Money is a big worry for most of us. It’s not a matter of affording luxuries, for many people; it’s a matter of affording the bare necessities.
If you’re struggling to cover the costs of bills, petrol, food, and other such things on a monthly basis then it might be time to get to the root of the problem and figure out how you could better be protecting your finances at home.
If you can find more ways to save money and protect your assets then you might find your financial situation naturally begins to stabilise.
It’s about knowing how to use the finances you do have and making your life work around it. Here are some tips that might just help you do that.
Make a budget and stick to it
This is the key, really. You need to have a solid budget based on your incomings and then decide what your outgoings are going to be, based on that.
Make a note of your monthly income at the top of your budgetary plan. Underneath, start to list all the necessities you need to buy each month; this includes rent (or mortgage payments), food, utilities, petrol, and a little buffer room for emergency money.
Once you’ve set aside more than enough of your finances to cover these necessities, the amount of money left over is your disposable income.
Set a limit that you mustn’t spend beyond this amount during the average month. In fact, you could even take out a set amount of money each week, in cash, and only allow yourself to use that to buy luxuries and treats.
If you really want something but you don’t have the money then try the 30-day rule. If you still want it in 30 days then you can buy it. If not then you probably never really needed it.
Think about insurance
A lot of people are put off by the idea of insuring things. Whether it’s your car, your health, or, in this instance, your home, it’s another cost to add to the list of the many other costs you incur during the average month.
Still, it’s a cost that you really need to consider more carefully. Insuring your household possessions for a small amount of money is about avoiding spending an astronomical amount of money if something should ever go wrong.
You could be burgled, there could be a house fire, or things could simply be broken. None of these eventualities are altogether unlikely, so you shouldn’t have the mentality that “it’ll probably never happen to me”.
Insurance is something you’ll probably need at some point in order to recover broken contents, at the very least. If you still feel a little out of your depth with regards to this topic then you might want to do some additional research on websites that discuss insurance basics.
The decision doesn’t have to be as scary and long-winded as it may sometimes see on the surface. Essentially, you just want a financial safety net should the worst happen to the important things that you own.
Cut down bills
There are so many ways to cut down bills, but most of them come down to conserving resources. That’s why going green is something you might want to consider.
It’s becoming more popular within the average household and that’s because people are starting to realise that it’s about more than saving the planet.
That’s obviously an important aspect of making the conscious decision to be more eco-friendly, but it’s also about saving a lot of money.
You could make the big change to install solar panels and stop relying on the grid for your electricity. This will obviously hugely cut down energy bills even if you do occasionally need to rely on the grid.
The cost of the panels will more than pay itself back through the amount of money you save on energy bills.
Still, even if you don’t want to spend any money on things such as solar panels, that doesn’t mean you can’t still save a lot of money through being more environmentally-conservative.
You could cut back on utility bills through simple improvements at home. For example, you could limit showering time and teeth-cleaning time to save water.
You could turn off all lights, computers, and other electronics frequently to save energy. Most importantly, perhaps, you could head to the source of the problem and stop the amount of heat you waste on a daily basis.
Insulate the walls in your home and get double-glazed windows. Both of these things will better trap the heat you generate and massively reduce your energy bills.
These are much smaller investments than solar panels and will still do a lot to save you money. At the end of the day, the logic is simple: cut back on waste, and you’ll cut back on the money you spend.
