Budget Basics - Cost Cutting Tips

Easy saving ideas without changing your life
Here are some easy spending modifications that can stack up to some real savings.

• Cut out one restaurant trip per month


• Order out for pizza one less time a month


• Have a family "book/no cook" night once a week - serve no-cooking-required food for dinner: salads, fruits and raw veggies - then curl up with a good book while giving the TV and other electronics (and your electric bill) a rest


• Avoid unnecessary late fees. Once you start tracking where you money is going you will see how these can add up - schedule automatic bill payment online wherever you can so there is less chance for paying late; and return you videos and library books on time.


• Bring snacks to work from home to avoid vending machines (this includes sodas and juices you like to treat yourself with throughout the day). This can usually cut this particular spending in half.

If you have other cost cutting tips, please feel free to share them or drop me an email and I will post them in a future installment of Budget Basics - Cost Cutting Tips.

Budget Planning 101

Budget Planning series to take control of your finances


This 5 step series we will walk through how to establish you spending baseline, track expenses, eliminate unecessary expenses, and build a budget for your lifestyle. There are software packages that can assist with money management but all you need is a pen and paper. In fact, I recommend carrying a small pad of paper to facilitate recording your incidental spending. During this process you will need to log all monthly bills as well. Be honest with yourself through this process and especially at the first stage of establishing your baseline. It is crucial to know exactly where every dollar is going, so this is the step that can make the largest impact on your budget process.

Welcome to the Budget Planner

Here we are going to talk about budget planning tips and techniques. If you have any questions not covered in our budget planning tips, please email you question to admin@consumorality.com