January 18, 2010

January 19, 2010

Business travels can be a beautiful thing when considering your tight budget. While I am aware that not everyone works under the conditions of traveling for work, your sustenance is served well by the corporate card. When I am on the road, Jeff is eating 50% of the inventory and needing 50% less for the fridge. For this reason, I am particularly sensitive to those who do not use expense accounts. In addition, I swirl my memories around the years when I did not travel, did consume more at home, and had to come up with more innovative ways to save. Below is a helpful top ten list of how to squeeze the nickel until the buffalo poops.

1. Compare sales on store websites to strategize best prices for food and gas.
2. Water down shampoo bottles and dish soap containers to stretch their contents by 1/8 to ¼.
3. Spend some time during January to assess the costs of your bills and have a family meeting to discuss clever ways to bundle costs (Internet, phone, and cable), how to reduce energy consumption, and plan short-term and long-term financial goals.
4. Do an early spring cleaning and reorganize items that you can use but are in incorrect places and can be used if placed in appropriate placed. For instance, when you clean, gather those hotel shampoo bottles and start using them up.
5. Plant a garden of foods that naturally grow in your area. Planting kiwi vines in Colorado will prove pointless as you will consume much more water for no return on your investment. If you do not have the space to time to garden, plant window herbs.
6. Use your city library rather than buying books and renting movies.
7. Re-evaluate any charges that come directly to your credit card or checking accounts directly each month. While you may not want to give up the gym, you may have another expense, such as magazines subscriptions that you can read online, instead.
8. Eliminate one common service you use for one month. Examples include dry cleaning, housekeepers, storage rentals, or online services you no longer need. We would have visited the dry cleaners three times so far this month to the tune of about $40 each week. Washing and ironing just our shirts brought that bill down to about $20 per week.
9. Eat only seasonal fruits and vegetables as they fetch better prices than Costa Rican grapefruits during winter months.
10. Close all dampers or turn off heat in rooms you do not use regularly.