The Frugal Free Gal

Do you have a low income but want to save money? Learn how to budget when you have low income with these tips below.

Many families live on a low or fixed income rate. This can make it exceptionally difficult to save money or spend wisely! It seems every time your funds arrive, it’s time to put them all out towards bills.

If you’re living on low income and want to find a way to budget properly, then continue reading to learn more about how you can budget when you have low income.

How to Budget When You Have Low Income

Review Expenses and Income

Your first step to budgeting on a low income is to figure out what you have coming into the home for income and what’s going out for expenses.

Evaluate all of your spending habits and subtract that from your net household income.

This will give you a general idea of where you can cut costs, and how much money you have left after spending on the major bills and needs for your household.

Keep Housing Costs Under Control

It’s easy to say keep housing costs under control when the cost of renting is increasing, while the chances of buying are going down.

Whether you rent or own, it’s important to do your best to keep housing costs under control. Consider ways to be more efficient with your energy bill, heating bill, and other utilities since you can’t exactly adjust your household rent or mortgage payment.

The general rule of thumb is to keep your household expenses at no more than 35% of your income.

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Get and Stay out of Debt

Living on a low income is hard enough, but having debt on top of it is is even harder. That’s why you must focus on getting and staying out of debt.

Focus on one old debt at a time and work to pay that off. This will help free up some of your funds and allow you to be able to budget your low income easier.

Print out all of your debt and rank it from most important to least important, start choosing one debt at a time and toss money at it any chance you can to lower your debt to income ratio.

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Stop Eating Out

It may be convenient to order take out or delivery, but dining out is going to cost you a lot more than buying a quick meal you can cook at home.

Try to cut all spending on eating out and go grocery shopping once a week to keep your overspending on food options under control.

You can enjoy eating out later on when you get your low income budget under control.

How to Cut Back on Eating Out

Get a Handle on Grocery Shopping

Now that you’ve decided to stop eating out, you must get a handle on your grocery shopping expenditures.

Sit down and evaluate how much you’ve spent on groceries for the last three months. Evaluate what you’ve been buying and how long that food supply has lasted you.

Determine a good, solid grocery shopping budget by figuring out what you need to buy weekly and where you can buy these items for a lower cost. Don’t forget to use coupons!

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Establish a Zero-Sum Budget

The most important and probably most difficult part of budgeting when you have low income is to learn that you’ll have to establish a zero-sum budget.

This means you’ll already have your weekly income set aside towards the various bills and needs for the household. You won’t have any extra money lying around to spend frivolously.

This will take a lot of motivation and self-preservation to not spend money on unnecessary items, but you can do it.

These are just some of my tips I have to help you learn how to budget when you have low income.

Low income happens to many of us, whether it’s a new circumstance or simply a way of life that you’re going to have to deal with, living on a low income doesn’t have to be stressful.

Use my tips to start budgeting your low income today so that you can slowly start to climb up towards financial stability!

Are you tired of high heat bills? Are you wanting to save money on heating your home? Learn ways to save on home heating this winter!

While there’s nothing better than snuggling up in a warm house as the snow falls outside, keeping your home a warm and cozy temperature can become costly quickly.

Don’t spend a fortune heating your home!

Here are ways to save on your home heating this winter.

Ways to Save on Home Heating This Winter

Dress Warm and Use Blankets

Wait! Before you turn up the thermostat, put on warm clothing and dress in layers. Consider wearing warm socks and a sweater or cardigan when lounging around.

Leave cozy throw blankets out where they’ll invite you to snuggle up. Put an extra blanket on your bed. You’ll be able to turn down the heat and still be comfortable.

You can also invest in an electric heated blanket to keep warm!

Use a Space Heater

If your family spends the vast majority of your time in one or two rooms, it doesn’t make sense to heat the entire house.

Instead, turn the heat on as low as you can and then use a space heater in the rooms you frequent. You’ll stay nice and warm at a fraction of the cost.

We currently use a space heater in our living room area and my office area! It’s one of my favorite investments.

