When you’ve got money on your mind, it can either be from the perspective of relief or of anxiety. And unfortunately for most of us, anxiety is far more common. The human situation is to want at least slightly more than what we already have, which gives us some positive stress, but also leaves the door open to financial depression. But there are ways to combat the negatives by learning how to stretch your money out this coming year.
Five ways, in particular, include getting store credit cards, saving on energy costs, curbing unnecessary habits, making purchasing a group effort, and doing DIY projects whenever you can. Taken together, that’s a recipe for financial freedom in the coming months.
Get Store Credit Cards
When you apply for store credit cards, you’ll often get a line of credit that’s just good at that particular store, but has really awesome savings attached to it. Assuming that you shop at the store regularly and are willing to pay off the balance every month, this locks in savings of hundreds and even potentially thousands of dollars, and takes very little effort on your part.
Save On Energy Costs
When you focus on saving energy, the financial benefits will be seen immediately. Even doing basic things like paying attention to turning off lights, turning down the temperature on your water heater, and programming your thermostat to reasonable figures will give you across the board savings every month on your bills, and these will add up over time. Eventually transitioning to energy efficient appliances will fast track this process even further.
Curb Unnecessary Habits
Do you have little but expensive habits like buying lottery tickets, or maybe having an expensive cup of coffee once per day? By looking at those habits that drip money out of your bank account, you can start to curb them in order to stretch your money further. The idea is that if you do baby steps away from these behaviors, you won’t even know that they’re missing.
Make It a Group Effort
If you purchase things as part of a group effort, you can save a ton of money. Consider something like buying a treadmill or exercise bike as part of a group. As long as everyone has access to it when they want, everyone saves a ton of money by sharing in the cost over time.
DIY Whatever You Can
Whenever possible, you should try to do DIY projects, especially around your home. You can learn how to fix small things, and not only will your home be a more creatively compelling place, you don’t have to spend the thousands of dollars that it costs to have professionals do work that you could accomplish on your own with a little bit of self-training.