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5 Tips To Organizing Your Finances
By Sharon Cece
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Financial organization is essential to being in control of your money. Even if you make a modest income, tracking your cash helps you to be an efficient money manager, since every dollar you make is accounted for.
It’s not difficult to keep track of your finances, but it takes a bit of set-aside time each week and some diligence. Below are 5 essential components of well-maintained checking, savings and credit accounts:
The first step toward organization means knowing precisely what you bring in each month—either as a set figure or on average if you are a seasonal worker—and knowing what all your expenses are. This is not necessarily the same thing as a budget; in fact, I do not budget per se. Yet, I do know exactly what our income is and what our purchases are each month. This is essential, for you can’t be in control of your money if you aren't fully aware of where it's going and what you can and cannot afford.
Keeping track of your money's activity could potential "save" you money. For instance, there are some people who use a debit or credit card who never check their statements each month. Often, erroneous charges appear (such as a "free" magazine subscription or the Club Penguin membership you forgot to cancel); these charges will be automatically tacked to your credit or debit card every month without your intervention. As well, review your bank statement each month to connect with your purchases and remind you of items you may need to return or which to cut back on if spending is getting out of hand. It's equally important to verify all returns to ensure credits to your account; imagine returning an item and not receiving the credit; then you lose the item as well as the cash!
Another significant benefit of organized finances is avoiding late fees. Some consumers pay an exorbitant amount of money in fees and are not even be aware of it, particularly credit consumers who pay the minimum payment each month. You can save a lot of money by paying on time.
Periodically review your bills and expenses to make sure they are current and that you still need the services. For instance, if you have two vehicles and only one is used for work, contact your insurance company to categorize the other vehicle as recreational; this will lower your annual insurance premium. Contact your credit company if you are inadvertently double charged for an item, and investigate any errors. Also, eliminate services you are paying for and no longer need, thereby reintroducing these funds to your total income.
Being organized financially should not be a burden. The biggest hurdle is often a psychological fear of knowing the truth in black and white. Once you review your expenses and eliminate the unnecessary, you begin to take control of your money. You may find that much of your income is spent on frivolous purchases and decide to cut back, thus “increasing” your income. You may also discover that you're not putting as much as you'd like toward charity, or spending more than you thought on clothing or electronics. By spending a little time each week to ensure your spending is optimized, you will experience a great sense of accomplishment as well as enjoy the peace that comes with simplifying your finances.
Doing the dishes, making your bed, feeding the dog...these all require a commitment or you'll find yourself swamped with overflowing sinks, messy bedrooms and very hungry and unhappy pets. Likewise, your finances deserve regular time and attention. The benefits to financial organization far outweigh the modest effort it will take to keep you on track and in the knowing. It's your money...give it the time and attention you deserve and earned.
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Quick & Frugal Cleaning Fixes
By Sharon Cece
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Saving money is my favorite thing to do, but cleaning is my least favorite. After all, everyone’s busy; who wants to clean? When you just have to, however, here are some tips for quick cleaning that won’t break your budget:
Don’t scrub that splattered microwave—instead, put a small microwave glass bowl ½ filled with water in your micro for four minutes on high. Let sit for 5 minutes; stuck spills will easily wipe off. Optional: pour ½ t lemon or lime juice in bowl. You can use the hot citrus water to clean your sink drains; sprinkle in a little baking soda first for a quick heated deodorizer.
Speaking of drains—if you find your sink is slow to drain, fill it full of hot water, and then empty. The heat and weight of the water often clears away gunk and debris; in fact, do this each month for cleaner drains. Also, flush sinks with baking soda and white vinegar—not only will it make you feel like a mad professor, the duo works great as a drain de-greaser and de-clogger.
Baskets rock—especially in kids’ rooms and the living room. You can get baskets cheap at any yard sale or thrift shop for less than a dollar. Fill with like items, such as books, toys, magazines or papers. When you need to quick clean, just throw a folded blanket over the basket—instant tidy.
