How Are You Saving Money These Days?
By: Nancy | July 31, 2008 | Category: Money
Has your credit card been seeing less daylight lately? According to a new study on how Americans are handling their money in the current economic downturn, 37 percent of people surveyed said they're cutting down on how often they use their credit cards. They're either going to a cash or debit card basis or are just plain spending less.
The same survey says that 57 percent of respondents are being more careful about dining out and 46 percent are shopping more at discount superstores.
Some people I know are even going back to the old fashioned, pre-credit card era practice of envelope budgeting. It's low-tech wonderful. After working out their weekly and monthly budgets to find out exactly what their expenses are (and finding "leaks" in their budget—expenses that they weren't really aware were adding up) they take out cash and divvy it up into envelopes for each expense—insurance, rent or mortgage, food, utilities, etc. And when that money's gone at the end of the month, it's gone. No borrowing from another envelope and going into debt.
There are so many other ways you can save by auditing your lifestyle:
- What are your phone habits? Are there cheaper plans that meet your calling needs better?
- Do you really need the higher tier of cable channels...do you need cable at all?
- When you go grocery shopping, are you making a list before you go, sticking to it and shopping on a full stomach or do all the displays and smells get you to fill your cart with things you hadn't planned to buy?
- Once you've paid off your car, are you setting aside some money every month to help pay for your next vehicle so your car loan will be smaller? If you're shopping for a car right now, are you armed with the info you need to get the best deal?
I could write a 10,000 word blog entry on all the ways to save. But my bosses nudge me nicely when I go over Gov Gab's 300ish word limit. And I'm over it now. We don't have any limits on blog comments though. So please help me out and share what you're doing differently these days to save more and spend less.
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