Shrink financial stress
One powerful way to shrink financial stress is to recognize leaks in spending. Finding money to save is easier than you think. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Beware of little expenses—a small leak will sink a great ship." If you have small leaks and you ignore them, your entire financial life could end up under water. Start with these basic ideas and then come up with your own.
Create a budget!
The first step in creating a budget is to determine where and how money is being spent. Make tracking spending a daily goal. Take an inventory of income sources and write down monthly expenditures. By doing both, you are better able to forecast monthly spending averages as well as identify areas to cut back.
Let's take a look at lunch
If you spend an average of $4 a day for lunch, that adds up to about $100 a month—$1200 a year! Perhaps brown bagging is a better alternative. For example, a sandwich, banana, chips and soda may cost about $2 at the grocery store. That's 50 percent less. Consider treating yourself to a few lunches out now and then and you'll still save hundreds a year.
Snacking adds up, too.
Instead of frequenting vending machines, buy snacks in bulk or bring them from home. It is cheaper than purchasing them individually. If you bought two twelve-packs of soft drinks for $5.00 plus tax, each soft drink costs approximately 22 cents. Conversely, purchasing 24, 60-cent soft drinks from a vending machine will cost $14.40. Same concept with snacks—45 cents a day is another $11.25 monthly. Twenty-five cents a day for snacks from the supermarket is about $6.25 for the work month. Combined, that's about $170 you could save annually—that's easily four months of standard cable service.
