It’s easy to get carried away and start spending a lot more that we can afford to during the first couple of weeks of a month, and then try your best to scrape by until the next paycheck. What’s worse, it seems that, as a species, we are not wired in a way that would makes us more responsible with money and material possessions. Luckily, we can all develop skills and make a few lifestyle changes that can help us spread our finances out more evenly, and even allows to put a bit of money aside. Here are a few simple tips that you can use to slash your monthly spending down by a quarter or more.
Get Large Quantities of Food and Cook for the Entire Week
If you tend to eat out fairly often, order takeout, and make spur of the moment store runs on an empty stomach, chances are that you are wasting quite a bit of money of food. An easy solution to this is to buy food in bulk and cook meals for the entire week. You can make several different combinations using fried meat, mixed vegetables, rice, and a variety of spices. You can even prepare quick healthy snacks using nuts and fruit, or throw some frozen fruit into a bowl of oatmeal for a refreshing breakfast. It’s quick, easy, and you’ll save tons of money preparing food in advance and keeping it in Tupperware containers.
Stockpile Essential Household Items
Some items are always needed around the house, e.g. laundry detergent, toothpaste, lightbulbs, garbage bags, and so on. An overwhelming majority of these items can sit for years in storage without a problem, so when you get a chance to buy them at a very good discount price, make sure you get lots of them. It will put a dent in this month’s budget, but you won’t have to worry about spending money on these items for a good part of the year afterwards, so you’ll be saving plenty in the long run.
Buy Generic Brands
A lot of products only have a few basic inexpensive ingredients that make them work, so brands that market themselves as high-quality will mostly be charging for fancier packaging and tons of marketing that they have to invest in. When it comes to hygiene products like soap and toothpaste, cleaning products, as well as drugs, you are better off going for generic options and saving money.
Use Coupons as Much as You Can
You’ll need a bit of patience and dedication in order to find plenty of incredibly useful coupon discounts, but it is time well spent. You can easily shave 20-30% off your monthly spending by waiting for good deals and getting the right coupons.
With a few minor lifestyle changes everyone can manage to get their monthly spending under control, and live a bit more comfortably on even a very tight household budgets. Try out these tips and see how much you can save.