How to Save Money on a Tight Budget

I had a question this week asking how to save money on a tight budget.   The way to save money on a tight budget, or any budget for that matter, is to pay yourself first.   On a tight budget, it may only be five, ten, or twenty dollars a week.  Whatever it is, you must pay yourself first, and then your bills.  The easiest way to pay yourself first is to have an amount from your paycheck go into a savings account or to have an automatic transfer set up.  If neither of these are options, before you pay anything else, take the cash and put into an envelope and than forget it.  Each paycheck, put in your set amount, it will quickly add up.

If you find that you do not have enough money to pay yourself and your bills, you have to find a way to increase your bottom line.   The two ways to increase your bottom line are to either increase your income or decrease your expenses.  In the short term, cutting your expenses can be the quickest way to increase your bottom line.  For the long term, increasing your income will prove to be more sustainable. 

When you look to cut expenses; look at all of your expenses not essential to survival, and cut what you can.  Look at your grocery bill; start shopping the sales and using coupons.  With these tools, you should be able to cut somewhere between five and ten dollars a week.  Start cooking at home; make extra to have for lunch the next day, rather than eating out.  Look to reduce your cable bills-with services like Netflix, Hulu and even Amazon Prime, you may find you can watch all of your shows without having to pay the large cable bill.

The other side of the equation is to increase your income.  The increases in income can be on a short term basis (selling items on eBay, freelancing) or long term.  If you find yourself consistently not making enough money, one of the options you may look to do is change jobs and/or careers.  The job/career change may mean going back to school.  The biggest return on an investment is education.  The money you spend on education will be returned many times over.