Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

The economy isn’t doing very well right now which means we must do what we can to survive. Lay-offs are happening in the oil field which is causing issues in other businesses, so money is very tight for a lot of people. Whether your spouse can’t work or has lost a job, saving money and spending less money is a must.

There are a number of different things you can do to make your money go further each month. Some may work and some may not, but it’s best to give them all a try. Wouldn’t it be terrible to find out months down the road that you would have qualified for something or would have learned how to do something had you taken the time to follow the process? I’m sure the answer will be yes.

Here are a few suggestions to consider when you’re trying to make your money last longer and go further.

1. Apply for Medicaid
2. Apply for Food Stamps
3. Contact your electric or gas company and ask for assistance
4. Contact your cable/sattelite company and ask for tips to lower your bill
5. Consider cancelling cable/sattelite service
6. Search for perscription help online at needymed.org
7. Consider refinancing your mortgage or vehicle loans
8. Contact credit card companies for assistance
9. Stop going out to eat and make meals at home
10. Find online work you can do at home

There are many other things you can do to make your money last longer. You could consider getting a second job, you could sell items in your home that you no longer need, you can take a sack lunch to work, or carpool to work. Consider your bills, your money, and your needs and then see what you can do to make it easier on you and your family.

The most important thing to do is not stress. The situation will get better if you work hard and consider doing one or more of the things listed above. Make sure you keep each company you have bills with updated with your situation; they’ll be more inclined to help if you communicate with them and tell them what’s going on. Just don’t give up! You can do this.

January, often times is a hard month for people when it comes to money. Christmas bills start rolling in, insurance premiums change, and some find out if they get a raise or not. It’s also the month where lay-offs occur because of the slow down after Christmas. No matter how you look at it, January can be a month a lot of people would like to forget.

If you find you’re in one of these situations, money can be the closest thing to your mind and something you want to go away. If there was a way to forget about money all together, I think most people would do it. Finances are a struggle all the time and they can cause more arguments between spouses than anything else. They put a burden on people and cause them to do strange and sometimes stupid things.

We can say save, save, save throughout the year, but that’s not always easy to do. If you leave beyond your means or from paycheck to paycheck, savings is not an option. If you do have the ability to save, what’s not to say the car won’t break down or the washer decides to die? If those or any other thing happens, your savings can be gone in a heartbeat. Then what?

People will tell you to get another job, coupon, or slow down on your spending. What happens if you already have two jobs, you don’t have the money to buy newspapers to get coupons, and you’re only buying things you need? What do you do at that point?

While those suggestions are good and valid, they may not be the solution. There has to be another way to either increase your income or decrease your bills. Here are a few to consider.

1. Refinance your mortgage
2. Consolidate your debt
3. Apply for financial assistance
4. Sell items you don’t need

Those are the top four things you can do to save money each month. You could consider selling your home and moving to one that’s cheaper. You could also consider changing jobs if the one you have doesn’t pay as much as others do. Another option is to sell your vehicles, go down to one, and get a cheap one that doesn’t cost a lot to maintain each month.

There are many things to consider when looking for ways to save money or spend less each month. Some may work for you, while others may not. The best way to see what will work is to sit down, look at your finances, and see what you can do to get where you need to be each month. Good luck!

Dealing with your finances is not an easy task. They can be frustrating and stressful to say the least. If you have more bills than money at the end of the month or if something major comes up, figuring out what to change can feel impossible.

There are many things you can do to save money. Some can help right away while others will only help over time. If time is not something you have on your side, it may not be worth it to do those things at this time. Instead you should focus on what can give you more money now, rather than later.

One thing you may not think about, but is costing you more money than you think is your grocery bill. Here are a few things to think about.

1. Did you know while you may think it’s cheaper to go out to eat, in reality it’s not? The average cost per meal at a fast food restaurant is $8. Depending on what you fix at home, the average cost is $3. Over time that $5 difference will add up.

2. Shopping daily is costing you more money than you think. When you buy things like hamburger and chicken in bulk you save money. When you buy a pound of hamburger or a 4 pack of chicken each day you’re going to pay more than you would if you buy a 3 pound pack of hamburger or an 8 pack of chicken. The more you buy the less per pound you pay. It may appear to be more, but when you take the cost per pound into consideration, it is less.

There are other things you can do to save money at the grocery store like using coupons, planning meals around what’s on sale, planning meals that give you leftovers that can be used for another dinner meal or for lunch the next day, and making a cheap meal like taco’s or spaghetti instead of something that has a lot of ingredients. Most of these things will take a little time and planning, but in the end the money you save will be worth it.

How many times have you sat down to pay your bills when the paycheck comes in and can’t figure out which ones to pay? When that happens you have to look at everything you have so far and decide which ones are due first and which ones you have enough money to pay. What happens if you get a bill a day or two later and that one needs to be paid right then? You don’t have the money to do that so it will be late.

To prevent this situation from happening the best solution is to take the time to look at all of your bills for the month and decide where you can pay them so it works in your budget and you get them paid on time. Here’s what I do each month.

I gathered all of my bills and on an Excel spreadsheet I documented the monthly payment and the due date. When I was all down I sorted the spreadsheet by due date so it was easier to tell when they were due. Next I looked at the calendar and I made note on the sheet when my paydays were for that month. Then I started moving bills around to each payday, so the bills were paid on time. Next I started calculating how much the total amount was for each payday and then started moving things around again if I was over or under on each payday. The final product allowed me to see what bills were going to be paid with each payday.

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Especially in a bad economy, setting a family budget and sticking to it can be a difficult and unpleasant task. Sometimes parents think that they are doing their children a favor by shielding them from the family budgeting process. However, children can be especially keen at noticing when the family’s spending habits have changed. Once they notice this change, they can start to worry, especially if they are not told the reason for the family budget changes. A better idea is to involve the entire family so that you can work together as a team.

Call a Family Meeting
Although you don’t need to share all the budget details with your children, you should at least call a family meeting so that you can provide everyone with an overview. Point out that you are trying to save money as a family, and if everyone works together, sticking to a budget should be easy. Setting a few goals for the family can be a great way of garnering some family enthusiasm for the budgeting process. You can also help create interest around saving money if you can relate the project to being good for the planet. For example, saving money by not spending it on new toys can seem like a hardship, until you point out how old toys usually end up in a landfill. If you can rally the kids around a cause they believe in, they will have a lot more enthusiasm for the project.

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