Overview
What I meant here is, not to cut-down the items which you use and reduce the expenses. What I refer is getting what you want with lesser costs, thereby increasing savings and adding this kitty as extra income.
How to reduce your expenses
You are aware of the saying “80% of the problem would be in 20% of the bucket”. Similar way 80% of the expenses would fall under 2-3 categories of expenses. List down your expenses for a month. If you do not have list of expenses what you are spending, start writing them on a piece of paper. Prepare the list of expenses and do broad categorization.
Below are the some of the categories.
- Lease/House Rent/House EMI/Any other EMI
- Groceries Exenses
- Children education expenses
- Entertainment/Movies
- Medical expenses
- Others
Now, try to do L-1 analysis of these expenses i.e. go to next level of expenses. For example if you are viewing Groceries expenses, list down the major amounts you are spending on groceries. Check for any possibility of reducing the cost.
E.g. currently, “More Super Markets” offering 15% discount on groceries in Hyderabad. If you are not getting any discounts currently, you can try and get 15% discounts straight away.
Earlier, when I was doing similar analysis on my internet charges, I was thinking that I do not want to compromise on my internet service provider, but I want at lower price. How is this possible ? I found the solution when I searching for various ways of reducing the cost. I heard that the internet service provider is offering 25-30% discount for employees of IT companies / MNC companies. I got the solution and discount.
Similarly we used to get the Energy bills/Electricity bills for Rs.400+ / month. I educated my family on “use when you need”. Switch off the lights when you do not need. I surprise that why we could not do this all along. We had savings of 30% once we disciplined ourselves and started using “use when you need”.
Similar way I prefer using “Apollo Pharmacy” for our medicines as we get 10% discount straight away
Monthly budgeting of Expenses
Once you have done the optimization of expenses, now do the expense budget at the beginning of the month. Plan your month that your expenses are within this monthly budget.
Conclusion
Once I completed my analysis I could see that I have reduced my costs by 15% to 20% compared to what I was spending earlier i.e. My income has increased by 15%
Have you enjoyed this post? Please provide your valuable comment to improve future posts.
Suresh
MyInvestmentideas.com
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Hi Suresh
Very practical and useful ideas.
Thanks
SJ
Hi Suresh
Congrats
I have really liked your post on
Reduce Expenses and Save – Without compromising on the quality of services
Thanks
Dhananjay Pole