Budgeting Through Elective Utilities

Telephone, Internet, and television service are all examples of elective utilities. These utilities, though many times necessary, are not essential to basic living standards in the United States like gas, electricity, and water. Elective utilities are no less important to a household budget.

When budgeting elective utilities, the trick is to find a company offering the same service or better for a lower rate. This may sound like a statement from Captain Obvious, but it is amazing how many people are willing to pay a higher rate for the same service, and for no good reason.

Some people fear change, others feel they don't have the time to track down lower rates for service, and still others think they won't save a significant amount of money and don't want to be inconvenienced. Of course there are also those who just don't have a need for saving money. I'm not one of them.

One could always cut down on the amount of usage for services, however, this is not usually very practical. You have those services for a reason, you use them. Some elective utilities don't even have a usage rate but a monthly fee regardless of usage such as television service.

Consider this, if you were to take just three of your elective utilities and cut your bill by ten dollars on each one every month you just saved enough money to pay another small bill. When you look at it that way, thirty dollars is nothing to sneeze at. That's a whopping $360.00 a year.

It doesn't sound like such a small amount of money now does it? What could you do with an extra $360.00? Make a car payment? Pay your car insurance? I would bet you know exactly what you would do with that money if you had it right now. If you're like me you're probably thinking of ways to save even more.

Let me share with you a few of my favorite ways to save money on elective utilities. The first thing to look at is price, that much is obvious. Though price is important, there are other variables to look at other than the bottom line rate, usage is probably the single most important factor.

Unlimited usage is king in budgeting. I used to use MCI Neighborhood bundled with unlimited local and long distance for fifty dollars a month. At the time it was a good deal, but cost me around eighty dollars a month after the hidden fee's taxes and surcharges where added into the equation.

I took the leap to broadband telephone service which cost me twenty dollars a month for the exact same thing minus hidden fee's and sir charges. I have had broadband phone for over a year and absolutely love it. I saved sixty dollars a month just on my phone bill alone. In a year I saved $720.00 on phone service!

When looking for cheaper elective's think price plus usage. Unlimited usage is of course better than a rate plan unless you use very little of the service to begin with but need it from time to time. In that case it is better to go with the bare essentials. If your usage increases you can always upgrade.

Sometimes it will cost you a little extra money up front to get started with a new service provider. There may even be a few minor inconveniences at first. Try to stay focused on the end result and the big payoff. Chances are good you'll get back any money spent to activate new service in a couple months.

Budgeting Without Shame

Are you constantly trying to stay just one step ahead of your bills? A budget can help you organize your finances. It is really surprising, but a budget can save time and a lot of worries.

Many people think of a budget as a financial jail or a diet. They eventully fail at their budgeting because of this. You have to think of a budget as simply a way to see where you spend your money and a plan that helps you get the things that you want.

First, you have to create your basic budgeting template. You have to look at the way you actually spend your money (not some computer's predetermined amounts) to be able to successfully budget. Start with your income, which is easy to identify.

Then move on to identifying your spending and expenses. Start with your bills. List each one and the amount that you pay. You might want to go ahead and add interest rates and payoff amounts to any of the debts, so that you can get a head start in identifying what you need to pay off first.

Then move on to the basics, such as groceries and car expenses. If you eat out every day for lunch, include this category in your spending. If you have a hobby that you regularly shop for, include this category. Identify the places your money goes during the month.

You can used a template budget worksheet, found online or in a bookstore. Make sure that you edit this worksheet to fit your finances and your needs.

Now you need to identify your budget amounts. Collect your receipts and bills for the past month. This is easy to do. Simply get a receipt for everything you purchase and dump it in a shoebox at the front door every evening when you come in. Go through these receipts and start filling in the spending category amounts. You may find that you need to even add more categories.

For the next two or three months, you should consider simply tracking your spending to get a realistic vision of how you spend. You may immediately find that you are able to cut spending in some areas. Often, people are surprised to know that they spend so much on something.

Once you have an idea of where your money is really going, you can start cutting back in certain areas. Everything is negotiable. Even seemingly fixed expenses, such as your electric bill or water bill, can be reduced.

Remember, your budget isn't something designed to limit your spending. It is created to let you manage your spending. You are able to get an accurate view of how you spend. There isn't anything to be guilty about or shamed about when you really see how your money is being spent. Now you can see how to fix it.

Budgeting When Your Paycheck Varies

How can you decide how much you have for bills and expenses when your paycheck varies from one payday to the next? That's a question a lot of people struggle with.

A few of the occupations that I can think of off hand that could fall into this category are waitresses or waiters working for salary and tips, truck drivers that are paid by the mile and never know how many miles they are going to get, the self-employed that their business income varies from season to season, and the list could go on.

Trying to manage your finances with a steady income is hard enough but when you never know what your paycheck will be seems almost impossible, but it's not. It is, however, going to be a little more tricky.

In my Budget and Bill Organizer I talk about averaging your expenses like your phone and electric bills that vary from month to month. The same principle can be used to average your income.

The first step you need to take is to find records of your pay for as far back as you can. It would be best if you had records going back for at least 6 months.

Take these records and total the amounts you were paid for the entire period. Then divide that by the number of months you have records for. This will give you your average monthly income.

If you don't have any record of your previous pay you may need to go to your employer to get the information. If there is no way to get this information you should start a log of how much you get paid and use this to develop your budget.

Once you have determined your average monthly income you will need to develop your budget just as if this was your regular pay.

Here's where it gets tricky. You aren't always going make the amount you have budgeted. The only way to handle this is to save when you make more than what you have budgeted.

Here's an example:

You have determined that your monthly budget is $2000 per month;

In January you earn $2500. You will need to put away $500 of that money so that you can make up for any month that your income falls below $2000.

This sounds like a simple solution to a complex problem but it may not be as easy as it sounds unless you accustomed to saving money. It will take some discipline to make sure that money is there when you need it.

There could be a bright side to this method. If you are able to put the extra money away and you have several months that you make more than your budget you could end up with a sizable savings account.

When setting up your budget make sure that you don't underestimate your bills and expenses. This is one of the major reasons many budgets fail.

By averaging your income it will prevent the "Feast to Famine" approach to your spending. It only makes sense to spread your income out so that you can cover all of your bills and expenses every month.