Saving Cents

Everyone who has ever wanted to save money over all usually follows a very simple tried and true formula which is to track your spending, make a budget, and then find ways to stay with in that budget by making small changes, Since the days of pen and paper to apps, the system remains the same. One way of tracking spending for free is with the Spending Tracker app that you can find for free on Google Play. The free version is nice, but it plays ads and limits how many categories you can use. I have used the premium version for a while, but I never paid for it. I earned money via Google Opinion Rewards by filling out surveys and uploading reciepts. To date, I have earned almost $100 from the Google Opinion Rewards app which I have used for various premium apps. Once I earned enough by doing simple little tasks, I purchased the premium version and got a much better experience with dozens of spending and earning categories.

After tracking spending for one to three months, making a realistic budget is the next step. If you track for three months, find the average of each category of spending. Then adjust downward. For example, my average spending for groceries is $250 per month. This leaves me with about $62 a week to spend for my food. I can adjust this down to just $50 a week or $200 a month, by shopping sales, cutting out junk, or cooking in new ways with a budget cookbook like I have supplied later in this note. This will save me roughly $50 a month from my grocery bill. When I purchase my groceries, I should put everything into the spending tracker so I know how much I have left in my budget for groceries.

Budget Bites

One of the easiest ways to reduce your monthly budget is to find a monthly service and reduce it's cost. One way I have reduced my cell phone costs is using an app called Text Now. The free version allows you to have a second phone number for nothing or next to nothing. I paid just $5 a year to keep my number and use free wireless to make and recieve calls on Text Now. You can purchase a SIM card for just $5 and get free talk and text for your phone where ever you go. Take a look at it and see if you can save money by switching your cell carrier.

Budget Busters

One of the easiest ways to over spend is on groceries. Inflation has been ticking a long at a pretty high rate for over a year, so groceries are constantly reflecting this increase. Try to go meatless one meal a week or buy all your meat on deeply discounted prices once or twice a year at a huge sale. This should shave a few cents off the grocery budget!

Frugal Freebies

Thsi weeks frugal freebie is a free pdf cook book that promises to keep the food budget below $4 a day. I have found that in my area, it is even cheaper per day per person. The Cookbook is called Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown and will most likely become a staple in your frugal journey. She made it freely available so that everyone could have good food at a low cost. If your budget isn't so tight as $4 a day, take a look at the recipes on Budget Bytes blog and be inspired to make delicious homemade meals that can fill your belly.

Notable News

Job losses are set to increase in 2024, so getting your three to six month emergency fund may be more important than you think. The CBO is expecting unemployment to rise form 3.9% to 4.4% in 2024. They blame this rise in unemployment on weaker consumer spending.

Accountability Corner

I started really tracking my spending closely in December of 2023. My income was $1,512.98 and my expenses added up to $1,492.99. My biggest expenditure was a truck payment $204.00, followed closely by truck maintenance $193.55, then groceries $183.96, gasoline $142.00, and my electric bill $137.39. My goal is to reduce the grocery bill and my gasoline expenses in January.

My goal with this weekly note is to save you double what you have spent to subscribe. I humbly ask that you subscribe for a year to save 10% off the subscription fees so that I can continue to bring you money saving advice. A monthly subscription is only $1 a month or get an entire year of money saving advice for just $11. Again, if you follow all of the advice presented over the course of a year, you will save double your subscription fees. I always want to bring value to you my subscribers.