Check for Leaks

Common places for air leaks include around doors, windows, fireplaces and sockets. Go through your home looking for leaks.

Check out window insulation kits or weather stripping for doors and windows to make sure you limit cold air coming through.

Draft stoppers are a great idea to use at the base of doors to keep cold air from coming in. A simple way to test for this is to place your hand at the base of the door and see if you can feel the cold air coming through!

I currently use draft stoppers on our set of French doors that connect my living room and office area. We also use a fireplace blanket when it’s not in use to keep cold air from coming in from our fireplace!

Invest in More Insulation

In addition to small leaks, your home may have large areas that are not well-insulated as well. While the heat may not seep out as fast in these areas, if the areas are large, you could still be out a substantial amount of money.

Insulation is relatively cheap, and putting it up isn’t too difficult. Even a roll or two added to the attic can help.

Open the Blinds

If you’ve ever opened your blinds wide to enjoy the sunshine, you know that letting the light in can really heat up your home. Wintertime is the perfect time to use this to your advantage.

Open the blinds during the day, especially on the side of your house that faces the sun. You’ll feel warmer in no time, and it doesn’t cost a thing!

Adjust Your Ceiling Fans

Did you know that you are supposed to switch the direction your ceiling fans turn seasonally? It’s true. In the winter, your ceiling fans should run clockwise in order to gently push the warm air that floats to the ceiling back down again.

Get Regular HVAC Maintenance as Needed

For those of us trying to live frugally, putting off home maintenance and repairs can be very tempting. Yet, some amount of regular HVAC maintenance is necessary to keep your system clean and running well.

Otherwise, you’ll be wasting a ton of energy because the system is too dirty and inefficient to heat your home properly.

At the very least, you should change your furnace air filter every couple of months, or as often as every month if you have pets or allergies in your family.

If your heat doesn’t seem to be keeping up, however, or if you are spending way more than you should, larger maintenance and repairs may be in order.

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Garage sale season will be here soon! And while you should definitely use garage sales to find great deals on furniture, toys, books and all sorts of other stuff, you should also consider throwing your own garage sale.

You’ll not only get rid of some of your unwanted stuff, you make a few dollars (or several hundred dollars), too! And while throwing a garage sale can be fun, it also takes a lot a planning to get it right.

Here are five tips to help you do exactly that.

Tips for Planning a Garage Sale

Treat Shoppers Like Friends

If you’re nice to people, they’ll be nice to you, which means they’ll be more likely to buy something and more likely to buy it for the price you asked.

When shoppers arrive, don’t just sit in your lawn chair. Walk up to them, smile, greet them, and make small talk. Just like you would if a friend were visiting your home.

Related: 5 Ways Decluttering Can Actually Save You Money

Offer Freebies

Have you ever noticed that garage sales that offer free coffee, soda and snacks (doughnuts are a good choice) usually have the most people?

That’s because people like free stuff. And even if they only stop by for the free soda, they’ll still take some time to look around and they might even buy something.

Make Sure Your Stuff Looks New

Okay, you might not be able to make it look “new,” but you should at least take some time to dust it, clean it, or repair it as much as possible.

This seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many sellers skip this step – and then wonder why no one wants to buy that barely used (but very grimy looking) toaster oven.

Start Early

Garage sale shoppers get up early, which is why the peak garage sale hours are between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. With that in mind, you should definitely resist the temptation to sleep in until 8 and then take an hour to set up your garage sale.

Wake up at 5 (on a Saturday? Yes!) and be set up and ready to sell by 6 a.m.

Related: 5 Ways to Get Good Furniture at a Good Price

Grab a Friend

Waking up at 5 a.m. and standing around your front lawn for four hours is a lot more fun with friends. For that reason, you should definitely invite a friend or two to bring some of their unwanted goodies and join you.

You’ll not only have a companion to talk to during the slow periods, but all of your stuff put together will make your garage sale look bigger, and when it comes to garage sales, bigger is better!