COPYRIGHT © 2019 FANNY SETO CAMOTA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[Pages:16]COPYRIGHT ? 2019 FANNY SETO CAMOTA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, circulated, and stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior consent of the author. Modifications do not void copyright. Disclaimer: The author assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this product, or for any physical or mental injury, damage and/or financial loss sustained to the persons or property as a result of using this system.

2

INTRODUCTION

When I first set out to lower expenses and save money, I had the uncouponing mentality. A few years ago, everyone jumped on the extreme couponing boat and thought they had to spend like 10 hours a week, looking for coupons and deals, in order to save money. I didn't want to do that as I didn't have the time or patience to spend an hour only to save $5 on one shopping trip! Let me introduce you to a smarter way to save money. Lower your recurring expenses! This way, you will save money, month after month, consistently, without anymore effort. In this book, I have included some common recurring expenses. Do what works for you and your family. Don't get caught up in comparing yourself with the Frugal Joneses. Yeah, there is such a thing!

3

Don't let someone else tell you how much your grocery budget should be - it's none of their business! Don't let someone else make you feel guilty for eating out (when you enjoy these things and there's room in your budget for it). In other words: This is your life. This is your money. YOU get to decide how to spend it. Don't let anyone else tell you how to live your life. It's none of their freaking business!!! Know what is important to you and what makes you truly happy. Knowing your priorities will help you figure out what you can cut out of your budget.

4

RECURRING EXPENSES

Cable/Internet

If you have a promotional rate for your cable/internet, your price will go up after the year is up. And if you do nothing, your rate will keep going up, year after year. To save money, check out the latest promotions and call them before your rate expires to get the latest deal. They want to keep you as a customer so they will work with you. Cutting Cable It's becoming more common to cut cable nowadays as cable rates are soaring. We cut the cable cord and saved $75/mo! It was doable for us since we don't watch a lot of TV, with 2 young kids, we don't have the time. Instead, we use Netflix and Amazon Prime. IMBD FreeDive This is a brand new streaming service by IMBD that is completely free! Watch top rated, hit movies and TV shows for free. The only catch is that there are a few short ads and you have to watch via computer browser (as of this writing). And they have a limited, but good selection of movies and TV shows.

5

Mohu Leaf

This is an antenna that you attach from your TV to the window. You get HDTV local channels. The number of channels that you get depends on where you live.

The closer you live to TV towers, the more channels you get. To be honest, sometimes the reception is iffy.

SlingTV/YouTube TV

The downside to not having cable is that it makes it harder to watch sports. So if you're a sports fan or have one in your household, you might want to rethink cutting cable.

For apps like SlingTV and YouTube TV, they block out certain sports games, mostly home games, if you live near your favorite team. My husband and I are able to watch our favorite basketball team, the Warriors, through my sister-inlaw's cable account but we can't watch home games. We are OK with this though.

Transportation

My husband and I both drive used cars. My car is 28 years old and I have had it for 18 years! The downside is my car doesn't have auto lock or automatic windows.

We don't have car payments but we do have to do maintenance and repairs on our cars every year or two, but it still is a lot less than paying $500+/mo. on car payments. Insurance payments are also lower on used cars.

Also, if you don't drive a lot, like me, you can save more through your car insurance's low mileage program. You just have to report mileage twice a year to keep it up.

This may or may not work for you depending on how much you drive.

If you're looking to sell or buy a used car, a good site to check out is . They verify the ID of both the seller and buyer, check the vehicle's history for accidents, and include a third party vehicle inspection.

6

Phone/Cell Phone

At one point, we paid $170/mo. for our iPhones. So we searched for other carriers and switched to Android phones and saved $90/mo.! Androids aren't the same as iPhones but they are getting better and we live with it.

Another way we save on our smartphones is that we don't pay for a top-of-theline Android phone or a monthly fee for the phone. Instead, we bought unlocked Motorola phones from Amazon that are under $200. The smartphone and camera is good enough for us.

Groceries

I no longer spend my time couponing anymore. Instead, I use a grocery price list to figure out the best deal on items I buy the most and spend the most on.

I figured out that Costco has the best deal on toilet paper, paper towels, cooking oil, bread, eggs, milk, and PULL-UPs diapers. From there, I get those things at Costco and don't try to deal hunt every month.

For everything else, I go to Trader Joe's as they have the freshest meat and best prices on healthy foods. They don't have sales or coupons but offer the lowest prices on items because they work directly with suppliers.

7

Plus, I like that they come out with new products all the time and everything has a labelled price and you don't have to weigh anything to figure out cost.

Health Insurance

If you're struggling to make ends meet or lost your job, see if you qualify for free health insurance through your local human services agency. This was the biggest lesson I learned when my husband lost his job a few years ago. We were struggling to pay for Cobra and then I found out that we qualified for free health insurance through health and humans services. They paid 100% medical expenses and it was such a life saver! Another plus was that we were able to see our regular doctors, as they happened to be part of insurance.

Gym

This is an area where you have to ask yourself, is it worthwhile to me? Before I had kids, I would go to the gym often. When I worked in the financial district in San Francisco, I would hit the gym before work because it was convenient and just a block away from work.

8

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download