The FinancialVerse - Guide to Savings - 600 Practical Cash Saving Ideas: Pandemic Edition

By Harry N. Stout

The FinancialVerse Guide to Savings - 600 Practical Cash Savings Ideas presents ideas on where households can look to save cash in our pandemic impacted world. The typical American household spends over $60,000 per year to support their lifestyle and needs. The book carefully delves into more than 30 areas of spending to look for savings. The book provides a roadmap of where households can look for cash savings for today and into the future.

Areas that are discussed include developing personal financial values that drive spending. Key areas for savings identified include:

Big purchases
Childcare
College funding
Coupons and discount platforms
Debt
Housing and related costs
Transportation
Travel

The FinancialVerse Guide to Savings is based on the author's over 30 year career in personal financial services and his practical experience in saving money on life's needs. The author believes that if the reader implements many of the ideas presented they should be able to save at least 1% of their annual spending and find cash for other needs such as savings, debt reduction and retirement planning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098348274

Book preview

1

Getting Started -

Your Journey to Savings

You just bought a new book on 600 ways to save cash. So where should you start? How do you factor in our pandemic-influenced world? Where do you begin your journey? I believe the best way to plot your actions is to take three simple steps:

Revisit your personal financial values

Set your savings goals

Agree on timeframes to meet your goals

The Impact of the Pandemic on Savings

One of the frequent questions I am asked is, given the pandemic, should a household rethink their basic financial values and goals? I believe that now is a great time to do a money reset. Money is a much more precious resource for all of us than it was prior to the start of the pandemic. This is where what you spend and looking for cash savings comes into focus. You need to begin with the end in mind guided by your financial values.

What Are Your Personal Financial Values?

Personal finance is different for everyone because it is just that—personal. The root cause of why there is so much variety in how people handle (or don’t handle) their money is because we all have different matters that are important to us. What we value in life influences the kinds of goals we set for ourselves, and our individual goals will determine the actions we take to reach them. If you can understand what drives your decisions, you can better manage your financial affairs and get the cash savings you need.

Financial values are a person’s or household’s principles or standards of behavior when it comes to money. They are the judgments about the importance of money. It is a great exercise for you and your partner (if you are in a household) to take 30 minutes and talk about the key matters that you value most in life—what brings you the most joy, what you’re striving to achieve and how you how you want to spend your non-work-related time. Make a list of them and, if possible, identify how money relates to supporting those values and making them happen. I will give some examples of how to do this later.

Financial values fundamentally boil down to agreeing on the purpose of money in your life. If you cannot agree on this, you won’t know which savings ideas will work for you. Some examples of values are how much non-work-related free time you want, how large a family, how much travel you want to do, what charitable contributions you want to make, the importance of your self care and where you want to live—in the suburbs or in a large city. Answers to these value questions will each have a monetary impact on your spending decisions. Investing the time to agree on your money values will also minimize conflicts about how to manage money in your relationships. I have learned that if you can agree on the major values, the day-to-day minor issues take care of themselves.

Sample Questions to Ask Yourself About Money

Let’s take a look at key money areas and the questions you should ask yourself as you develop or revisit your financial values.

Money Knowledge

What is the level of your money knowledge?

Have you taken a personal finance course?

What did your parents teach you about money?

How much time do you spend each week learning about money?

Lifestyle

What kind of lifestyle do you want?

Are you financially secure? If not, how badly do you want to be?

Do you want to travel and to where?

Do you need to keep up with your friends’ lifestyles?

How much time do you want to devote to work? Do you live to work or work to live?

Earning

How do you feel about your current income? Are you making what you deserve?

How do you feel about your future earning potential?

Do you want or need a side gig?

Do you need to upgrade your skills to get a better job?

Spending

Do you consider yourself a spender?

How often are you an impulsive spender?

What is your biggest weakness when it comes to spending money?

What are your philosophies on spending?

Do you plan your big purchases?

Debt

How much debt do you currently have?

Are you current with all of your debt service payments?

Do you know and manage your credit scores?

If you want to buy something, are you opposed to going into debt to buy it?

What is your feeling about keeping a balance on your credit cards?

Do you want to live a debt-free lifestyle?

What are your overall thoughts about debt?

Saving Money

Which is more important to you, saving money or paying down debt?

Do you have an emergency fund? Do you think you need one?

Do you consider yourself a natural saver?

Do you have an ongoing effort to reduce your living expenses?

What are your thoughts about saving money?

