One of my New Years goal is to save money. I know I am late to the party, but I haven’t been myself in writing about my personal life; so what better time than now? I know this is super hard and everyone wants to do this. I have a 12 month budget started for the year 2017. I am excited and nervous about this. I think it super hard to follow this budget given that we like to spend money (who doesn’t). However after about the third months budget I realized that things can change quickly so it was foolish of me to think about a year budget at one time. I cut back on a lot of work and knew that my income would affect this.
It is hard to budget THAT far in advance and no one can do it. You can have estimates and ideas, but to really stick to it can be tough. You can lose your job, you can have a mega downfall such as medical bills or car expenses that affect your budget. Make your budget as realistic as you can.
I have decided to cut back wherever possible, for many things. One thing we cut back on was the kids food/drinks. My son was on organic milk that costs $6 x 4 days $24 a week on milk. Formula used to be way more expensive, but now that he is older we can cut this back and have regular milk. It seems to last much longer and saves us much more money. We are able to give him juice and water whenever he doesn’t want milk, so this helps also. We use milk strictly for nap time or bedtime this way we know he will go right to sleep. With his meals we use either water or juice since he is filling up on solids we know this will work!
You have to cut back whenever possible look at where you’re spending money and what you can cut back on. Look at how much you want to save a month and start small. You can’t save a lot all up front at once, don’t be foolish. My husband hasn’t used his gym membership and we have had it for SIX months… SO we cancelled that.. $40 a month, yeah we made that back!
Gas… this is the other tricky item.. We have to make sure that we budget accordingly for gas! We make sure that we ‘shop’ around for prices but yet are still getting good gas! Know that typically gas prices rise around weekends or right before a holiday so make sure to plan accordingly.
We are in FULL mode for meal prep! Like no lie.. This is about as real as it gets! This is one of the hardest things to do, especially on the weekends when you need motivation. However, I have realized how much time it saves us plus I can get excited for my food more during the week! It saves us money from going out to lunch where it is an added expense.
How do you cut back on your budget/bills — we’d LOVE to hear from you!
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