Building healthy finances takes time, dedication and effort. However, everything becomes more complicated when we go through a financial crisis, which directly affects our ability to pay our debts and commitments.
In this type of situation, what you need to do is exercise more control over your spending and adopt a frugal lifestyle. With effort and dedication, you can learn many ways to cut your expenses with minimal impact on your quality of life.
Here are 10 practical and useful tips, so you can cut your monthly expenses and increase your financial stability and security in the short and long term.
1. Consider the use of generic medications
In many countries around the world, healthcare in general can be quite expensive, and this includes the cost of medications, however, generic medications can be a great option to save money on your monthly healthcare expenses.
If you are in a situation where you require a brand name medication, talk to your doctor and ask him/her if there is a generic variant of that specific medication that is compatible with your treatment.
2. Don’t spend money on a landline phone
Unless you have a very specific and compelling reason for not being able to cancel your landline phone service, it simply does not make sense to pay for a landline phone compared to the advantages offered by today’s cell phones.
3. Prepare your food in advance and freeze it
An excellent option to save time and money is to prepare all your meals in advance and freeze portions. This will allow you to buy ingredients in bulk and even take advantage of seasonal specials.
You may need to invest some money in a freezer in case you don’t have a place to store your food, however, the investment is worth it, considering that a well-maintained freezer will last for many years.
4. Focus your hobbies on participation and not on collecting
A good way to avoid excessive and underperforming purchases is to avoid collecting in your hobbies. If your hobby is books, avoid buying and accumulating books that you will not read in the short term.
On the other hand, if PC video games are your thing, don’t fill your Steam account with titles you don’t plan to finish or play for a long time and prefer free games. Also, if you don’t play very demanding titles, you don’t need a PC Gamer.
The idea is that you make the most of the time you invest in your hobbies by actually participating in them and preferring free options.
5. Prefer public transportation or a bicycle whenever you can
Using your own vehicle when you can reach your destination in a relatively acceptable time using public transportation, or a bicycle, is a common financial trap.
Owning and using your own vehicle involves serious maintenance costs, in addition to the costs of parking, permits, fuel, unexpected breakdowns, possible fines, among others.
By using public transportation you will be able to allocate all that money to face more urgent and necessary commitments, such as food, basic services and debts.
6. Seal air leaks in your home
Air leaks are usually a costly problem in winter and summer, because the outside air, which is at a much lower temperature, enters the home during the winter, while in the summer the fresh air from inside escapes to the outside.
This increases your heating and ventilation costs considerably, so it is advisable to seal the frames of all doors and windows in your home.
7. Reduce meat consumption and prefer whole grains, fruits and vegetables
In many countries, meat is often much more expensive per calorie than most whole grains, fruits and vegetables. If you eat a lot of meat out of habit, you can make significant monthly savings.
If this is your case, reducing your meat consumption and using some of that money to compensate with the purchase of other foods will allow you to reduce your food costs, and allocate the surplus to other areas of your monthly budget.
8. Eliminate non-essential services that you do not take full advantage of
Many times we forget about the number of services we hire and then simply do not take advantage of. Perhaps that expensive satellite cable TV service can be replaced by streaming content using your computer.
As you can see, it is possible to get a significant decrease in our monthly expenses by overcoming laziness and reviewing our monthly bills.
Find all the bills for the services you use on a monthly basis and examine them line by line, very carefully, and any items you do not use should be eliminated as soon as possible. Contact the company responsible and request the elimination of such services.
9. Cut your own hair
If you use a simple haircut, you may find it much more cost-effective to learn how to cut your own hair or with the help of someone else. Many people are in the habit of going to a stylist when they simply need a little maintenance rather than a full haircut.
The main idea is that you leave the complex and elaborate haircuts to the professionals, while you take care of the minor maintenance. You can start by looking up a YouTube tutorial and investing a little money in basic tools like scissors and mirrors.
10. Manage your clothes better
One area that is often overlooked when it comes to reducing household expenses is the closet. We can achieve substantial savings if instead of buying more clothes, we simply reuse the ones we already have.
If you have clothes that are too worn out to wear to social or professional events, you can limit their use to inside the home, when making repairs or exercising.
If the garment is so worn out that you can’t even wear it indoors, perhaps cutting it up and turning it into cleaning rags is a good option.
In Conclusion
Optimizing your monthly expenses is usually one of the most important steps on the road to financial success, since for many people, it is much easier and faster to reduce costs than to generate more income.
Applying these tips will allow you to have more room to maneuver, face your monthly commitments, finance some of your projects, start investing or pay your debts.
Living a frugal life is not synonymous with poverty, but rather, having the ability to spend your money on goods and services that bring you real value in the long term.