Money Management Tips

These money management tips offer easy ways to save money and control spending so you can start saving for a rainy day.

Money management is really a simple process no matter how much money you have. The trick is to look at your income and your expenses and adjust your expenses until they come in under your income. In other words, don't spend more than you make... Keep it simple!

Don't obsess about managing your money.

Look at each of your purchases and scrutinize them under a set of criteria, and you'll be okay. Say for example, you really want a new purse, ask yourself if the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Would you rather see money in your savings account or look at that purse on your arm?

Look at the time you will spend reconciling this purchase on your credit card or checking account.

Think about how much that purse costs and how long it will take you to work it off.

Track your accounts as often as necessary… weekly, semimonthly, or monthly.

Look at debits and credits to make sure everything checks out.

Check out your credit accounts and track spending in categories such as gas, food, eating out, surprise expenses.

Find out if your spending too much in one category and try to limit it.

A great penny pincher strategy is to pay cash.

Get familiar with cash again.

Make your purchases with cash. Credit cards make cash seem so distant and it's a real eye opener to see how fast money can go when you pay with cash.

If you pay cash, you feel the pain in your bank account now, not thirty days from now when the credit card bill comes due. Another bonus is you will not rack up credit card debt.

Other great money management tips:

• Create a slush fund, roughly six months of living expenses and park it in a money market account.
• After that contribute to your employer's 401k, at least do the minimum matching if there is one.
• Then contribute to a Roth IRA.
• Purchase life insurance. Click on this link to calculate how much you will need. Life Insurance Calculator worksheet (opens in new window)
• If you've done the Roth IRA to the max, make contributions to stock purchases and you should have a well rounded savings plan.

Simple money management tips to cut out wasteful spending that eats into your savings:

When my husband travels for work, he always needs money for toll roads and bridges. Instead of him pulling $40 out of the ATM, I give him an envelope of $20 in $1's.

To keep cash in his pocket, my husband takes and allowance of a certain amount each month. Now instead of pulling $20 to $100 out of the ATM every so often he has a set amount and once that is gone, that's it.

Another savings tip is the envelope system. The idea is to create envelopes for categories like eating out, coffees, snacks, whatever you may need.

At the beginning of each month, place a certain amount of money in each envelope. If the lunch envelope is depleted by the 15th of the month, you will need to take bag lunches the rest of the month.

Be sure to keep a specific place for bills. I keep mine in a drawer called the bill drawer. You can learn more about the bill drawer at Create a Place for Everything.

Keep a budget book either on paper or online through a software program such as Quicken.

Even if you pay your bills online, it's a good idea to write them out because the act of writing keeps us in touch with our money... it's like paying cash. It brings you closer to the process of managing your money.

Each month write out bills in this book.

Include the check number or reference number if you paid online, what it's for, and how much.

Include the payment addresses of bills that you don't receive through the mail such as the gardener. You will then have easy access to the address when you write out the check.

My budget book has saved me a great deal of time since it allows me to back track and look up checks. This is invaluable if there is ever a payment dispute or any other reason I may need to reference a payment.

I became a penny pincher out of necessity and through these good money management tips it's now a habit.

As a single mom, I was forced into frugal living to support myself, my daughter, and pay for my education. I qualified for assistance, but refused to accept it. Through hard work, frugal living, and these money management tips we found a healthier and better way to live and you will too by utilizing these tips.

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