Easy Ways to Lower Your Cost of Living
With the new year, you’re probably thinking a lot about your finances, especially your budget, income, and expenses. Cost of living is the amount of money you spend each year to keep living your lifestyle. Many factors come together to determine your cost of living, including where you live, whether you’re a renter or homeowner, if you commute to work, and more. If you’re feeling like your lifestyle is getting a bit too expensive, keep reading for easy ways to lower your cost of living.
Factors Used to Calculate Cost of Living
Location
Housing
Food
Child care
Transportation
Health care
Necessities
Taxes
When you think about reducing your cost of living based on these factors, you may think you need to move to a different city, downgrade your car, or rent out a bedroom in your home. These are some drastic changes to lower your cost of living. Instead of making these major changes, you can start with fewer easier pens to save you money each time.
Check Your Subscriptions
It’s easy for people to sign up for subscription programs; it is the digital age of streaming. However, you can end up only using a few of the many subscriptions you pay for monthly and the price of multiple subscription services can really add up. Go through bank and credit card statements to identify all of your subscriptions and ask yourself if you really use it enough to pay that amount of money per month for it. Then cancel the subscriptions that are not worth keeping. You’ll be surprised how much money this can save you per month.
Limit How Much Your Eat Out
It’s amazing how quickly dining out or getting take out can add up. If you’re constantly ordering in, your bank account can be taking a big blow each month. Buying groceries and eating in can save you a lot of money. You can begin meal planning for each week to make your grocery shopping easier. The internet has so many free recipes so you can easily learn how to cook for yourself and eat something delicious.
Grocery Shop With a List
While grocery shopping, it can be easy to put anything that looks good in your cart. However, this can drastically increase your grocery bill each month. By making a shopping list of all of the items you need to replenish at your house or the ingredients you need for this week’s meals, you can cut down on impulse spending. Be sure to stick to the list!
Pay Off Consumer Debt
The money you put towards paying down credit cards can quickly leave you with a small amount to use for the rest of the month. Credit cards normally have high-interest rates where you can end up paying much more than your balance. Once you pay off your credit cards, you will have much more disposable income each month. To pay off your credit card debt, budget for payments higher than your required monthly payment. While this may be tough to do, once it’s paid off you will be glad you did!
If you’re struggling to try to figure out how to lower your cost of living, contact us at Mooney Lyons. We will be able to offer you options that work best for you and your money. Call us today to get started.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/now/10-ways-lower-cost-living-170009324.html
https://www.thebalance.com/ways-to-lower-your-cost-of-living-5114258