Managing the Details

How much time do you spend each week managing your money?

How do you stay on top of your personal finances?

Are you financially organized?

Did you know that keeping track of finances is the foundation to personal finance success?

How do you keep track of your finances? Do you use a budget app?

The answers to these questions and other you will come up with should translate into money actions you should take to reach your goals. Here are some examples of financial values and how they translate into goals to act upon.

A key part of agreeing on your values and setting goals is to give each goal a timeframe for completion. For example, you will have a fully funded emergency fund within 9 months of your start date. I have learned that being as specific as possible with your values, goals and timeframes, leads to more success. As I think about this process, I always remember the saying—If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.

Summary

The pandemic has created the necessity for all of us to reconsider our approaches to money. Many of the rules of how to handle money have changed for the short and long term. You should sit down and objectively revisit your financial values, goals and targets in light of what has happened and what you have learned. Be sure to be honest with yourself and answer your own set of questions. It is always amazing to me that once the facts are known, people will take the right cash savings actions to address their situation.

Chapter 2

Areas for Savings

Below you will find the major topical areas that have been identified for you to look for savings. I have tried to present the major ideas I have personally used and where I have benefited.

Big Purchases

Always price check your big purchases. In my view, these are purchases over $200. There are a number of apps that can facilitate the checking process. That way you can be sure to always get the best price. For example, Wikibuy is a great price check app that can save you money in a couple of different ways. Whenever you’re looking to buy something online,Wikibuywill quickly search the web to make sure you’re paying the lowest price possible. They’ll also look to apply any coupon codes that have been successful for other Wikibuy users.

Use the 30-day rule. When you want to make a large purchase, think about it for a while first because, for some people, money is an emotional issue. Write down what the purchase is and how much it costs. If after 30 days you still feel it’s necessary, purchase it. Carefully consider why you are buying before you take the leap to purchase.

Never buy off the shelf. Any time you plan to buy something costly you should always do your homework first. Try the following: (1) surf the web to see who has the item at the lowest price, or if any sales are coming up, (2) check the website of the manufacturer and retailer to see if any coupons are available and (3) see if you can buy the same item second hand. By adding research to significant purchases you can save hundreds of dollars each year. For appliances and electronics, I always consult ConsumerReports to see if any key information about an item is available.

Time major purchases for sale periods. Because demand fluctuates by the season for certain items, you can time your big buys. For example, the end of model year or month-end can be a great time to buy a car because dealerships want to meet their sales quotas. January is a great time to purchase linens. Lastly, pay close attention to special deals on your favorite websites.

Save for big purchases a little at a time. Set up a fund that allows you to accumulate funds for your big purchases–these are called sinking funds. For example, these funds allow you to have the cash to replace those balding tires. Or you can save up for Christmas all year long since you know it’s coming December 25. You do all of these things by setting aside money each month for that big purchase.

Budgeting

Create a budget. Budgets help people manage their money better. It’s that simple. Budgets are great and one of the best ways to save money because they keep you mindful of your cash income and expenses. With a budget, you will know exactly how much you can spend in a category each month, how much you have to work with and what spending areas need to be evaluated, among other things. Budgets have helped people reach their goals, pay off debt, make more money, retire and more. This is one of the saving tips that will completely change your financial life.

Be aware of what you are already spending. As you begin to look at your spending decisions, it is best to begin by taking a minute to look through your monthly expenses. You might be surprised how much you’re spending. Being aware of your biggest bills is going to help when you’re looking at the money saving tips.

Budget for regular maintenance of your vehicle, home and appliances. When you’re on a tight budget, it’s easy to ignore long-term expenses like car repairs and appliance maintenance. It is much cheaper to pay for an annual tune-up of your HVAC system than to deal with major problems down the road. You might want to buy the maintenance plan for your car to minimize the potential cash outflow for repairs.

Set aside cash for irregular expenses. Set up a monthly line item in your budget for bills that don’t come due every month. One example is your ongoing medical bills. If you know that you will spend around $600 every year, put $50 a month in savings. So when the inevitable doctor’s visit or prescription happens, you don’t have to charge it on a credit card. In the meantime, draw interest rather than having to pay it to someone else because you didn’t plan in advance. In my household, we spend about $6,000 annually on healthcare for medications, coinsurance and deductibles. By budgeting this each month, I accumulate the cash needed to make the payments when they come due without incurring any interest costs.

If you live in a household, do the budget together with everyone contributing to paying the bills.