Many of us, if not all, have considerable dreams and needs to improve their household economy. When dreams and needs keep piling up life changes its face to constant nightmares. With increasing competition on natural resources, decreasing access to high-quality affordable products and accelerating needs for improving life quality there are two options for improving household economy either (1) increasing income or/and (2) decreasing living costs.
Increasing incomes though very rewarding it seldom comes without painful impacts and constant difficulties e.g. cutting down free-time activities, enhanced stress and breaking social relations even within the family itself and constant misconfort as well. It is even not suitable or recommended under certain conditions, e.g. having small children with constant needs for care or not having proper health or simply the merits of doing other jobs. This said, you will not be left with any space whatsoever to make wise and weighted decisions for solving household problems. In contrast this may even increase your household spending or/and erod long-term efforts for improving your living conditions.
On the other hand, if a long-term agenda is created for gradually decreasing your living costs and thereby increasing the savings that can indeed provide enormous benefits and advantages. The golden rule is “save when you have and spend when you do not have”. Believe or not you can always save and you should try it.
The point is not the absolute amount of money you can save, it rather the relative amounts as saving is naturally dependent on income. Huge global variabilities exist in terms of income e.g. the U.S. is now LESS affordable – but still cheaper than Britain and France. The global cost of living index is topped by Switzerland (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2921059/Map-shows-U-S-affordable-cheaper-Britain-France-cost-living-index-topped-Switzerland.html).
Here are ten hints how to improve your household economy:
(1) DIY “Do It Yourself”. In many countries the labor is becoming either inaccessible or unaffordable. At the sametime the WWW provide enormous possibilities to find solutions for doing things by ourselves (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself). Critical search by Google with input information from Pinterest, Bolgs and YouTube can allow you to create and solve many household problems, e.g. reparations, restoration, cooking, cleaning, carpeting, ….. you name it …. etc.
(2) examine prices, quality and guarantee conditions by using pricerunner (http://www.firedog.co.uk/thinking-space/news-opinions/creativity/what-is-pricerunner-animated-video/). Prices for same thing can vary considerably. You can save enormous amounts of time and money by learning how to use the WWW to cut down your spending.
(3) Get use of second-hand items (https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_hand). It is no shame in saving money and resources. Among the richest persons in the word are poeple who did this. It is very constructive to learn how to survive. You still find high-quality articles in second-hand shops and flea market.
(4) Shop on line and not using credit with high interest-rates that eats up your income and even your capital. Use the huge information on the net to do your business economically, e.g. Alibaba, Aliexpress, … etc (http://m.alibaba.com/?uptime=20111230&ptsid=1012000000604534&crea=21430684027&plac=&netw=g&device=m&ptscode=0110101010010001), (http://m.aliexpress.com/?tracelog=wwwhome2mobilesitehome).
(5) Pay on time to avoid fine-fees and other unnecessary extra fees.
(6) Save energy and water (space and traffic costs). At home, in work or any other space and services that needs energy, water, transport and traffic think about stray, random and spontaneous actions that continuously eat up your spending by unnecessary extra use of natural resources that either destroy your economy or generate waste and degrade your living quality on several levels starting from your own household. Here are some examples: (http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/energy-saver-guide-tips-saving-money-and-energy-home; https://www.progress-energy.com/carolinas/home/save-energy-money/energy-saving-tips-calculators/100-tips.page?; http://www.gracelinks.org/2970/water-saving-tips-energy-use; http://yourenergysavings.gov.au/water/water-home-garden/water-efficiency-home)
(7) Buy only when and what you need otherwise many unnecessary things and items will pile-up, eat your space, economy and time as you when always need them and you may discover that you can manage without them and even more effectively.
(8) Avoid spontaneous impulse shopping (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_purchase). This will gradually turn you to shoppolic and you will always be guided by your emotions instead of logic. However, you have and should be brave enough to show people what’s important in your life. (http://www.sophiekinsella.co.uk/books.php?c=Shopaholic_series).
(9) Save when you have and spend when you do not have. Saving here is to create capital or liquid-money “reserves” so as to avoid going on blanco loans with high interest-rates that can be up to 25% which means that if you do not pay so rapidly what you borrowed, this will double in three years! Many unexpected things and needs may shows up at any moment and you need to be prepared.
(10) continuously up-date yourself by market issues and improve your knowledge to manage DIY, your economy needs and to keep up with whatever is necessary to learn not only for your survival but for your development and improvements as well.
