Money Saving Skills

Here are 5 tips you can use to help improve your personal financial situation and save more money:

1. Pay Yourself Weekly
On a weekly basis, pay yourself $25-$50 and immediately put it in a safe place. You can even open a special savings account to help minimize or eliminate impulsive spending. Think about it this way, if you paid yourself $25 a week, in two years you'll have accumulated $2600 (not including interest)!!!

2. Don't Shop
Start using the "Need or Want" strategy. Before you spend a single dollar on anything, ask yourself, "Do I really NEED this item, or do I just WANT it??" You may find that many of the items we purchase, we do so just because it "caught our eye" or it was "an impulse buy". All these excuses just add up to wasteful spending.

3. Track Your Spending
Take the time to track your spending habits for one week. Take note of every single dollar you spend, even those sweet and candy bars purchased here and there. This will give you exact view of where your money is being spent, thus allowing you to refine your spending habits to essentially save more money.

4. Use Your Debit Card Instead of Credit Cards
For the most part, debit cards are accepted anywhere a credit card is accepted, however as you know, with a debit card the amount is taken directly from your checking account whereas credit card usage is billed at a later date.

5. Avoid Getting Too Many Credit Cards
Why have 8 credit cards? That's just going to provide you with more opportunities to go further into debt. It's fine to keep 1-3 cards to build credit, establish yourself, and for emergencies, but credit cards are double-edged swords. They can help or hurt you depending on your self-control.

To be continued...