Papers—have a way of flooding the home and making a titanic mess. You could pay someone to organize, but there’s a better (and cheaper) way: simply put everything “paper”, from bills to kid’s drawings to coupons, into three or four paper bags. Keep the bags near your favorite TV chair; the next time you watch a show, go through the bags. First, throw all the old and outdated papers away—that’s’ the easiest part. Then take the remainder and vow to put at least some of them in their proper place: pay bills, sign permission slips, put important papers in a binder, clip coupons and put in a bag, or simply put like items together with a paper clip, then you won’t be searching through one paper at a time later on. After two or three days of watching TV, your paper piles will be much more manageable and your bills more organized, which also saves money!
Salt—it works great as a toilet bowl scrubber (really!), and it’s safe to use around kids.
The next time you clean your fridge—put paper towels over the glass shelves. Then if you have a spill, you can just wipe it up with the towel, and your shelves will stay clean longer.
If you must hire a cleaning person—start at home. Teenagers will do just about everything, including dreaded housework, to generate cash. Pay your teen or responsible pre-teen $25 to do a comprehensive clean; provide detailed lists and explain exactly what you expect. Last Friday I came home from work to a completely clean house (including bathrooms, dishes and hallways) and my son got some cash that he needed. Bonus: he’s on track to make his future wife very happy. Win-win-win.
Finally, when you get the call—that someone is just going to “pop in” unexpectedly and your carpets resemble the morning after your last New Year’s Eve party, fear not. Just drag your vacuum cleaner to the middle of the floor, answer the door say, “Oh hello, what a surprise! Come on in!”. The sight of the vacuum will imply that you were just about to clean—instant forgiveness.
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Save Up to 50% off Your Grocery Bill
By Sharon Cece |
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Next to your mortgage and car payments, you’ll spend most of your money in the supermarket. The US Department of Labor estimates that a family of four on average spends $8,513 per year on groceries, or approximately $709 per month.
Fortunately, frugal lifestyles are making a comeback and strategy is everything when it comes to saving. Below are some tips on how to consistently shave from 35-50% off your grocery bill each week:
Gather a list of local grocers in your area, preferably a minimum of 3. Then download the store’s circular ad and save it in your favorites so that they are grouped together. Include in this list at least one drugstore such as Walgreens or CVS and download their weekly circular (drugstores often have great deals on grocery items). You may also include a wholesale store such as Costco or a Superstore such as Target or Wal-Mart. If you don’t have a computer, you can simply pick up the ads each Sunday or Wednesday to plan your shopping strategy.
Make lists of each grocer’s deals. This is where a little work comes in, but also the big payoff. Each store circular has loss leaders on the front and back whereby the store loses money to entice you into the store. Frequently these loss leaders are buy-one-get-one deals or below wholesale pricing. BOGO deals will guarantee a 50% reduction in your bill, so these are the items you want to concentrate on. Some stores are now offering buy-two-get-three-free deals. Combine these deals with coupons for an even greater savings; in fact, buy-one-get-one deals with double or triple coupons can result in getting both items for free or pennies on the dollar.
Stick to your list. Circulars are designed to draw in customers so they purchase high revenue, non-sale items such as alcohol, cigarettes, magazines, health food, specialty foods and personal care items. By sticking to your list you will maximize your savings.
Buy only items that you need. This may seem obvious, but even savvy-savers can get caught up in the bargain hunting and add items—though great deals—they may have little use for. The point of extreme saving is to only purchase what you need and use.
Be on the lookout for specials, such as sell-by markdowns. Grocers regularly slash prices on organic salads, cheeses and meats nearing their sell-by date, as well as other seasonal items at a 50% discount.
Invest in a freezer so that you can store all your great buys and stock-ups. Freezers can be purchased second hand on Craigslist or Ebay local, or you can put one on layaway at a home improvement store. Ask for scratch-and-dent items or discontinued models, which are marked down even further.
