We have a new medium-term saving goal, along with the same moderate income as before. So the money for this goal is going to either have to come from increasing income, or reducing expenses. Reducing expenses is the easier of the two in the short term, although there is a limit as to how far you can realistically go with it.
So, the game:
1. For an upcoming planned expenditure, determine what the cost would "normally" be for you.
2. Try to beat it...by smarter shopping, creative improvisation, or doing without. Or a combination.
3. Put the difference into savings.
For example, I have been in need of AA batteries recently, but I have been going through our accumulation of dead, half-dead, and unused but rather old AA batteries to see which ones are still usable, instead of buying new batteries at this time. I won't count this as fully saving on the cost of new batteries, but it is still a success at leveraging two or three dollars of value out of things that we already have. So I've put three dollars of what I would have spent on batteries into savings.
Step 3 is the most important of the three, otherwise you're just saving the same few dollars over and over and over.
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