Looking for Big Savings in Your Household Budget

• Tweet

• Tweet

A lot of the time, when we think about frugal living, we think about pinching pennies and looking for little ways to save. While you can save money over time with such strategies, and even save some money in the short-term, it’s important not to get so focused on the penny-pinching that you neglect to remember that there are ways to save large sums of money.

Sweating the Big Stuff

You can, in fact, sweat the big stuff, and boost your monthly savings. Some of the ways that you can save large amounts of money include:

• Evaluate your insurance: Look at your insurance policies, and figure out if there are ways to reduce what you pay in premiums each month. One thing you can do is raise your deductibles. From health insurance to auto insurance to home insurance other policies, you might be able to raise your deductible and save more money. If you can handle the higher deductible, go for; your cash flow each month will improve. You can also decide if you can drop some coverage, lowering your premiums.
• Refinance your loans: Decide if it makes sense to refinance some of your loans. Mortgage rates and car loan rates are near historic lows. You can refinance your loans to lower rates and save each month. Refinance for the amount of time you have left, and only for the amount of money left. You might be surprised at what you can save with even just a 1% reduction in your rate — especially over time.
• Subscriptions and publications: You might be surprised at how much you can save when you get rid of some of your publications and subscriptions. From expensive cable packages, to print publications, to monthly online subscriptions, all of those expenses can add up. Re-evaluate your publications and subscriptions and get rid of those you don’t need. Consider your cell phone subscriptions as well. Look at your usage, and be honest about it.

Frugal living doesn’t have to be just about pinching pennies and cutting out small daily pleasures. While the “Latte Factor” can help you save on a small scale, what you save may not add up to be enough to really change your cash flow. Instead, you can attempt to look for big savings. Some of these can result in between $200 and $500 each month. That’s some serious money that you can add to your budget to improve your overall cash flow.

And, of course, if you can save the bigger amounts of money you might not have to pinch some of your pennies. You don’t have to completely give up your indulgent $3 treat if you are saving $300 a month on your insurance premiums. Or, if you don’t want to spend the $3 a day, you can cut it back to three times a week, rather than cutting it out every day. Reducing the big costs can have a bigger impact on your monthly cash flow, and ease things a little bit more than a few dollars here and there can do.

Tagged as: Budget, Frugal Living