The Christmas season is over and as a consequence, the dreaded January slope arrived. Again, now is the time to face the expenses assumed in December And for most families, it is also time to tighten their belts. But overcome this bump at the beginning of the year and save, it is possible, you just need organization and take into account some tips.
The beginning of the year offers a great opportunity to make a new financial plan for the whole family. It is even necessary that children are involved in family savings, for this to be successful. To do this, you will have to offer the children some lessons on family economics. This will help them understand that things are obtained in exchange for money and that this is obtained for doing work.
Start from scratch to start adding
It's no use looking back and seeing everything you've spent on Christmas, what's done is done. Now is the time to look ahead and set yourself a new long-term goal, saving. Make a list of all the unavoidable expenses for each month, those things that you cannot do without, such as payments or food expenses. It is time to eliminate everything that is not strictly necessary, otherwise, it will be more difficult to overcome the January slope.
Then you will have to make a target budget, with actual income and expenses. It is necessary that you visualize the expenses that are generated each month, to be able to adjust the budget to the maximum and thus achieve savings.
Shopping list
It is proven that shopping without a list favors the acquisition of products that are not needed, considerably increasing the cost of the shopping cart. It will only take you a few minutes to go through the pantry before you go shopping and write down everything you need. Avoid adding to the basket whims and products that are not on the list, you don't need them and they ruin the budget.
Create a weekly menu
Organize the menu of the week to find out which products you really need to buy. When you have done it for 2 or 3 weeks, it will be much easier to follow since you will only have to repeat basically. This will help you have more control over the foods you need replenish, so you can save a lot of money. But in addition, you will ensure that the family diet is varied and balanced.
Choose seasonal products
Seasonal products are a lot cheaper, as well as healthier and tastier. Find out about the fruits and vegetables of each season, so you can enjoy all the properties of these foods at a better price.
Compare prices
The different shops offer the same products but with a great variety in prices. If you take the time to compare, you can save a lot of money in basic necessities.
Try the online purchase
Virtually all large stores offer the online shopping service. Shopping from home offers you several advantages:
- You can do it from the comfort of your house, in the breaks of the day or in free time.
- Always display you have control of what you have spent, so that if you see that the basket exceeds your budget, you can review and eliminate what you do not need.
- They take the groceries home, so you gain that time to carry out other activities.
- You can compare more comfortably, it is much easier to buy prices through the different websites. You can even try to make the purchase on two pages at the same time and buy the basket price before choosing where to buy.
Beware of supermarket offers
Many times you can find offers of the type three units at the price of 2, or similar. If it is a product that you use in large quantities, it can be interesting. However, many times we take products that we hardly use for the simple fact of being on sale, and this in the long run, is an unnecessary expense. If you don't normally eat pickled tuna, why do you want to have 12 cans in the pantry?