Ways to Reduce Household Spending

Hi Ladies. I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. I had a great time this 4th of July. I took my daughter to a 4th of July parade on Saturday (my husband slept in) and she and I had a great time. This was her first time going to any type of parade. She and I had a great time and we did not have to spend any money to enjoy ourselves. This brings me to today’s topic which is ways to reduce household spending. With our economy being in a downward spiral I felt the need to share a couple of tips that will allow you to keep more of your hard earned money in your household. Below is a short list that if applied you will start to see immediate savings.

1) I personally found that one of the ways to reduce household spending is to start with some of your household luxuries such as cable or satellite television. With any business it is essential for that company to keep their customers if they want to be a profitable company. With the economy being in the ruts companies are doing all they can to keep you as a loyal customer. This in turn puts you in the driver’s seat. I have done this numerous times and have always been able to reduce the amount that I spend every month on my satellite bill. Call your cable company and let them know that you are spending entirely too much money (on their service) and that you want to cancel the service if you cannot get a better rate. It is the representative’s job to keep you as a customer and he or she will start to proceed to tell you about better offers that they can give to you that will cut down your bill. Make sure that they give you a couple of movie channel specials too. I personally call in every three months to make sure that I am always getting the best deal. I do the same thing for my landline (home phone service) internet, and my wireless service. Telecommunication companies are always coming up with competitive specials to keep you as a loyal customer but it is up to you to take advantage of the offers.

2) For those of you that are always buying breakfast and lunch at work try something new for next week. Try bringing your breakfast and lunch from home and do not eat out for breakfast and lunch. If you add the amount that you spend everyday on eating out you will be amazed on the amount of money you can save. Perhaps limit eating out to one time a week or just on weekends.

3) When purchasing items make sure that you do your research and are getting the best deal before you purchase your item. The internet is your personal resource to making sure that you are getting the best deal on anything that you purchase. I recommend buying products online because you can save a lot of money. Two of my favorite websites to go on is HSN and QVC. They also have their own channel on T.V. and you can purchase your items by calling in if you are watching the show or by going online and purchasing your items. The reason why I love shopping with these two companies is that they always sell great quality products and they have a lot of purchasing power. They buy items in volume and are able to pass the savings right to their customers. I have been shopping there for about five years now and I have saved a lot of money. Some of my favorite products that they sell are the following; Wolfgang Puck cookware; Oreck vacuums; Terri Lewis clothing; Miss Tina Fashions; Cannon; Kodak; Dooney & Burke bags; and more. I cannot possibly list everything that they sell because it will be impossible. Before you buy something go on their website or look on television and see if they have it. You can definitely get a better price with them. They also offer their customers flex pay and easy pay. Flex pay and easy pay allows you to receive the products when you order it and you pay for it in monthly payments and there is no interest. Flex pay and easy pay is not a credit card. It is free to participate you just have to use a debit card or a credit card so they can automatically take the payments out every month.


4) Everyone is going on vacations and trying to have a great time with their children for the summer. You too can do the same thing if you are on a budget. You can go online and find a ton of things to do for families that are on a budget. For example, if you have older children and they like to stay up all night there are some amusement parks that let you get in half price after 4:00 p.m. That could be a nice surprise to take your children to an amusement park in the afternoon and stay out all night. If you check your local city paper you will find that they too offer free events for families.

I hope that I was able to share a couple of good ideas with you. If you have any that you would like to share just post a comment and have a great weekend!