We have all heard the saying about money making the world go round, and the reality is that it does. You need it in order to survive, but many of us do not have enough of it. It is very hard to make ends meet when your budget is not very large. Continue reading for some life on a shoestring budget and tips that will make your money stretch a bit further.
Living the Good Life on a Shoestring Budget
The first thing you need to do is get a piece of paper and write out your budget. This means that everything you plan on spending any money on needs to be written down. While it is not a crime to buy something that is not in your budget, you should try sticking as close to it as you possibly can. You should list any sources of income and then write a list of all of your necessities. You can budget money for extras, but it should not be an extravagant amount.
Try to find ways to get some of your essentials for free or for very little money. Many people visit sites likes Craigslist in search of secondhand items. A lot of the time the items are in great condition. When you go shopping, you should use all of the coupons you can and it is a good idea to buy things in bulk, since you can save a lot of money. While you may not want to buy things like meat and produce in mass amounts unless you have a large family, it is a good idea to buy food staples and household supplies in bulk.
Try to tuck a bit of money away in a savings each week. You do not have to save a huge amount to grow a nice nest egg. You can put away a few dollars a week in an interest-bearing checking account. You will not miss the small amount that you are putting away and over time this can grow to be a pretty substantial amount. This money can be very useful in case you have an emergency or some other unexpected expense. It will prevent you from having any huge financial setbacks.
You should try your best to pay down any debt that you have. This is a good idea, because most debt tends to incur interest and fees over time. If you owe a moderate amount of money and it goes unpaid for a long time, the amount you owe can multiply many times over. The best thing to do is to get on some type of payment plan so you can pay back your debt a little at a time. This will be much more effective than ignoring it, since that will not make it disappear.
As you could probably tell from the article above, it may be difficult to life on a shoestring budget, but it is not impossible. The important thing to remember is that you need to come up with a good plan and stick to it.
