to make a list of all your expenses and start calling people and asking for a discount. It doesn't hurt to ask and you may be able to trim your monthly expenses by hundreds of dollars and that is money in the bank.
This week I emptied out the jar of strawberry preserves while making sandwiches for lunch one day. I had two small packets of strawberry jelly in the fridge, so I used those up to finish the sandwiches.
In my pantry was a brand new bottle of jelly from Kroger that we bought recently, but I wanted to stretch what I had before opening it.
I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the snap down lid on the new bottle of jelly was broken off, which is how it was when I bought it.
Since these bottles stand up on the lid, the jelly would just leak out. I was willing to do what I could with it for the savings. These bottles normally cost upwards of $2.75, but this one was marked down to $1.49.
What I did was wash the old jelly jar and emptied the new jelly contents into the old jar. Problem solved and money saved since it was on yellow sticker markdown.
My daughter and I both gave ourselves a haircut this week saving us at least $20 in the process.
Since we've been cooking at home everyday I have used up a lot of the onions I had. Cooke's had the three pound bags on sale for 99¢ last week, so I bought four more bags.
I earned another $5.00 Amazon gift card from Microsoft Rewards this week.
Combined with the $25 PayPal money I received from MyPoints last week, that is $77 I will be putting towards my car insurance premium, which is due at the end of January.
That is $77 that I did not have to earn, but spent just a few minutes per day working towards.
The weather has warmed up this week, which allowed us to turn the heat off for a few days. The savings on the electric bill will be good.
Our electric company put this YouTube video on their Facebook page to help customers dispel some energy myths, so I wanted to share it with my readers.
I perused the grocery store sale ads online this week making note of several sale items. On Thursday I went to IGA to pick up some Nature's Own whole grain bread, which was on sale for 99¢. I bought four loaves.
Two other markdowns made their way into my cart as well. IGA Herb Dressing Mix was marked down to 50¢ per bag, so I picked up four of those.
They also had Oscar Mayer Ham & Cheese loaf in the 16 ounce container marked down to 79¢, so I picked up six of those and put them in the freezer.
This week I was able to work the first two days and was scheduled to work more, but became sick on Tuesday night and ended up cancelling the rest of the week.
I suspected I had the flu and went to the doctor on Thursday. Today is Saturday and I'm already feeling so much better and will be able to return to work on Monday.
That's all the news from here this week. I hope you've had a good week. Leave me a comment and let me know how you're doing. I love to hear from all of you. :)
Last Sunday we went grocery shopping and were able to get in on some good deals.
Using coupons and sales I was able to get Ragu pasta sauce for 67¢, store brand peanut butter for $1.39, and V-8 juice for 95¢. So, I bought 4 jars of Ragu, 6 jars of peanut butter, and 6 bottles of V-8.
We also picked up multiple items on reduced yellow sticker such as a loaf of whole wheat bread for 39¢, quart size zip lock type bags for 49¢, hamburger buns for 69¢, and pita bread for 79¢.
I earned $25 in PayPal money from MyPointsthis week, and also earned $25 in PayPal money from Swagbucks this week. I will be using this money to add to other funds to pay my car Insurance this month.
There was no school here last week due to the MLK holiday and inclement weather. Icy road conditions closed school for the remainder of the week.
We finally got out of the house on Friday to run some errands. There was still patchy ice sections on several of the roads.
This week started out with several phone calls asking me to sub this week and I'm so grateful. School was cancelled on Monday due to the weather, but I was still able to work at three days this week.
Our Internet is on a data plan and therefore we have to be careful to not use it all before the end of the month. Google Chrome has added an extension for a text only browser to avoid using up all the data for the month. It's called Text Mode if you are interested.
If you are a Shop Your Way rewards member from Sears or Kmart, be sure to check your account to see if you have any money to spend. I did that last weekend and had enough in my account to buy this free pan. It's a air fryer for the oven. I came home and made some baked potato fries in it and it worked really well. Best of all they gave it to me for free.
We have not eaten out anytime since before Christmas. In fact I couldn't even tell you when the last time we ate out even happened. I've made dinner every night. Here is our menu from the last week.
1-5-2018 - Chicken Pot Pie
1-6-2018 - Pedernales Potatoes, Corn
1-7-2018 - Smoked Sausage, Green Beans & Onions, Potatoes
The Cream Cheese Chicken Chili was a new recipe for me, but turned out to be a keeper. Next time I will add a can of tomatoes instead of the tomatoes with chilies to keep the heat down some.
Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
1 - 12 ounce can chicken, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
4 ounces cream cheese
Directions:
Rinse and drain black beans and to pan.
Drain corn and chicken and add to pan.
Add canned tomatoes, but do not drain.
Add spices, stir well and heat through.
Add cream cheese an stir until melted.
Serve over rice.
I've not been grocery shopping lately either, so that is what we'll be doing this weekend, weather permitting. There is possibly bad weather in the works for Tennessee today and that will determine if we are wanting to get out of the house this weekend.
This week I needed to make some items for lunches since we are going back to school/work this week.
I had most of the items on hand for this Applesauce Banana Bread, including plenty of bananas in the freezer. I had everything but flour, so I improvised.
I have plenty of oatmeal on hand, so I ground it up in my food processor and used that instead. It made the banana bread turn out dense, but with delicious flavor.
I love this idea because I do have a lot of oatmeal on hand, so I will continue to use this method when necessary.
Applesauce Banana Bread
Ingredients:
4 Bananas
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas in a large bowl.
Stir in sugar and let stand 5 minutes.
Add applesauce and eggs and beat well.
Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before removing from pan.
Cool on wire rack.
I ended up making two loaves of this and have already packed some in my lunch for tomorrow.
