Tag Archives: Budget

November 10, 2018 · 12:38 am

5 Practical Ways to Save in the New Year

With the new year just around the corner, you might find yourself thinking about resolutions. Is financial freedom part of those resolutions? If so, having a well-defined savings plan is one of the surest ways for you to reach your short or long-term financial goals.

Even with the best intentions, saving money is not as easy as it sounds. How many times have unexpected expenses popped up and depleted your savings? Having a solid savings plan and sticking to it, will enable you to realize your goals effortlessly. Here are some expert tips to help you create a savings plan for the new year.

Set Your Goals

It is hard to succeed without a goal. Knowing your destination before embarking on a journey helps you avoid distractions and arrive on time. This is also the case with saving. The first and major step towards saving is knowing what you are saving for.

Maybe it’s the latest TV, tropical vacation or that gourmet kitchen you have been dreaming about. Perhaps you need to save for retirement or your child’s college education. Clearly stating these goals, will give you the vision and motivation to save.

When defining your goals, it’s possible to end up with a long list of things you want to save for. No worries, just go over the list and prioritize them. The best way to do this, is to categorize them according to their urgency. Then, separate long-term goals from short-term goals. When this is done, it will be easy to know what to start saving for first.

Set the Amount and Deadline for Your Goals

You already know what you are saving for, but that’s not all you need to get started. If you are not sure of the cost of your goal or fail to set a timeline, you may be setting yourself up to fail.

Imagine saving money for your dream vacation only to find out you underestimated the cost. What a huge disappointment that would be to learn you now have to wait months or more longer.

Eliminate any unpleasant surprises by finding out what your goal will cost right after you set it. Having this information will enable you to come up with a specific amount of money that needs to be deposited in your savings account weekly or monthly to reach your goal.

For example, let’s say you want to purchase a car that cost $23,000 by the end of the year. If you want to save monthly, you would need to save about $1,917 per month for the next 12 months to reach your goal and get your car. Knowing the cost of your goals and setting a deadline helps you plan and save more efficiently.

Evaluate Your Current Financial Position

You can’t save what you don’t have. Doing a through analysis of your income and expenses will give you a clear picture of what you are able to save each month. If you have a substantial amount of money left after you pay your necessary expenses, saving will be almost effortless. However, if you are living paycheck to paycheck, saving will be almost impossible.

Make Changes

If you find yourself discouraged due to the fact, you have little to no surplus money to save, there are some things you can try.

Reduce the cost of your target goal; take the car for example, you will need to find a different vehicle , one that will fit your budget.
Extend the deadline of your goal; if you are set on that car, you will have to extend your deadline. If you increase your timeline to 2 years, the amount you need to set aside each month, is cut in half.
Change your spending habits; do away with unnecessary expenses.

Have an Emergency Fund

You never know when an urgent and unavoidable financial need might arise. Setting aside some money to deal with such issues will help you stick to your savings plan.

Sometimes when people are faced with emergency financial needs, they prefer to dip into their savings rather than take out a loan. They will argue that loans from high interest short-term companies like lend up, net credit , cash net USA or nation21loans.com will result in more expenses, unlike the savings. When this becomes routine every time an emergency arises, it ends up depleting their savings and forces them to abandon their savings plan.

To avoid this pitfall, try setting aside some funds that are to be used specifically for financial emergencies, so you can stay on track with saving for your goal.

Automate Your Savings Deposits

It is unlikely for you to spend what you do not have in hand. “Pay yourself first” is an idiom that you might have heard before. It means that you should deposit money in your savings before you spend it on anything else. However, you might find it is harder to do when you have that money in your hand.

A great solution is to set up direct deposit of funds into your savings account. When you do this, you put your savings plan on auto pilot and ensure you stay on track to reach your goal.

Get SMART

The tips above will let you create a SMART new year’s savings plan (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic and Timely).

Specific: You have set a goal and know what you are saving towards.
Measurable: You have determined and know how much your goal will cost
Attainable/Realistic: An evaluation of your current financial status confirms you can save for the goal.
Timely: You have set a deadline for your goal.

With a solid savings plan, you are on your way to achieving your financial goals and attaining financial freedom.

This is a collaborative guest post. The views and ideas do not necessarily represent those of Mommy Ramblings.

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Filed under Financial, Life, Resources

Tagged as Budget, Money, Planning, Saving Money, Setting Goals

April 5, 2018 · 11:07 pm

Rethinking the Way You Budget in Two Simple Steps

Learning how to put money aside for when you need it can often prove to be a difficult endeavor. Most people make saving a priority but that does not mean it is a straightforward path for everyone. If you make the same amount of money each month, you may feel like you do not have the extra cash available to save. While this might be true to the naked eye, a little bit of effort can reveal all sorts of appealing and practical tactics for saving money and still covering your monthly expenses.

Provide yourself with some useful tips by looking over some of these suggestions for how to save. By taking the right steps, you might find it is much easier to start saving money for your future than you had believed.

Step One: Your Car

Before you look at other areas of your budget, you want to start with your car. Most families own at least one vehicle in the current day and age. While your cars provide you with a sense of freedom and the ability to take on daily responsibilities with success, automobiles also eat away at a budget easier than most other investments. If your car is costing you more than you would like, it might be a good time to start thinking about how you can adjust the amount of money you spend on keeping it roadworthy.

