Today's payday! Cheers to all who are working in the corporate world and withdrawing their hard-earned salary. After checking your bank account and computing your possible expenses you felt overwhelmed and somehow sad because you feel that it may not be enough to cover until the 30th.
I get you and we are in the same situation before until we follow some tips on how to save money. This works for us, a small family wherein I am the only one that is currently working in the household. It may work for singles and folks as well.
Tip # 1 If possible recycle
I used the word "if possible" because there is some stuff that cannot be recycled. But in the current situation that we are in, we need to be wise on throwing our items and other products. Before we prepare for our wedding in previous years each payday I will go to a local shirt shop in the mall and buy clothes. Sometimes, I buy jackets and pants to the point I end up having too many in the closet. Some of them, I can use but the majority of them I was only able to use once or twice.
When I moved out from our home, I brought a handful of clothes around 7 or 8 and the rest was given to my relatives. As of this date, even if I plan to use some of the old stuff that I have unfortunately very few would fit. These quarantine fats muscles are here to stay and getting stronger each day.
Recycling is not only for clothes, you can also recycle and repurpose foods. Aside from reheating it, we have a habit of re-imagining foods again. A good example is a dish called adobo it doesn't matter what meat is used as long as there's a left-over the next day it will be pancit
Tip # 2 Maximize coupon and discount cards
Some stores and establishments that offer discounts always do the math when you make a purchase. The most popular discount that I am aware of recently is the discount for folks who are vaccinated. Since I am vaccinated already, I can get a 10% discount on my grocery purchases in my place. Though this is only a promo period still it helped us big time there as we are always buying in that store.
Aside from that, some shops offer cash-back and rebates when purchasing. Usually, when we make a purchase online especially if we do not need the item yet we wait for sales. Here in our country, we have sales like 10.10 and next month it will be 11.11. Our strategy is to wait for those dates as some of the flagship stores where we buy the essentials like diapers and milk are discounted already and there's a rebate.
Tip # 3 Plan in advance the family occasions and holidays
These events create a strain on the budget if unmanaged! The good What you can do is save little amounts of money on birthdays, reunions, or family get-aways. Since it will not be a surprise expense you can plan on what will be your budget for such events.
Also if you are expecting a child, this is something you need to make sure being covered. From the day of conception or if you are still trying to have one a solid financial plan should be made. A friend of mine here advised me before to prepare funds to cover the expenses for cesarean delivery. Which I did, we didn't go over the budget that we have allotted and have some funds to spare.
Again plan and take action. Save little by little and stick to it.
Conclusion:
These tips are generic and can be found in most finance blogs but we need to echo them again and again because we need to stick with the basics.
If your foundation is messed up, handling finances would be a challenge.
Thank you for reading and hope you have a fantastic day ahead!