The Best Budgeting Tips That Really Work!

5 family-friendly budgeting ideas

Pinching your pennies or storing them up in a pickle jar has its merits, but it also has its limitations. It’s true you can trim away a little fat off the edges of your budget and collect a few extra dollars by saving your spare change, but what are some more “impactful” tips to improve the health of the family budget?

   1. Save without sacrifice

There may be times when you need to cut something out of the family budget or go with a cheaper brand, but there are often ways to save without losing anything at all if you do your research. For example, here are some ways to save on high-quality pet care. And here is how you can get a brand new looking bathtub without paying the price of a new tub. There are many other examples, like lowering your HVAC bills with more efficient units or buying all your Christmas gifts throughout the year during sales events. You just have to get informed and get creative.

   2. Use credit cards but don’t abuse them

Using a credit card to conveniently process payments, avoid carrying large sums of cash around, to build up a positive credit score, and to earn cash-back and rewards points, will help not hurt your family budget.

But when you are using one credit card to pay off another, making cash withdrawals with your credit card (big fees!), not making on-time payments, constantly hovering near your credit limits, and certainly never paying your balance in full so as to avoid paying interest, credit cards become a source of “bad debt.” Visit www.debtacademy.com to learn more about how to use a credit card and overcome debts.

   3. Grow your income

In budgeting, we often tend to immediately think about cutting, which is, of course, a legitimate part of budgeting. But we often forget that you can solve budget shortfalls by boosting income as well.

There are many online opportunities as well as neighbourhood tasks one can perform to earn extra money. Some mow lawns and clean gutters, others write, act as an at-home call center worker, or resell items on eBay or Craigslist. If you have some spare time and a little creativity, you can almost certainly increase your income at least a little.

   4. Focus on staying healthy

Given the high cost of medical care in our day and age, simply taking care of yourself as to diet, sleep habits, exercise, and other areas of health and wellness is critical. You still want to have some health insurance. That saves you a lot of money on doctor’s bills, medications, and other medical expenses you never have to pay. Just remember the majority of health conditions are caused (at least in part) by unhealthy habits, like smoking, drinking, a poor diet, or a sedentary lifestyle.

   5. Always track your actual spending

Simply being aware of how much you are spending will immediately put you in a position to know where you need to scale back. And the shock of knowing how much you are spending may well motivate you to reduce.

It will take discipline, but once you form the habit, tracking your expenditures will become second-nature. Keep all receipts and write down all cash purchases. Then load it all into a computer spreadsheet. With family budget planning, knowing really is “half the battle.”

Thanks a bunch for your time, 

…sharing is caring, remember? 😉

Cheers, Klaudia

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