Household Budgeting

Household Budgeting
by guest author: Leigh Marcos

Just small changes in your lifestyle can reap big rewards when it comes to your household budget. These tiny adjustments, in conjunction with the realization that saving money as a family doesn’t have to be all about extreme deprivation of the luxuries in life, ensure that’s a healthy attitude to budgeting is achieved. Reducing bank account strain can relieve a lot of family stress and it can come a lot easier toeveryone than most people realize.

Cut back on Eating Out
Where nearly all families can save and become a lot more frugal (https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/) is with their eating and food shopping. We have all been there, it is so easy to eat out or grab a takeaway after a long day. This just results in unnecessary spending and calories for that matter! Just setting aside a bit of time to plan family meals, you not only remove the uncertainty (and excuses) as to what’s for dinner, you make your life a lot easier and simpler when you know, for instance, that you are having “stir-fry” on Wednesday evening! ,

Shop Smart
In line with this is the ability to “shop smart”. Doing this will save you money on your food shop by just using simple, smart strategies ensuring you don’t overspend. Firstly, just shop once and get everything required in a single trip. So make a shopping list ahead of time. How easy is it to “get a few extra things” when you only popped out for a loaf of bread!

Haggle
Haggle, haggle, haggle (and shop around!). Shop around for mobile phone plans, insurance, satellite tv or any regular subscription/direct debit. Learning to do this and negotiate with companies can save you a lot of money in a year. It can be as simple as looking on a comparable website and seeing what deals are out there for the subscriptions that you already pay for, leaving you with some extra dollar in your back pocket.

Take Small Steps
Household budgeting with your family definitely doesn’t require any drastic action that will overhaul your current lifestyle or deprive you of the luxuries in life. Small, simple changes can make a vast difference to your budget. Involving your family as well can teach your children important skills when it comes to managing money. For more tips take a look at (http://www.creditmarvel.com/blog/7-awesome-tips-to-live-like-a-champ-when-youre-broke/) 7 awesome tips to live like a champ when you’re broke. Using these few tips along with anything else you can come up can leave you stress-free with a bit more money to enjoy.