Debt free life – Is it reality or just a dream?

With housing expenditures, fuel prices and most other vital costs on the rise, it’s really difficult to lead a stress-free life.  Times are tough and it’s pretty common to find a lot of people struggling under their debt load.  Under such financial circumstances, you may choose to consolidate debt and reduce borrowings.  There are some major advantages to doing this, the continual drain of interest payments on debt really adds up and living debt free or even having savings behind you rather than loans will give you a lifelong tailwind.

But it is not always easy to pay off debts, frugality is not simply something that you may practice once in a while; it’s a complete alteration in your lifestyle. However, one cannot forget that times are difficult and a lot of people right around the world are drowning in a sea of debt. While they look for various ways to become debt free, they often ignore the option of leading a frugal life and eliminating their debts. Once you make an attempt to live frugally, you’ll be able to get your finances under control.  Frugal living means simply making calculated choices with your daily expenditures.  The majority of your spending choices must be intentional and with your budget targets in mind. Following are a few simple but miraculous ways to help you live a frugal life.

 

1.       Make use of the library – Purchasing movies and books get costly and even hiring them can become expensive. Visit your nearest library and you will find a great  range of movies and books available without charge. You could also read a lot of books on frugal existence, debt reduction, and charitable simplicity.  Take a look around the Web and “personal finance blogs” or “frugal blogs”. When you read other motivating stories, it will help you feel less lonely and provide you with some realistic tips to live a frugal life. You might also think of initiating your personal frugality blog – there are a lot of people needing advice in this area.

 

2.       Consider using discount coupons – Start making use of discount coupons for your purchases as this is an outstanding way to save you a lot of cash per month. Take advantage of all sorts of exclusive discounts and entirely free goods in the festive time of the year.  Use the Internet or you might also consider taking suggestions from your family and friends who have previously used discount vouchers.  With these vouchers, you can lower your monthly expenditures and get your finances under control.  Every bit counts and I always do a search for the best price online when making a purchase.

 

3.       Plan a weekly menu – When it comes to lunch or dinner, it’s always advisable to have a menu sketched out.  When you don’t have a proper plan, there’s always a tendency to go out for dinner or lunch.  Eating out can be fun, but it’s much more costly than dining at home.  The more you eat at home, the more you’ll see your bank balance grow.  If you have a weekly menu, it’ll help you lessen the number of times you go out for eating, thus saving you cash on costly restaurants.

 

4.       Save electricity –  Turn off the lights and fans whenever you leave a room.  If you leave an appliance plugged in a socket, it keeps on drawing a small amount of power.   These plugged gadgets can actually have a negative impact on your electricity bill so switch them off at the power power point.  There are also a host of devices now which can help you save power like these below – make sure you get the right one for your country!  I’ve gone through all of these below and I recommend go straight for the Conserve Sockets they are the easiest and some countries (eg Australia) even have free programs for households to roll these out, they are that good.

EG: Electricity Usage Monitors to check how much elecrticity a device uses, Electricity Timers to let a device run only for a certain length of time or at certain times, Remote Control Outlet Switches to switch off devices as you leave the house and Conserve Sockets which monitor one device and turn off all the others when the primary is off. EG turn off other devices when the TV is off or turn off your printer when your PC is off.

 

5.       Cut that expensive habit – Costs to support habits can really add up, so consider if you can reduce the financial impact of any habit.  One obvious way is to stop it all together, but another is to reduce or consider buying in bulk.  Think about smoking, drinking, daily chocolate/candy habits and those restaurants again.  Use the money you save to pay down debt, and you will get a double benefit.

 

6.       Share a ride – Car poling is a great way to save money and build relationships at the same time.  Remember you are saving on fuel as well as maintenance costs when you car pool.

 

You might also consider purchasing refurbished products. When you need a new laptop, you could check the organization’s website that you desire to purchase from, to look for any offers on refurbished items. There are a lot of people who have a craze for Apple laptops, but can’t afford to purchase Apple products.  They may buy a slightly used version of the merchandize they’ve been yearning after.

 

Remember, little savings add up over time and …

Debt free is stress free 

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This article was co-written by Billy Patterson & UR.  Billy is associated with Oak View Law Group as a contributory financial writer. He likes to keep updating himself regarding recent developments in finance sector.  He has written many articles on debt management, debt solutions, bankruptcy etc.