Get Your Budget Under Control
Being frugal is all about getting the most for your money and saving it where you can. There are plenty of innovative ways that you can do just that, gone are the days where living frugal meant cutting out coupons and spending the bare minimum at the supermarket.
Cutting back on the luxuries isn't the only way to get your budget under control. With a bit of help from the internet, there are many other things you can do to minimise your expenditure and bring in a bit of extra cash.
Here are four tips and online resources that can help you save money and earn extra cash.
1. Sell things on Online
Old furniture, unused electronics, bikes, musical instruments, or anything else you have lying around can be turned into cash. Some hipster is sure to buy your old record collection. Everyone has something that's lying around that they don't really need anymore, and could be better used by somebody else.
Signing up and creating your listing is easy and free (or you can pay for premium ads). After that, you just have to wait for someone to contact you and buy your old or unwanted items.
2. Pick up freebies on Ziilch
Just like Gumtree, but everything is totally free. If you need new furniture or anything else for your home, it's worth having a look on Ziilch to see if you can snag a freebie. You can save the cost of buying something new or even the cost of buying something second hand.
Not only that, but you'll be contributing to a culture of reusing items instead of feeding the landfills.
3. Reduce your fixed expenses
When you're writing up a budget, people usually calculate their fixed costs first, things like rent, mortgage payments, car loan payments, and living expenses. After that comes figuring out how much you spend on luxuries, entertainment, and non-essential items.
When you're trying to save money, people usually start by reducing the non-essential expenditure without trying to reduce their fixed costs. But things like loan repayments are often your largest expenses and it is possible to save money on them.
You could save a significant amount on your car loan or home loan by refinancing them to get a better deal, especially if you had bad credit or a small deposit when you initially got the loan. If you are looking for a car loan sometime in the future, getting a car loan through a finance broker can help you get a better deal as well.
4. Do some jobs on sites like Airtasker
Airtasker allows anyone to post small jobs online along with how much they're willing to pay someone to do it. Then you can offer to do the job and get paid for your work. The jobs can be anything that people need, including house cleaning, trade services, washing dishes for a function, and tech support.
This is a great way of bringing in a bit of extra cash in your spare time. If you've got valuable skills like programming or DIY construction, you could end up making quite a bit of extra cash.
Summary
There are plenty of things you can do to reduce your expenses and bring in some extra cash, some of which you may not have thought of. Getting your budget under control isn't just about cutting back on luxuries, there are plenty of alternatives that will allow you to still treat yourself.
