63 Budget Tricks and Tips to Saving Money and Becoming Wealthy

Budget tips and tricks will help you tighten up your budget to create additional income for you. Income you did not know you had.

Once you have freed up these dollars you can begin to eliminate your debt.

I have broken this down into a three part series. There is important infomation in all three parts so don’t miss any part. This is Part II.

If you missed Part I see it HERE

There are a number of strategies that can be used to reduce expenses and increase you disposable income. I have compiled a list of 63 of them here to get you started. These are not the only ones and I am certain you can add many more.

Getting your strategies in place will get your journey headed in the right direction as you move toward becoming financially independent.

Use some of these, pick some favorites and have some fun!

Use Financial Institutions Wisely

22. Refinance your mortgage

This is one you need to explore before you jump. If you can save with a reduced interest rate you will need to evaluate the period of time to recoup the cost to refinance. For example if it cost you $1,000 to refinance which can include closing costs and perhaps points. Then you need to calculate what you will save each month, let’s say $100 per month. Then it will take 10 months to get back your upfront costs. Anything after that is savings.

 

23. Payoff your mortgage

Most people go with a 30 year mortgage. Your goal should be 15 year. You also need to make sure you can prepay (most do but make sure). If you add extra principle payments each month you will be surprised how quick you can get the mortgage balance reduced. If you get that large bonus you can make a large principle payment further reducing the time to get the mortgage paid. Once you have the mortgage pain you can now pay yourself the mortgage payment and the investment return will be yours to keep. Just give that some thought.

 

24. Start with a goal of reducing credit card balances

Oh those interest rates 18, 20, 24%. Really! I wouldn’t pay them. Begin to reduce them, get rid of them, and pay yourself instead.

 

25. Pay off credit cards monthly

If you must use credit cards pay them off in full every month do not carry any balances. A good budget will make sure anything you buy has been pre-planned.

 

26. Use ATM’s of your bank or credit union

If you use your own bank or credit unions ATM then a fee is unlikely. There are ATM that charge a fee of some sort. I have run into them and unfortunately had to use them but mostly it is while on vacation.

 

27. Pay all your bills on auto pay

Setting up bill paying will save you the postage the time and late fees if you are one who forgets to pay bills. Let’s face it none of us want to pay bills but we have little choice. S set them up for auto pay. And in many cases you can get a discount for doing so.

 

 

28. Check your credit report once annually

There are three credit bureaus Experian, Transunion and Equifax. You can get one free report per year. I get one every four months just by rotating each bureau. Make sure your information is accurate. There is a procedure to dispute information that is incorrect. You can access it here

 

29. Freeze your credit

The government has changed the law which will now allow you to freeze access to your credit information. This is a good idea in that once you freeze your information access will not be available without your knowledge. This will cut down on the prospect of identity theft.

 

 

30. Monitor your accounts

Set up access to your accounts online is essential in today’s world. Do this for all your financial accounts. Do not set this up and forget it. Actually access them periodically to make sure there are no unauthorized transactions. I have all mine set up and I am checking at least weekly.

 

 

31. Start sinking funds

So what is a sinking fund? This is a fund where you set a savings goal and fund an amount each pay check. For example in your budget you plan a vacation and that vacation will cost $2,000. When will you need the money to pay for it? How many pays until you need the money? Let’s say you take a vacation every July and you plan on spending $2,000 over 26 pays that would be $77 per pay. So you set up a budget item to set aside $77 every pay and now your vacation fund is ready to go when you need it. You can do this for any purchase such as a car, car repair fund, college, anything you want to save for.

 

 

32. Automate your savings

You can use this with the sinking fund or for retirement. If your employer has a 401k you can have a set percentage taken out every check and you will never miss it but you will build a nice nest egg. This will work will if you have a ROTH or an IRA set up with your investment advisor. Even for the smaller savings such as vacation or some special purchase. Just set it up and move it to a savings account or a money market account and it will be there when you need it. In today’s world moving money around electronically is easy.

