Stretching your already exhausted dollar further so that your money lasts might seem to be near impossible as you don’t see any signs of relief. It’s not there are a dozen ways to stretch even the most worn out of dollars. Whether you have managed to hang onto a full time job or are scraping by on unemployment you can make your money last you as long as you have to. You don’t have to do without everything to do it either; you just have to change a few habits and pay more attention to what you are doing.
Budgeting
Hopefully you already have a budget in place so that all you have to do is re-examine it instead of creating it all together. When a budget is already in place and being followed you will easily be able to look at it (hopefully it is on paper) and identify areas that you can reduce spending in. The areas of the budget that you can usually cut back on are the lights and the grocery bill. Saving money has to be included in this budget if you are going to make the dollar stretch further.
When it comes to the budget depending on how far you have to stretch your dollar you may be able to do without some things for a while. Can you live without cable for a few months to help increase how far your dollar goes? Can you find a cheaper Internet or phone provider to help you make the budget include lowered bills?
Changing Habits
The dollar can stretch a good deal with the changing of a few habits. Whether we realize it or not we all spend money without paying attention. That bit of change here and the dollar there add up quickly. These are often the reason that we don’t have any money left at the end of the week and run out of money before we run out of month. How many times a day do you find yourself getting a drink out of a drink machine or buying that single drink when you check out at the grocery store?
With vending machines charging a $1 per drink and drinks at checkouts close to $1.50 depending on where you go you can easily spend money you meant to keep. Even if you only buy one drink a day from a vending machine while you work that’s $5 a week, and if you work in a grocery store that can be up to $7.50 when you buy them at the check out counter. These come to $20 and $30 a month that you could keep in your pocket. Have you considered taking your own drinks to work or when you go out on trips to town? This can help you to stop spending that money on the occasional and start saving it so you have money when an emergency comes up.
Are you still eating out even though you want to make your money go further? A carefully planned trip to the grocery store and dinner at home can make the dollar go a lot further. You’ll be surprised to know that depending on the size of the family you can feed them all for what you’d pay for one meal in a restaurant.
Stretching the dollar so that it goes further isn’t that hard to do. You just have to pay attention to what you are doing and change some habits. Determining how long you want or need your money to last you will assist you in keeping your money longer.