Use coupons with caution. Coupons can be great; however, keep in mind that supermarket (generic) brands are often cheaper than national brand items even with a coupon. Double and triple coupon days and coupons on buy-one-get-one-free are exceptions and usually yield a higher savings.
Keep track of the sales cycle. For example, Food Lion may have buy-one-get-one-free frozen pizza specials every four weeks. By taking note of the sales cycle, you will always get frozen pizza at 50% off. By stocking up, you will always have enough of the product to get you to the next sale. Try never to buy anything that’s not on sale; almost everything goes on sale eventually.
Never shop when you’re hungry. This is an essential rule of thumb when trying to maximize savings and avoid impulse buys.
Finally, strategize your shopping so that you can do multiple errands with the least amount of time, effort and gas. For example, when you pick up heartworm medicine for your dog, you can also shop at a nearby grocer from your list. Two days later if you go to the library, you can shop at a second grocer on your list located across the street from the library. Plan all of your errands this way and you will be well organized, as well as save wear and tear on your vehicle.
By implementing these tips, you will notice your grocery bill significantly decreasing while your stockpile of food and non-food items increases, and also make the very best use of your time and fuel. Like all good habits, the more you practice saving, the greater your shopping savvy will be. In fact, once you are consistently saving 50% off each grocery bill, you may decide your next goal may be to save 75%...or more. |
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Frugal Discipline: The Secret To Financial Success
By Sharon Cece
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The word “discipline” gets a bad rap. Many equate discipline with deprivation and sacrifice and of course, sacrifice isn’t easy (particularly when money is involved). Yet, pursuing a worthwhile goal shouldn’t necessarily be easy–in fact, the more effort it takes to reach a goal, the greater the reward is when you finally reach it.
In the same way, frugal discipline takes some fiscal sweat and sacrifice, but the rewards are fulfilling and, more importantly, lead to a monetary sense of peace and security. Daily, we see reminders in the news how unstable and downright frightening one’s economic status can become when credit purchases get out of hand, when borrowers spend too much on a mortgage they can’t afford, and when creditors start calling a borrower’s hand. The lack of financial discipline can lead to losing more than one’s home; one could quickly lose his or her good name and overall sense of security.
When you peel away the layers of spending, many financial purchases have a built-in emotional foundation. Arguably, few people spend purely out of need; aside from starkly essential needs such as shelter, food, and utilities, a large percentage of spending is emotive. For fun, the next time you make a non-essential (or what you may consider “essential”) purchase, candidly ask yourself “why am I really buying this?”—you may come up with some surprising answers: to impress a friend, to improve your self-esteem, to compete with the Joneses, to celebrate a milestone, to assuage heartbreak; “just because”.
A few years ago, our family—after spending more on non-essential purchases and eating out at restaurants a little too often—discovered we were always a couple of hundred dollars behind each month. We decided that if we were going to break even, forget about getting ahead, we would have to agree on a policy of frugal discipline. This meant not buying what we dreamily stared at in windows, creatively living with what we already had, cooking at home seven days a week, saying no to frivolous purchases and finding cheaper alternatives to necessary purchases.
Making this decision meant that we were ready for the undeniable hardship that comes with monetary discipline, and for the under-abundance which is antithetical to society’s credit-burdened way of life. Yet, this decision helped us to reach our financial goals, and today we are ahead at the end of each month. We are able to buy what we dreamily stare at in windows from cash that we’ve saved, rather than paying a portion of our income to debtors year after year. Moreover, we adopted a quality of life philosophy, i.e. value-centric, as opposed to quantity of life, i.e. material-centric.
Although frugal discipline takes some effort, the results are dramatic and effective. Maybe not so exciting at first as plunking down a credit card on that new iPhone or flat-screen TV, but the results that spring from frugal discipline are exciting. In the long run, peace of mind and wallet are worth much more than a new TV, and you don’t have to pay interest on it.
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