Like for many people, inflation has hit us hard. We’ve had to change our spending habits, change vacation and entertainment plans, and try to find any ways we can to make our money work for us while everything seems to get more expensive all too quickly.
I’ve had to make use of a family budgeting calculator to help me figure out where our income needs to go, what we can change, what we can stop doing, and how we can manage right now despite the many twists and turns that have come our way the past couple of years. I had hopes things would balance out to pre-pandemic things once lockdowns lifted, but had to come to terms with the reality of the situation that many things have changed.
Some of the ways that I’ve adjusted my budget is to slow down on debt repayment. I have medical debt, and some other debts that I’ve been working on paying off. Sadly, at the moment I’ve had to slightly lower the payments going to them all while we try and get ahead of other parts of our finances. While it may seem scary, paying even just the minimum to collectors is better than paying nothing at all and right now will still work on paying down debts. Even if it takes longer, it helps with making it through financially right now.
We’ve also put vacations on hold, we had planned to take a vacation, just my partner and I, to see a show a few states away. But when it became apparent that we really could not do so financially and come back from the trip without struggling, we had to make the hard decision to cancel everything that we could and use our money elsewhere. It also taught me the important lesson to not book things that cannot be refunded if you need to cancel, losing out on money with something gets tough isn’t something I want to have to do again.
Re-evaluating cell phone services – One thing I had to do was look at who I went through for cell phone services for my older kids. Finding a lower cost cell phone service provider that still had great coverage in the area was extremely important. I was able to lower what we were paying monthly significantly and I’m happy I was able to save money in this way. It’s important to look into what you’re using on your phone in terms of minutes, data, and other features. You might be able to find a plan that costs less and still fits your needs.
Cancelling or reducing subscriptions – I was paying for three different streaming services, but we only were using two of them. So while the savings monthly wasn’t exactly huge, it was something that adds up over time. If you are paying for various service subscriptions, subscription boxes of stuff you aren’t fully using, or a forgotten about gym membership it’s a good idea to look into where you can make changes or cancellations and save money during this time.
Shop around for car insurance – Sadly inflation has hit car insurance rates too, it’s still a good idea to see if you’re getting the best price you can for the coverage you need. You’ll never know how much you could save, when I switched a few years back I ended up saving over $200 a year.
What have you done to help your family or even just yourself manage your budget as we go through inflation? I would love to know what tools or tricks you have used outside of financial calculators, and finding ways to reduce expenses in your life.
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