Vikram Malik

Strengthen Your Purses, even as the Recession Blows

Difficult times call for difficult measures. The current recessionary phase is by all means, a very difficult one, and does necessitate diverse measures to ensure that we sail through unscathed. Essentially, while demanding that we maintain our composure, it requires that our sources of funds do not dry up, and on the contrary, start to increase. Of course, that is much easier said than done. But “impossible” it is not. In fact, some simple and basic measures can ensure that you manage to swim the tide and emerge victorious!

For instance, have you ever given a thought to the number of times you ate out in a month? Five times? Ten times? Fifteen times? Every day of the month? Now imagine if you were able to bring that number down, by at least half the current value. It could easily translate to savings ranging between 200 to a couple of thousand dollars, depending on the number of times that you ate out. Remember that by not eating out, you save in various ways beyond the obvious, i.e. the bills you pay at the restaurants. You save on gas for your car; you save on time spent in going, ordering, eating and coming back which you could have spent otherwise; and you also save on the interest that you would rake up for the bank, when you pay through your credit card and not pay the entire amount due at the end of the billing cycle…the possibilities are simply endless.

If that isn’t enough, how about doing things that you would normally get done through others, yourself? If you were to add up all the savings on little efforts of labor that you could do yourself, instead of getting it done through others, the savings would be substantial. For instance, doing the routine acts of servicing for your car, such as changing the oil and coolant yourself, instead of getting it done at the service station, could alone save you at least a hundred dollars! If you are organizing a party, whether at home or elsewhere, arranging things yourself versus getting a professional to do it for you, could easily save you a lot of money. If you are a frequent traveler, doing all your booking yourself, instead of relying on an external agent, could actually help you save a lot of money, especially if you are able to do all the booking online. Within this aspect, choosing afternoon flights over morning ones could help you save substantially, as they are always cheaper than the morning ones.

Ever given some thought to the number of beers, lattes, colas, and sodas that you guzzle each passing day? While the lattes and beers cost about $4 each, even the colas and sodas average out at $2 each. Substituting these with good old, FREE tap water could not only help you save at least $120-150 every month, it would do your health a great deal of good too.

So, as you can see, the possibilities to save money during these difficult times are simply endless. What it requires is a firm determination and a will to bring about a change in the current style of living.