Attacking Secret
Budget Killers
Ever feel like no matter how
much you cut back and try to save, your money still pulls a disappearing act?
If you’re making an effort to budget and save but you’re not seeing any results,
your finances might be getting hijacked by secret budget killers. Secret budget
killers are those items that stay under your radar by disguising themselves as
“necessities” or pulling even shadier tricks to empty your wallet. Once you
know what they are, you can stamp out these secret budget killers and get
control over your finances again.
Stamps. They used to be
cheap, but face it—they’re not anymore. Sending out five bills each month
costs you a few bucks every time. That’s not a ton of cash, but it could
probably be better spent. (How about putting it towards a lovely bottle of
Cabernet Sauvignon instead?) Sign up
for online billpay with your creditors or do it directly through your bank.
It’s secure, it’s surprisingly fast, and it saves you cash every single month.
Manicures. Yes, they’re
nice. Yes, they make your hands look lovely. Yes, they cost a fortune. Now,
there’s no reason that you can’t indulge every once in a while, but if you
honestly think that your bi-weekly manicures are necessary, then you’re
willing to throw away thousands of dollars over the years for something that
needs to be redone constantly. (Think of what you could do with all that extra
time, too!) Why not get a manicure for special occasions (Drag your best
friends to the salon with you and make a fun event out of it!) and spend $4 on
a bottle of nail polish the rest of the time?
Too many trips to the
grocery store. It’s amazing how much money you can spend at the grocery
store—every few days—if you don’t plan ahead. When you wait until the
last-minute to shop, you usually gravitate towards convenience foods, which
are always expensive. A better plan is to shop every two weeks. Take an hour
and figure out what meals you’ll eat for the next 14 days. Be sure to take
into account whether you’ll be eating out or not so that you don’t end up with
a ton of extra food, and try to use up any food you’ve already got sitting
around. Make of list of what you’ll need and make a single trip to the
store. There’s only one principle you’ve got to stick to if you want this to
work: you’ve actually got to eat what you buy. If you can do that,
you’ll be amazed at how much cash you end up saving—and how well you end up
eating.
Bottled water. Yeah, we
understand that you don’t want to drink tap water. Besides being packed with
extra fluoride, it often tastes gross. But buying bottled water every week
(or two weeks, or month, the point is the same) is a good way to waste money.
Instead, make a one-time investment in a water filter for your faucet. Your
water will be tasty and healthy, and even everything you cook will benefit
from the purity, not to mention your wallet.
For more secret budget
killers, check out their even more devious wallet-busting cousins:
Subscription Budget Killers.
So, take a second look at
these secret budget killers and their solutions. In most cases, you don’t have
to cut anything out of your life to start saving. You simply need to step back
and find a smarter way to do things. The best part is that most of these
solutions aren’t just cheaper, they’re more efficient. Put a few of them to
work, and you’ll find yourself saving time as well as cold, hard cash.
