5 Easy Ways To Cut Your Household Expenses

Are you shocked when seeing your household expenditures every month? The expenses seem to increase every month. If you are in this situation, try these 5 recommendations before your extra paid money will accumulate to a significant amount!

1. Recycle those junk letters.

Each month, you will probably received a dozen or more letters from direct mailing companies in your mailbox. Some of these letters are printed on one side only. Collect these letters and combined them into a writing pad. You can also used them to print draft documents. Besides saving money, you are also saving a lot of trees.

2. Install water saving kit in your toilet cistern.

When flushing the toilet, the amount of water used is usually more than is required. By installing a water saving kit in the cistern, the amount of water saved can be as much as three gallons per month.

3. Use the fan

Whenever possible, use the fan. The air conditioner is a major contributor to your utility bill. By using the fan, not only are you saving on your utility bill, you are also building up your body's tolerance to heat. Your chances of getting heat exhaustion or heat stroke during the hot summer season are greatly reduced.

4. Do not throw away that old bar of soap yet.

As your wash your hands with soap on a daily basis, the bar will become smaller and smaller until it is almost unusable. Instead of throwing it away, simply stick the old bar of soap onto the new one. Just make sure both of them are wet when sticking them together.

5. Cut the tube of toothpaste into half.

When you can no longer squeeze out any toothpaste from the tube, just cut it in-half. There is some more toothpaste left that can last you for a couple of days if you have a large family. If you live alone or with your spouse only, the extra toothpaste can last up to five days or even more.

Start cultivating these useful habits today and make them a part of your daily life. You will be pleasantly pleased when you notice your household expense start to decline bit by bit as time goes on.

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Posted on 12/10/2009 1 comments

Some Notes about Payday Loans

What is payday loan? For the novice, a payday loan is actually another term for cash advance. However, in this case, usually the repayment is committed or made on or before your next payday.

Understandably, most of us run into difficult situations where what we have save in the bank (that is if we have saved at all) cannot cover the expenses, cost or payment you need to make. Without a health insurance for example, hospitalization is costly. Other emergencies can occur from time to time, and payday loans more often can rescue us from these unwelcome predicaments.

Caution though, because not all payday loans are reliable. You need to carefully choose the best lender for your needs. Take the time to study and compare terms, agreements, rates, and interest before you jump into signing. Approval for payday loans is quicker than the regular loans, and more often there lies some of our potential financial woes. So, look into your needs and your ability to pay the soonest possible.

In retrospect, actually you can evade financial problems during emergencies if you would only start saving cash for this purpose. I know, I sound to be nagging here again. It is the truth by the way, and it hurts. Always save for rainy days so you can avoid getting wet or borrowing from somebody’s’ umbrella.

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Posted on 12/05/2009 1 comments

Save More Using Your Car

I know the headline is a bit misleading. For most of us who are budget- conscious, you cannot really save using your car. Commuting is still a better and cheaper alternative. The cost of fuel, car maintenance, and insurance alone can easily put much strain to your finances when overlooked from your financial planning.

When the recession hit us late last year, my first recourse, as many of you have done too, was to cut cost. I sold my SUV and bought a more fuel-efficient and smaller car. And whenever there is an opportunity for me to commute, I commute. One of the perks I get is the time to reflect which I can’t do when I am driving.

However, when auto allowance program such as what CRS (Customer Reimbursement Services) offers, I realized that I can save using my car in attending to my organization’s business. How?
With an auto-allowance or car reimbursement program, you use your car and yet you save because it is tax-free. Moreover, it was designed to be flexible and fair:

Each participating driver is provided with a personalized Driver Reimbursement Schedule which lists every component used to calculate their individual reimbursement rate. Each driver’s rate considers factors such as geographic cost variances, territory conditions and annual business miles.

The key there is considering the ‘geographic cost variances.’ Meaning, the usual cost that you incur when you use your car such as fuel cost and insurance coverage will be aptly covered in the program. Your organization saves, and so do you.

*This post is sponsored.

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Posted on 12/05/2009 0 comments

Stock Trading and Gambling – What’s the Difference?

"When I'm bearish and I sell a stock, each sale must be at a lower level than the previous sale. When I am buying, the reverse is true. I must buy on a rising scale. I don’t buy long stocks on a scale down, I buy on a scale up." ~Jesse Livermore

Did I say that the stock market is the most volatile of all markets?

I admire traders on how they analyze those numbers that scrolling continuously in those boards during a typical trading. Sometimes, I am still finding my bearing whenever I read the day’s trading results on the paper or online. One thing that I am sure of though, the stock market is so volatile that even experts and seasoned analysts can go wrong in their forecast oftentimes. It is no different from casino gambling.

The trading floor and the casino are much alike in many ways. When you go in any of these, you know that the odds are not automatically stacked against you. Warren Buffet is admirable in always predicting a winnable trade, but he also make mistakes. Although in his case, if he loses 1 million dollars on one portfolio, he usually gain 2 million dollars in another. Still, it is a gamble. Lose some, win some.

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Posted on 12/01/2009 0 comments