Reducing expenses doesn't have to be difficult or cause one to lower one's standard of living to meagerness. Reducing daily expenses does however, involve attentiveness to cost, shopping habits and household expenses. In an average day most people use utilities, drive a car, eat food, wear clothes, go to the bathroom, and drink something.
These are the bottom line essentials to our standard of living. In just these daily activities a bonanza of potential savings exist. In one's house alone there are many sources of savings almost everywhere one looks and in one's lifestyle even more savings can be found.
Reassess lifestyle expenses
Lifestyle expenses has a major impact on ones expenses, simple and frugal will always be cheaper but is it really one's style? When a conflict of interest such as this emerges consider how one can keep an existing lifestyle without all the expense. For example, if one always flies first class, consider an all first class airline instead. Some airlines have great comfortable and wide leather chairs throughout the plane. In other words choose airlines with saving and comfort in mind.
As with airlines, cars can be a place to keep style and save money as well. Choosing a vehicle that is stylish and comfortable but at a more cost effective price is easier to do as competition in the automobile market increases. Refinancing and/or securing financing before going to a dealership can also potentially lower the cost of a vehicle.
Restaurants, entertainment and personal items can also add up but don't have to be purged from one's life. Consider ways to continue doing all these things without as much cost if that's what one enjoys and is used to. Consider the other venue that's just as good but costs less, it might be better. Maybe some beautiful jewelry can be obtained for less somewhere else. There's always market competition, and this can be to one's advantage when keeping lifestyle and lowering expenses.
Household expense reduction tips
• Kitchen and Laundry Rooms:
Lights: Energy efficient bulbs use a fraction of the watts an incandescent bulb uses. This is because incandescent bulbs generate heat whereas incandescent bulbs create mostly light without heat. If you replace every bulb in your house with a 15-25 Watt energy saving bulb you will reduce your watt usage by close to two thirds. These bulbs last a long time and most probably will pay off long before they have burned out.
Appliances use a lot of electricity. If your appliances has reached the end of its life consider an energy efficient appliance. After a few years of use the extra cost will being paying you back in savings. A dryer can use around 5000 watts of electricity, if it is a nice summer day and you don't mind hanging your clothes outside on something that saves money. Also consider using less appliances i.e. do you really need to run the dishwasher everyday? If not consider using less dishes and hand washing to save money.
• Heating and Cooling
If you have an average size house it may be cost effective to install window air conditioners in your most frequently used rooms. This saves money cooling a whole house in the summer instead of keeping the bathroom(s) and other infrequently used rooms at crisp cool temperatures unnecessarily. This saves air conditioning dollars.
In the winter, can you handle a couple of degrees cooler. More savings if you lower the thermostat. Otherwise, consider using electric heaters due to high gas prices. Also, extra insulation in the attic might help and energy efficient windows are not only tax deductible but save on the heating bills as well.
• Bathroom
This isn't my favorite, but when it comes to saving money sometimes it's important to go to the bathroom. When brushing teeth letting the water run wastes water. By limiting the flow of water both to the toilet flush tank and the faucet, less water is used and if the toilet tank flush plug breaks while you're out less water will drain effortlessly into the tank saving you money.
Also, if you can find a way to reduce the outflow of your toilet tank this will cause it to use less water on every flush. A 2 liter bottle of water placed in the tank can displace that much water every flush. After 100 flushes that's equivalent to 200 liters of saved water. If you do this, secure the two liter bottle on to the side of the tank so it doesn't interfere with the tank plug.
• Bedroom
When you sleep at night you're asleep right. So does it really matter what temperature it is once you're asleep? Point being, find the minimum temperature your household is willing to accept and set that as your night time temperature in the winter. In the summer, find the maximum temperature your household is willing to accept and set that as the night time temperature. This will save money on heating and cooling the bedrooms.
• Office and Living Room
If one uses a computer a lot, resetting the sleep function to every 10-15 minutes or less to save electricity. Turn the printer off when it's not being used. Unplug things that don't need to be plugged in. Just leaving something plugged in at night used electricity. How's the cable service? Do you really watch all the channels? Consider limited cable or no cable at all. PBS has some great T.V. and it's free with a decent antenna from Walmart. What's more, without cable you can still get network television such as NBC, ABC and local networks. Telephone bill to high? Consider pay as you go calling cards for your long distance. This way you only spend what you use and not what you potentially use in a month.
• Garage and Shed
Do you drive an SUV? You already know the solution to that. Ford has a Hybrid truck on the market, when it's time to bid your truck adios consider a hybrid to save those $98 gas fill ups. How energy efficient is your mower? Do you use an electric or gas whipper snapper? Electric is cheaper than gas. Water plants in the evening so it doesn't evaporate.
Summary
Lowering expenses involves taking inventory of what is expensive and what is not in addition to what is needed and what is not needed. Following this adjustments can be made to lower the costs of these items via energy saving techniques, cost reduction methods and son on. Lowering expenses doesn't have to be a life changing ordeal, but it does necessitate a little will and effort and may require a few small sacrifices here and there, but in the long run the dollars saved can add up and one can be proud of having accomplished a better budget.
Sources:
1. http://bit.ly/fnkIFB (Smart Money)
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