Tips for Keeping Money in Your House in a Down Economy

With the economy taking a down turn, everyone can use a few tips for stretching their dollar. Prices are on the rise and it's doubtful they'll be going down. On the opposite end, jobs are paying less and less just trying to keep their businesses afloat. If you're going to survive this down time, then you're going to have to learn to make some changes.

Here are a few tips you can use to increase the money in your household with a minimal amount of effort.

Keep the change

Once simple way that you can save a lot of money is by taking your change as soon as you get it and putting it into either a special jar or piggy bank. So if you go to the store, and you pay with cash, and the person at the register hands you back $4.57...you should immediately place that money into your change bank when you get home.

One thing that has been proven is that we usually squander our spare change. Maybe a pack of gum here or a soda there. After doing that for a while, you'll find that you've squander a substantial amount of money at months end.

Envelope Money

Another trick you can use to save money every month is the envelope only technique. In this technique, once you get paid you have certain envelops that are dedicated to their respective bill. So you'd have an envelope for car notes, utilities, groceries, mortgage, family entertainment, etc. Once you get paid you put the checks for each of those payments into the envelopes. This should include all of your outgoing expenses. Whatever you have left over, you place into your nest egg account.

Scale Down

This goes without saying, but believe it or not there are tons of people who don't understand the aspect of buying generic instead of name brand. Sure there may be a drop off in quality, but for the most part it isn't anything noticeable. A few places you can scale down include grocery shopping (buying generic brands instead of name brands), household entertainment (do you really need all of those channels), personal appearance (men and women should look for either inexpensive hair shops or learn to handle their hair and their kids hair themselves) and automobiles (look to cut costs with insurance, maintenance, and if possible a trade in).

Use these tips to help increase how much money you're able to keep within your household every month.