So last time we did a budget challenge that involved saving 25% of your income over a two week period. I hope those who challenge themselves were as successful as possible and found many unique methods of saving that worked for them. I myself was fairly successful in my efforts and saved very close to 25%. For those of you who saved 25% or more – congratulations! As a result you should feel pretty good about yourself and more than that, you have learned first hand how you can continue to save on an ongoing basis.
So, onto our next challenge. For the next two weeks, our goal will be to save 10% more of our income. Whether this is in the form of selling items and adding the funds to your rainy day jar, investing in a savings bond or if you are able to find more ways of cutting back on specific areas in order to save, that is up to you. In the mean time, I have come up with some additional ideas of how I can save up to or more than 10% of my income over the next 14 days. Again feel free to use these methods as well as finding ways that will be conducive to you life too.
So, here we go . . .
# 1: Get Rid of Stuff I Don’t Use
Now when I say get rid of stuff, what I really mean is to look for things to sell.
Not only will this de-clutter my home and make me feel better in general, it will allow me to earn some extra money to put towards my savings. Opportunities for selling various items can include consignment stores, yard sales, as well as online sites such as Kijiji.
As I sift through these items, I am making sure they are in still in fairly good condition. The types of items I am going to add to this list is likely to include clothes, furniture, paintings, and other item that I think will attract some attention. Secondly, the criteria I am going to follow to make sure I actually go through with getting rid of things is if it is something I haven’t used or worn in a year or more – they are going to have to go!
#2: Make my Home More Energy Efficient
This area of saving can be done by going around the house and making some simple energy efficiency adjustments. For example, switching to LEDs and CFL light bulbs – typically each of these bulbs can reduce your electricity costs from approximately $15-20 per changed bulb. Other simple saving methods that you can find right under your nose also include reducing the use of heat and air conditioning, whenever you can, turning off household lights when they are not needed, as well as unplugging other electronics around your home when not in use, such as TVs, radios, etc.
#3: Cancel/Put Gym Membership on Hold
For this next point, I want to be clear that I am not saying that exercise should fall behind in importance behind saving money. These areas, in my opinion are equally important aspects of our lives. My current situation, however allows me to cut out my gym membership for the time being, in order to save. In lieu of my membership, I am choosing to save money this month by putting my membership on hold and continuing to be active on my own.
#4: Cancel Newspapers & Magazine Subscriptions
Our family also has papers and magazine delivered to our homes each week or month, and these are additional costs that we are willing to cut out. As many of this information is available online and on TV, I think this will save our family some more money and that way we can use it towards debt repayment instead.
#5: Reduce our Cable Bill
Cutting down on our cable bill can also be an effective money saving strategy. We have so many channels and I know for a fact we don’t watch many of them. In this case, I think it would be a good idea to go through our plan with a fine tune comb and and see if there are certain features that we can eliminate from our monthly bill. Additionally, when it comes time to re-negotiate your plan with your cable provider, you have a better idea of what type of plan you actually need and can discuss your options with more authority.
On another note, the methods of savings I was incorporating in the last two weeks will still be used for this next 2 week challenge and will include such strategies as, continuing to buy generic product brands, whenever possible, and buying items in bulk, which I already did this last time and therefore I don’t have to replace these items yet – yippee.
As you can see, this is is a concrete way that I have already continued to save some extra money this month. I will also continue on with cooking more and cutting down on the amount of times we eat out or order takeaway food over the next 14 day period. Ultimately, I believe that adding the new saving ideas to the current ones I have implemented, will help me to save another 10%!
Good luck with your saving efforts! Hopefully you will find some methods that can encourage you to save as much as you can . . . starting now – as well as into the future. Tell us how you get on – we’d love to hear from you…
