US Finance World

If there is one thing that we have learned from the recent economic downturn it’s that the United States economy has long been built on consumer spending financed by credit. Prior to the crash, had forgotten about the importance of savings which was easy to do considering that everything we buy is not made to last. Fashion, electronics, and more are all made to be used for a period of time and discarded. So it’s no wonder that the U.S. economy is not built to save but rather to consume things.

That has to change, on both a nationwide and a personal level. The virtues of frugality and thrift, while old fashioned, are never truly out of style. Here are some things you can do to help cut your bills – either to handle a reduction in work hours or to stretch unemployment benefits:

You cannot begin the process of saving until you know exactly what you are spending. So take a good look at the amount of money that you are spending every month. Keep your receipts from everything that you purchase over the course of a month to six weeks. Then look and see what the essentials are in your expenses and pick out the items that are not essential. Things like shopping, eating out, drinking Starbucks coffee, etc.. are not essential to your survival and they really add up. Cutting out Starbucks coffee, for example can save you over $720 a year if you drink a cup a day during business days.

Eating at home can save you a ton of money. If you think about it, you can spend less than $20 on a meal that can feed you and your family for 2 or 3 days. It would cost you $20 just by yourself at a restaurant. Cooking yourself is also much healthier, as you can control what goes into your food. As a matter of fact, that is the key ingredient to savings: doing things yourself.

Similarly, when you’re dealing with the aftermath of credit binging, it’s worth your time to do things for yourself. Get copies of your credit reports and go over them at least once a year. Look for items that are incorrect; your credit rating influences how much you have to pay in interest rates and monthly payments. When you’re stretching paychecks to cover bills, having your minimum payment double on credit cards is a disaster.

You may have items in your home or at your house that need to be replace because they are old, outdated, your aren’t working as great as they used to. The key here is to not throw anything out or replace anything. See if you can fix whatever needs fixing, or re-use other items in some other way. Now is not the time to spend money. Now is a time to save so make do with what you have and worry about repairing your credit and your savings account.

Learning to cook is a great way to save money and there are plenty of public domain cooking recipes that can show you how to cook on a budget. Remember, saving money isn’t always fun right away, but it will be well worth it in the long run.

Dorthy Weatherbush takes her personal finances very seriously. That’s why she uses Legal Zoom to make sure that her financial house is in order. She used Legal Zoom to make sure that her will was filed so that her kids would get all of her savings.

Similar Posts:

• Ten Things That You Can Do Now to Save Money Every Month
• Stop Acting Rich
• Can you really money at home?
• How to properly manage your monthly expenses
• Thinking outside of “Starbox”