Cheap Living and Inexpensive Ideas to Save Thousands

When your home family income drops from over $100,000 per year to just around $30,000, cheap living is the only choice that you have.  Hopefully, you will never be in that situation, but here is some advice for trimming your monthly living expenses from someone that has.

Start Saving Money by Establishing Priorities

There are some home expenses that you can easily cut back on and others that you cannot.  Think of this as a financial plan and your home is always a priority.  If you have a high interest rate, you may be able to refinance or renegotiate the mortgage.  Other than that, you could consider moving to a less expensive home or a new area, but moving itself is quite a personal expense.

In order to make the change to cheap living, you need to establish some priorities; things that you will keep and things that you will give up.  Things that you must keep include health, auto, home and life insurance.   Not having any of those will cost you more in the long-run, but you can always shop around to save money on these items.

Utilities (electric, water and gas) are living expenses that you cannot do without, but you may be able to save.  Turn the lights off when you leave a room.  Set the thermostat higher in the summer and lower in the winter.  Take shorter showers and choose showers over baths to use less water.  Fix leaky faucets and toilets now.  You would be surprised by how much a dripping faucet can raise your personal bill over a year's time. 

Stop Unnecessary Monthly Expenses

Save your receipts for a while and look at avoidable living expenses.  If you regularly buy drinks or anything else at a convenience store, you are always paying more than you need to.  Buying a single soda for a dollar is equivalent to paying $12 for a 12-pack, when a 12-pack typically costs less than $4.

Of course, if you are serious about cheap living, you'll give up the sodas and the bottled water.  It costs a lot less to install a water purifier and bottle your own at home.  Try to figure out other ways to save grocery money.

Put Your Home On a Budget

If you don't need it, don't buy it.  If you rent DVDs, stop.  If you are buying books, get a library card.  For entertainment, go to free museums and parks.  Watch TV –you're paying for that already.  You will be surprised by how much you can cut your living expenses by making small changes and living frugally. 

One last bit of advice: buying in bulk is not always the best choice.  Go through your freezer and pantry.  Come up with recipes to use the food up and then start over.  Start a habit of cheap ideas and ways to reduce your personal bills.

There is no advantage to buying large quantities of something that you may never use.  Toilet paper is the only thing that we buy in bulk.  We use cloth instead of paper napkins or towels.  It reduces our trash and saves us personal money, too. 

There are likely hundreds of other cheap living ideas for budget finance that you can come up with.  Hopefully, this will get you started. A good combination of inexpensive ideas will save you thousands.

Sergio Ferreira's web site offers independent budget software reviews and comparisons of the top budget programs. Articles and links to the best finance software and budget software resources. He's offering a FREE eBook "Money for Life - Budgeting Success".
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