Maximize Your Savings during these difficult times

We are well and truly in the midst of a recession. Demand – both industrial and consumer, is at one of the lowest levels seen in many years, prices of most everyday commodities have fallen drastically, and the stock markets have witnessed lows, almost not seen since the time of the Great Depression of 1929.

Obviously, such difficult times require tactful ways of coping with the situation. Life cannot possibly go on the way it has been. Changes will have to be made; even with a healthy bank balance, with so much insecurity surrounding income and earnings, it is wise to bring about a more prudent and frugal lifestyle.

Of course, it is easier said than done. A lot of our spending habits have got so ingrained into our personality that we just cannot forego them, no matter how hard we try. It is like a battle that we are constantly fighting with ourselves. And with no change in spending patterns, it is we ourselves who are the losers. So, do you want to end up on the losing side? I am sure not. Follow the tips below, which will help you curtail your expenses and attune your lifestyle to the recessionary scenario surrounding us currently.

For instance, entertainment. Do you really need to go for the latest flick in town, which is playing at a theatre near you? After all, the cost of going to the movies is much more than just the cost of the tickets…there’s the gas that you will spend in driving to the theatre; once you get there, you will spend on food, and if your trip happens to be with your love interest, you will probably end up buying a gift for him or her as well. Now, if you were to watch the same movie at home, surely the cost would come down drastically – no tickets to be bought, no gas to be spent on, and no gifts to be purchased. Besides, the aforementioned, you would also save on a lot of time and effort, wasted in getting to the theatre, taking the tickets, and so on. My personal experience has been that buying DVDs or even downloading from sites such as Netflix, works out much more cost-effective. The movie remains mine forever, and I can see it as many times as I want, I can pause in between, attend to other chores, and yet at the end of it, my satisfaction from the entire experience remains the same.

There’s another front on which I have seen a lot of parents slip up drastically – their children on whom they simply continue to splurge even as they tighten up their own financial buckles. Remember, that if you are thrifty on yourself, but a complete spendthrift on your kids, the net effect would be zero or even negative, as your children’s demands will only continue to increase. Giving into their demands will encourage them to demand even more. So, remember to nip the problem right in the bud, and teach them firmly, not harshly, the importance of frugality, in the current economic scenario.

I am sure these tips would have helped you in judging the best course of action, for your own effective financial planning, in these difficult times.

Get Going in the Tough Times

There’s a saying, oft repeated in the military services, which says that when the going gets tough, it’s the tough who get going. Considering the current economic scenario, this could not have been more relevant. Therefore, considering the tough times, it is probably time that you toughen yourself, and save money for times ahead, which could be even worse.

None of the initiatives is in fact too big or too difficult. All that they require is a certain amount of determination along with dollops of self-discipline. Together, both these aspects should definitively ensure that you sail through the financial imbroglio, unscathed.

Take for instance, the daily newspaper. I am sure you could do without it; if you really need to read it, you could always go online and read the version there! Perhaps, you could restrict yourself to the Sunday edition only, which in fact often contains numerous discount coupons and offers; if you avail them, even your one day’s newspaper would be free! Do the math for all the copies that you forego on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, and will see that you would already have saved thousands of dollars! Not too tough, eh?

Although gas prices have seen record levels in recent times, off late the prices have come down, rather unpredictably. Yet, having said that, gas prices differ across stations. Maybe not by much, but if you add up the gallons, the consolidated impact is in fact quite a bit. So, before you embark on your next gas-filling trip, make sure you do some homework. Research the stations and see where the cheapest gas is offered. You could also look up online resources that will offer you a comparative tabulation of gas prices in your area.

Taxes are an area that offers numerous saving avenues that we often overlook. For instance, till a few years back, I would simply file my taxes with my accountant and forget about the whole process. It was only at the behest of one of my close friends that I took a closer look at my accounts and saw that I had not been availing exemptions and rebates that I was entitled to…in other words, I was gifting money to the government, which it now owed me! Of course, I fired my accountant…

If you are a smoker and have been considering quitting for a long time, now is probably the best time to do so; after all, not only will you do your health a world of good, you will save a lot of money in the process too. After all, calculations have shown that smokers, over the span of their smoking tenure, spend tens and thousands of dollars, first on the cigarettes themselves, and then a multiplier of that figure on health related complications caused by smoking. Giving up smoking will ensure that you not only live long, you also live happy and well. Do you still need more reasons to kick the butt?

Now, do you consider it easier to get going in these tough times?