For many, this comes down to changing insurance policies. When your car is costing you an arm and a leg, you want to slow down and look over how much you spend on your plan. Reaching out to another insurance agency for quotes can help you to learn more about your options. If you find that you can save more by switching providers, then you might want to take advantage of this option and see what type of impact it has on your budget moving forward. Speak with an agent and get a more well-rounded understanding of your choices.

Step Two: Your Lifestyle

How you live your life is also going to hold sway over how much money you spend daily. Some people work long hours which can lead to a lot of time spent away from the home. The more time you spend in the office, the less likely it is you are able to bring meals from home to eat when you get a break. Spending money on food is one of the easiest ways people waste money. Instead of buying lunch or dinner to eat at your desk, try to get into the habit of bringing it from home.

To stop extraneous spending, you need to take a look at your life and see where you need to do the most work. This is a long journey that will often require a lot of attention and patience from you. Following the above steps will help to give you a solid understanding of how to begin your journey. Once the ball is rolling, it will be up to you to make sure it gains momentum and helps you to save money for your future in sensible ways.

This is a sponsored guest post that does not necessarily represent the views or ideals of Mommy Ramblings.

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Filed under Financial, Life, sponsored guest post

Tagged as Budget, Guest Post, Insurance, Planning, Saving Money

September 27, 2017 · 1:41 pm

Budgeting For A Family Is Hard With Debt

Starting a family and raising kids is expensive. Being part of a family, and properly providing for everyone, isn’t something that generally leaves you with a lot of money to spare. Disposable incomes have largely dried up in the last thirty years. If you want to stay out of debt, you’ve got to be frugal.

Unfortunately, many people starting out don’t realize the costs involved in having a family. They continue to spend money the way they did before having children and soon fall into debt.

If you’ve already got debt hanging over your head, getting what you want requires going deeper into debt. Many understand this in an esoteric way, but it doesn’t hit home immediately. It is not hard to understand, how they soon find themselves tens of thousands of dollars “in the red”, as the saying goes.

Living Beneath Your Means

The key to being debt free as a family is to live beneath your means. You want to prepare meals at home using ingredients that were purchased as cost-effectively as possible. You want to avoid making big purchases that will put you deeper into debt, and cut unnecessary spending.

If you live beneath your means long enough, you’ll be able to buy that new car or new appliances. On the contrary, if you don’t live beneath your means, you will be lucky if you can finance an older car.

Many who have neglected living under their means, have found themselves in steep debt. If you want to get out, you’re going to have to exercise some serious discipline. You can start small. Cut out the fast food, cut out the expensive coffees and cut expenses related to entertainment.

Use the internet. Get a library card. Pursue cost-saving activities that don’t require a lot of money. If your family goes to Starbucks twice a week and gets a five-dollar coffee for everybody, a four-person household could be spending $40 a week on coffee alone, that is $160 a month. Cut that out, find a better way. Make the coffee at home.

Additional Areas Of Savings

Next, look at your other expenses. One drastic, but effective, step you might take, could be to sell the mortgage on your home. This may not be ideal, but a four-person household can comfortably live in a two-bedroom apartment. Additionally, you can get about the same floor space in a “tiny home”.

If you sell your mortgage and put the money into a tiny home, then all you’re paying annually are property taxes—which will likely be much diminished from what they were. You can do this for a few years to get out of credit card and loan debt, then upgrade to a larger house once the big debts are paid off.

You could also visit sites like www.debtacademy.com to find debt solutions so you and your family can live a debt-free life. Consulting professionals can help you identify areas of spending that can be cut from the budget, resulting in a quicker way out of debt.

Overcoming The Worst-Case Scenario

Still, there will always be situations where no amount of cost-effective living can overcome debt. In these scenarios, you may want to seek outside help through crowdfunding campaigns on Plumfund for example.

Between cutting unnecessary costs, seeking professional assistance, and getting funding through the crowdfunding when those methods don’t work, you can get out of debt; it just may take time.

This is a sponsored guest post that does not necessarily represent the ideals or views of Mommy Ramblings.

How You Can Save Big On The Things You Need To Buy!

I’m a savvy shopper, it makes me happy when I can buy what I want for less. It is almost like a game to me. I always check for extra discounts, promo codes and coupons before I make purchases. Love technology and how I can pull up in store coupons right on my phone or order from a mobile device with codes I find online.

Saving money is always welcome in our budget. With a big family, anywhere I can save helps. I was really excited when I heard about Frugga. Frugga.com is an online coupon search engine on steroids! Searching for the latest promo codes is a breeze because Frugga works with thousands of online stores to get the best deals. Besides being a one-stop coupon/promo code site, Frugga has an online community where you can interact with other savvy shoppers and vote on deals and coupons and how well they work. Based on the votes, Frugga can rank deals and coupons based on popularity.

Hate finding out of date coupons and promo codes? No worries with Frugga, their site is updated throughout the day, they have staff working round the clock to find the latest deals and remove expired ones. With Frugga you will have more chances to get that awesome feeling of saving big on your purchases!

Frugga offers even more in their marketplace. Working with manufacturers and suppliers to bring you the hottest products in fashion, electronics, toys, pets, computers, automotive, travel, home decor and more at huge savings!

Would you like even more rewards? I thought you would. Frugga Social Rewards can be earned when you share content and you can earn points and win $10, $20 and $50 gift cards!

Add great customer service found at Frugga and you are on your way to saving more than you ever dreamed. So what are you waiting for, check Frugga out now and join the community for savings that will help you save big on your budget. Please let me know what you think and if you took advantage of any of the awesome deals!