We, like thousands of other former students, have to budget our money because of our student loans. Although we are in the 40-50-year-old range, we still have graduate student loans that carry a hefty interest rate. We are determined to pay our debts off quickly, but we needed a budget and a plan to stick to the budget to do so. If you are not that good with making budgets and want some help with that, then on https://www.velgenklere.no/ you will find the best hacks that you can try in order to create you budget and stick to it till the very end. Moreover, you will find some other practical tips that are going to help you greatly as a student.
When creating our budget we used free online tools to help guide us through the process. Our budget gave us an idea of how much we had in fixed bills and how much we had in disposable income. Having these numbers allowed us to set realistic goals for paying off our student loans and credit card debts as quickly as possible.
Now that we could see how much we owed and how much we were making, we knew we had to save as much money as possible to stick to our budget and to meet our goals. We started paying attention to where we were spending. This also helped us stick to our budget.
Staying Healthy Saves Money
It is easier to prevent a medical condition than to fix a medical condition, as Dr. Oz says. As nurses, we know that medical bills can quickly outpace any other expense so we keep our medical bills down by maintaining our health. We stick to a healthy diet, exercise regularly, take vitamin supplements, get enough sleep, and get regular annual checkups.
In order to work out regularly, I have a gym membership that I have had for more than 15 years. My monthly membership fee is $16 per month. To add my husband onto my membership would cost an extra $70 per month. Instead of joining my gym, he joined a free community gym that he found, by doing this he saved us $840 per year.
We haven’t needed any type of emergency services and we are not on any prescription medications, this saves us a lot of money. Not being on any prescription medications is, sadly, a feat our doctors say is quite unusual for people our age. Staying healthy also allows us to keep our sick time in case we need to use it in the future.
Savings At Home
We used to spend $27.00 per movie ($21.00 for two tickets, $6.00 for one popcorn) on movie theater dates. Instead of going to the movies, we have Netflix. We get unlimited movies and we use the service at least three times a month, saving us $81 per month or $972 per year.
We switched out to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use minimal lighting, unplug appliances, wash clothes in cold water, use power strips that we turn off, use fans instead of air conditioning, and open the curtains to let the sunlight in instead of using lights. These changes have lowered our electric bill from $120 per month to about $70 per month saving us $600 per year.
Savings At Work
We used to buy lunch at work but found that we were gaining weight and that our money was going out quickly. We started packing lunches to work and it resulted in significant savings. Between the two of us, we save at least $48 per week or $2400 per year.
I used to buy a little snack three times a week while at work. The snacks cost at least 75 cents. As I noticed my weight starting to creep up, my doctor told me that stopping the snacking would help me lose weight (he was right!). By skipping the snacks I saved at least $112.50 per year.
So far we have paid off one credit card and two student loans. We continue to look for ways to cut spending so that we can be debt-free. We have found that keeping track of our budget, setting realistic goals, and seeing our debt amounts decrease helps us to stick to our budget. Paying attention to where we were spending added up to big savings. The more we save now, the brighter our future will be and we are looking forward to a very bright, debt-free future.
