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Valerie Garner
Sedro Woolley WA 98284

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Try an experiment. Take 2 or 3 months and track every single cent you spend, how much it’s for, where it went and for what. You can either just use a notepad and pencil, or software such as Quicken works very well. Do your normal typical thing, but track everything. At the end of this time, tally everything in categories, mortgage/rent, insurance / medical items/food/utilities/car payments/clothing, everything. Try to get a real category for each item and run their totals. If you must have a miscellaneous category try to keep it to a bare minimum. Looking closely and honestly at these figures will show some real patterns.

Now is the time to make some adjustments. The first thing I recommend looking at is any habits (ouch!). It’s amazing how badly those hit us in the pocket book with really nothing to show. Take the cost of that habit and multiply out the yearly cost of that habit. That may be the motivation needed to either quit, or at the very least drastically reduce it. I love Starbuck’s coffee; I REALLY enjoy one everyday on my way to work. Doesn’t seem like anything big. When I found what my yearly total of that habit was I nearly keeled over! That was the motive I needed to break that. Now I make my own coffee and drink it before I leave for work, Monday thru Thursday. Fridays I treat myself after a long work week, and I’m willing to accept that cost to pamper myself. So, I cut that expense down by 4/5ths. If it’s a real priority, you may find other ways to compensate for those luxuries, but it is a good time to evaluate if the habit must flat out go. I did this years ago with a diet coke habit, again the costs per year flabbergasted me, and I quit. I wanted to have something to show for those funds. I’ve never regretted that decision. This is probably one of the greatest areas of potential savings one could find, and probably the hardest too.

If you have credit card debt, call up your company and tell them you’ve received offers to move your balance with them to a competitor with lower rates, and closing your account, but before you do that you wanted to see what they could offer you. Then say nothing and let them talk. Chances are very good you’ll get your interest rate lowered. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Then work at getting those cards paid off, and at the same time not using them (unless you have both the discipline and ability to pay them off in full every single month).

Take other steps, research to see if you can get a better mortgage rate if you have mortgage payments and look into refinancing to see if that would be any benefit to you. Here's a very good Resource, plug in some figures and see what they could offer you. You won't know if you don't run the numbers. If no one can beat what you've currently got, then at least you know you've got a great deal going.

Insurance is another way to try and get costs down. I don't know about you, but I hate buying insurance, so if there's any way to save on those costs that's just extra money in your pocket. Here's a good Resource to check out, see if they can offer you any savings. Be sure to look at all areas, car insurance, health, life, etc.

Re-examine the word “necessities”. Many things we have today we call necessities, but really aren’t. They are luxuries, conveniences. Look for ways to both simplify life and cutting out some of those things that really aren’t “must haves”. The more stuff there is, the more there is to maintain as well.

Learn to cultivate an attitude of contentment and gratefulness. Learn to avoid situations or things or sometimes even certain people who seem to cause you to trip up in this area. One example in my life is window-shopping. All it does is make me want, want, want and fosters an attitude of there never being enough. I mean really, why put myself in that place purposely? I noticed it causes the same reactions in my kids and is a frustrating thing all around. Sometimes relationships with people need to be evaluated. Ever been around someone who always makes you feel discontent with yourself the minute you leave his or her presence? Especially when you were fine before you saw them?

Another area I found savings on when I was working full time, I found we did a lot of take out food, or went out to eat quite often because I was too tired to cook, and most of the time there wasn’t food at home that was easy to prepare. We wasted a lot of money from this exhaustion / lack of time & planning. One solution I found was to research if there’s a Dream Dinner or Dinners To Go type place in your area. Basically you go and prepare a month’s worth of meals and throw in your freezer. For what you get the price is very good and the food wonderful. It saved us a lot, because it was MUCH less than going out to eat, all I had to do was pop it in the oven. If you don’t have one of these in your areas, get creative, perhaps you know someone who has time on their hands, who could use some spare cash and is a good cook. Perhaps you could hire them to cook a month’s worth of meals for you to put in the freezer, it’s most likely still cheaper than eating out all the time. Or swap with a friend perhaps one month do her family’s meals and your family’s meals together in 1 huge cook day, and the next month she would do yours. Or possibly form a co-op of sorts with a group of friends.

These are a few suggestions for tweaking your now, everyday expenses. We’ll be posting more content and ideas all the time. Keep studying on this topic and don’t be afraid to try innovative ideas to come up with some real solutions that work for your family. Who knows, perhaps you’ll discover the next, hot business that will propel your income to new heights!

By Valerie Garner

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