Think Cash - Personal Finance and Money Saving Discussions

Household Cash => Budgeting tips => Topic started by: ThinkCash on March 11, 2014, 03:17:58 PM

Title: Yoga For The Home - Four Easy Tips For Zen Like Savings
Post by: ThinkCash on March 11, 2014, 03:17:58 PM
Yoga, for the home!

Budgets and budgeting are all about balance, and nowhere is it more important to establish them than in the home. This is because your home is the nexus of everything you do. You leave from home to go work or play, and when you finish, you come back to your home. If it’s not financially in order, you’ll end up applying band-aids to every other part of your life until you right things.

With that in mind, here are four of our top tips to keep things right and tight:

1. Be your own butler. This means more than just cleaning up. It means taking a good look at things in your home, appreciating their use and value, and getting rid of anything that isn’t adding value to your living space.

2. Look at things like an accountant. Sometimes it might be easier to spend 6 hours fixing that toilet problem, but if you’re financially stable, you’ll find that paying a professional to come take care of the job in an hour will save you six hours – which is usually worth a lot more than what you’ll have paid the repairman (or woman).

3. Balance your expenses against your salary, and do it in terms of priority items. For example, always pay our rent first, but don’t rent something that’s costing you more than 25% of your monthly take home pay. Also, don’t spend more than 25% of your pay on transportation. The remaining 50% goes to utilities and medical.

4. The last thing you will think about is your entertainment, and really, it should only be about 10% to 15% of your take home pay. Invest the rest, or put it in savings if you’re not comfortable investing.


What about your home? How do you budget?