Five Ways to Cut Spending That Have Little to No Impact on Your Life

Every family and every individual know the importance of cutting spending in today’s economy. However, many of these individuals do not realize that cutting spending in little ways can also help in this endeavor.

If you cut spending in many little areas, they will add up to significant amounts and the effect on your daily life can be minimal. The rewards, however, can be maximum.

1. Carpooling

As simple as this sounds, carpooling can save you tons of money, time, and even wear and tear on your car. You may not realize the major impact multiple short trips have on your vehicle. By taking short distance trips frequently, you literally ruin your brakes. Stop and go and neighborhood driving is terrible for your vehicle. By carpooling, you save the wear and tear on your brakes and your tires, as well. Saving gas is an added bonus.

2. Lightening the Load

While on the subject of vehicles, by lightening the load in your car, you can save on gas. The heavier your car is bogged down with junk, the less efficient your gas mileage is. If you have heavy cases of water, tools, or heavy-duty hockey equipment, lightening the load will get you better gas mileage.

3. Pay Cash at the Pump

Pumping your own gas and paying cash are two significant ways to save money. Pumping your own gas saves you on a per-gallon rate. If you are at the pump two to three times per week, like most, then you will save significantly by pumping your own gas. There are extra fees attached to your bill when you have the attendant pump your gas for you.

Paying cash also saves you money on every gallon. There are debit card and credit card fees attached when you use your plastic.

4. Make It a Night In

If you are used to eating out for convenience, get used to cooking and eating in more often. If you incorporate the entire family, it will not seem like such a chore. Have one person set the table, another clear, one cook, and another clean up. For pennies on the dollar, you can have a great meal, save money, eat healthy, and bond with your family. It is a win/win situation all around.

5. Keep the Plastic at Home

As simple as this sounds, keeping your plastic at home when you go out shopping will save you tons of money in impulse spending. Bring exactly enough cash for what you need. If you have spendable income, decide before you leave the house how much of that money you will spend and bring only that amount.

By bringing cash and no plastic, you will buy only what you need and leave the store unscathed. Once you arrive home, you will realize that you did not need that bright aqua silk scarf that would not have matched with anything anyhow.

Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

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Tips to Balance Your Money and Your Life

Organization is about more than having an organized living space. It’s about having your life and your finances organized and under control.

One of the biggest stressors for families is that of financial stress. When your financial house is in order, then the rest of your life falls into place much more easily.

If you are like most, financial planning was not a part of high school or college curriculum - much less balancing a checkbook or concentrating on a 401k or emergency expenditures.

Without a balance of financial issues in your life, it is very difficult to have balance in other areas of your life. Unfortunately, money controls much of our thought patterns, time, and worries.

Figure Out Your Spending Habits

Before you can sit with your partner to discuss finances, it is very important to learn about your financial patterns. Whether you are a spendthrift or a frugal financier, it is very important to identify your spending habits and where you can improve before going at it with your financial partner.

The Spendthrift

If you have no regard of where money comes from or how to manage it, you will find that money will manage you. Spending more than you earn is never a good scenario. Sit down with your finances, figure out what is coming in, what goes out, and keep the difference for yourself as spendable income. It is really that simple. Living above your means is something that you do not want to do, ever. Living above your means is never a win/win situation.

The Frugal Financier

If you find that you will not part with a penny, much less a dime, you will have a difficult time relating to anyone financially. There has got to be some wiggle room for playing hard just as much as working hard. No one is going to put up with someone that will not part with one red cent, even for fun.

Get Together with Your Financial Partner

It is very important to get together with your financial partner and put your differences to work for you instead of against you. If you are frugal and your partner is a spendthrift, come up with great and innovative ways to meet somewhere in the middle. Compromise shows up many times in a relationship, and what better way to incorporate that tool than to use it in your financial life.

Organizing your finances will allow you to live a less stressed life.

Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com

Organizing Your Taxes

January is over and by now we should have most of the documents that we need to get our taxes done.

Yes, it's everyone's favorite time. Not !  Too much paperwork. Too much pressure.

So how can we make it easier?   Well, by having had an organized plan throughout the year for starters.

Most people never think about taxes and tax time until right before the tax deadline.  And that's when they get stressed out.

By thinking about your taxes throughout the year and having a place for anything that might be tax related, your actual "tax preparation time" .... the time it takes you to get all of your documents, supporting documents and anything else that you take to your accountant...ready....  you will have a much easier and less stressed time.

That said, start by just having a file for anything tax related. Put anything that comes in over the year into that file. Anything related to your home, your business (in a separate file), your savings....should all go into a file for your taxes.  That way you are not searching for it at year end.

Make a checklist of all of your saving & financial accounts and all of the documents that you need for your taxes. By doing this, when you are getting ready to take your paperwork to your accountant, you won't forget anything and won't constantly have to "think" about what you might be missing. This will save you time and stress each year.

For most people doing their taxes is not fun.  By having a system in place throughout the year you will spend less time at the beginning of the year hunting for those needed documents.

Happy Tax Preparation !

Organizational Consulting Services

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ORGANIZE YOUR FINANCES

Organizing your financial information is a crucial part of every household. Unfortunately it’s one thing that most people just don’t do.

It’s time consuming. It takes a lot of thought. It’s very personal and emotional. It’s a reality check that most people don’t want to think about.

But you can’t just leave your finances to chance. Well, at least you shouldn’t. Running a household is not much different than running a business.

Having an organized system in place helps things run smoothly.

Let’s start with your space. You need to pick a place that is going to be command central. Whether you have an office in your home, a desk in a corner or the kitchen table… it doesn’t matter. Just pick a place and make that your command center.

If you don’t have a separate office space you still need to have files. You can have a file cabinet or a file drawer or a file basket….it doesn’t matter as long as you have files for all of our finances (bills, receipts, tax related information…).

You need to come up with a system and a plan that works for you. Decide what that is and stick to it. It could be that you set aside a certain day each week to pay your bills and go through your finances or an hour a week or every other week. Whatever works for you ….that you will stick with. That’s what’s important.

Some simple tips for dealing with bills:

• Go through your mail each day and put all of your bills in one spot (a basket, a folder…).
• Record the date due on the outside of the envelope when the bill arrives.
• On the day that you decide is finance day, go through your bills and pay each one.
• You can pay your bills by: Check Pay Online Automatic payments
• Record your payments (in a check register, a spreadsheet, accounting software….).
• Decide when the payments will be sent out. You can put the “mail on” date on the envelope in pencil. Put a stamp on it and mail it.
• File copies of the bill with payment info.

By coming up with a system that works for you there will be less of a chance of missing a payment and getting hit with late fees. Whatever system you decide to use, the important part is that you have a system and you stick with it.

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com/