 

 

33. Eliminate Debt

Here is a tip that has the potential to save you thousands. Debt is never good. Forget about OPM (other people’s money) it does not work and if it does you will have a significant amount of risk.  There is no such thing as good debt. Debt will always provide risk. If you have debt then the bank or finance company will not be able to take your house, car whatever you have given in return for the money. The other side of this is the interest rate credit cards 20% or there about. Car loans 5- 7%. Take a look at the headquarters of any bank or finance company that is your money! Still want to make them rich? Load up with debt. What would happen if you paid yourself those debt payments? Your wealth will build really quickly. So devise a plan and get out of debt.

 

 

34. Use an investment advisor

99% of the folks reading this must hire a professional to help them build wealth. I do not want you to turn over your hard earned money to some stranger. I want you to educate yourself on basic investing and wealth building strategies. You need to hire someone who will teach you not tell you. While you do not need to become an expert you do need to understand what you are investing your hard earned money in. You would not do your own dental work the same thing applies here. I hear wow they charge a lot of money, and some may but you get what you pay for. Always look at what is the total return less the fees over a long period of time 10 years or more. Look at returns over the lifetime of a fund. This give you a better sense as to performance. I always advise two things do not do anything you do not understand and do not do anything you are nor comfortable with.

 

 

 

Food Saving Tips

35. Brown bag your lunch

Here is where you could save some significant money. If you eat out every day for lunch it will cost you $8-10 per day. If you bring your lunch it will cost you half. So that would be a savings of about $5 per day or over $1,200 per year. Could you use that? And as an added benefit you will eat healthy.

 

 

36. Eat out one fewer time per month

More savings here, a meal for two $40. If your family is larger even larger savings.

 

 

37. Plan your meals and stick to a list when shopping

More planning here but this will allow you to stick to a plan and when you shop with a list impulse buying is eliminate. Preparing your own meals is far more cost effective than eating out.

 

 

38. Shop by unit price

Always check the weight or number of units of a product verses the price. The packaging can be deceptive in that it may look larger but the cost per unit may be significantly more.

 

 

39. Buy items on sale

 

If you use the sale item stock up when it is on sale. We do this with our meats and other items we use regularly. When those “T” bones steaks go on sale we stock up. How about buying an extra turkey? Know your prices and know when a sale is a good deal.

 

 

40. Buy in bulk

This works well for paper products such as tissues, paper towels and toilet paper. Again know your prices and check the unit price here to make sure you get a good bargain.

 

 

41. Plan your meals around your grocery store’s flyers

This is our favorite day of the week. Those grocery store flyers arrive in the mail. What are this week’s specials eggplant, strawberries, and blueberries and on they go on. Usually all the stores have the same things on sale so be careful as to what the better deal is. They always rotate so each week is different.

 

42. Reduce your grocery purchases

Well you have to eat, but may be you could buy a little bit less. Buy one not two. Allocate a budget amount and then reduce it a little bit say 10%. Make a game and see how well you can do.

 

 

43. Use Coupons

You can save some dollars here by using coupons. Buy one get one free. Get $1 off. Save 10%. The offers go on and on. I will caution her though in that if you don’t use the product it may not be cheaper.

 

44. Repurpose your left overs

Here is another fun one. If you don’t eat all the food you prepared what do you do with it? Well there is not enough for a meal. But wait what would happen if you saved some left overs for the week and one night a week you had a variety of food from the past week. We do this probably once a week.  Remember that extra turkey you bought when it was on sale, ever have turkey soup, turkey crochets or another turkey dinner.

Other articles of interest:

10 Easy Steps to Creating a Budget that will put you on the path to Financial Independence

How to get out of Debt: Three popular Plans

 

So what are you waiting for? Need help getting started, Grab our FREE budget tools to help you along on this very important journey.

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