By Webster Tilton Much as it pains us to admit it, most of us aren’t rich. We need to structure our spending to make sure we don’t go over budget and run out of funds. With that in mind here are some simple ideas for how you can reduce your expenses and stay financially healthy:   Don�...

By Webster Tilton

Much as it pains us to admit it, most of us aren’t rich. We need to structure our spending to make sure we don’t go over budget and run out of funds. With that in mind here are some simple ideas for how you can reduce your expenses and stay financially healthy:

 
Don’t eat out. There are many reasons not to eat out, not least of which being the fact that fast food is essentially poison. But it’s also expensive poison. A single meal will run you anywhere from $8 to $10, and considerably more if you go to a sit-down restaurant. Buy real food at a grocery store and prepare it yourself. Bring your lunch to work and go home for dinner.

Upgrade your home insulation. Heat costs money, and thus a poorly insulated home is dumping money out the window. The thought of the cost of hiring a professional might make you cringe but your bill from National Fuel will be far worse. There are also some cheap, effective things you can do yourself. Any hardware store or home store will sell plastic window insulation sheets. You cut a piece to size, seal it around your window with double sided tape, and then shrink it with a hair dryer or a heat gun. Instant savings.

Take the time to get a tune up, for yourself and your car. Preventative maintenance is a hassle because it costs money and usually requires you to take time off work. But neglecting your annual physical or your regular car tune ups only invites more expensive trouble down the line.

 
Comparison shop. Again, this takes time out of your day and can be a hassle in its own right, but the benefits are obvious and enormous. Many companies make a killing off of people who simply don’t bother to look around and see if they can get the same service cheaper somewhere else, or if someone else has that same item on sale. The internet is the great equalizer between customers and vendors, use it to your advantage. Many comparison shopping websites already exist and do it for you, effectively removing all of the effort (and any excuses for not doing it.)

 
Most important of all: be serious and disciplined about following these tips. All of the above tips are obvious, well known methods of saving money. But we’re often too busy, or to lazy, or to set in our ways to to take advantage of them. In the end nobody but you can make this happen, so there’s nothing to it but to buckle down and make the effort.