Resolve to Take Control of Your Finances This Year - Part 2

Well I have given you about a week to analyze how you spend your money and get a budget started. Now let’s see if we can’t scale some of those regular expenses back. Let’s do a quick AUDIT!

 

How often do we sign up for something that we don’t use? Seeing as how I have lots of unread magazines sitting in a sorter next to my desk, I would say pretty often. I am sure that when you went through your bank and credit cards statements you found recurring expenses for things you don’t even use.

 

Well just like when you declutter your home, you need to get rid of things you don’t use. If you have a cell phone plan that gives you 1000 minutes and you only use 200 per month, call and change your plan. If you have a subscription service to something like Netflix and you can’t remember the last time you used it, then cancel it. Initially these things don’t seem like a big deal. I mean Netflix is only $8.99 per month, but over a year that’s almost $100 wasted. The same things goes for the cell phone plan. You don’t have to make huge sacrifices to save money. You can start as simply as just canceling the things you don’t use.

 

The next step in your annual audit should be to compare the cost of some of your necessary expenses. Of course, you can’t cancel your car insurance to save money, but you can shop around for new quotes to make sure you have the best and most affordable plan for your lifestyle. A few years back, I started doing this annually, and I was able to save over $600 per year by changing my home insurance and auto insurance carriers, and I have exactly the same coverage as before.

 

I know this step sound tedious, but you can complete most of this in one afternoon. One afternoon could save you thousands of dollars per year! It’s important to do this step every year to make sure you are not wasting money on unused expenditures.