Trimming my budget for 2018

[Sallyr70]

So, end of the year.... I always start thinking about ways to improve financially for the next year. Here are the things I'm going to do to spend less/ save more. Feel free to add what you are going to do too!

1. HSA account: company contributes $250, and I will save $838 by not paying the premium = $1088/ year (potentially... I will have some out of pocket costs, but it's motivation to keep up my healthy habits.)

2. Netflix- downgraded my account = $60/year

3. Cell phone- cancel my Verizon month to month, sign up with Republic Wireless. = $320/year

4. Massages- I am a member where they charge you for one massage per month. I'm going to stop it for at least 6 months. Savings = at least $414 ($69/mo x 6). In addition, tipping is usually $12-15 depending on massage length that I won't be spending.

Make money:
1. Chase sign up bonus for checking and savings = $500 earned.
I'm still on the fence on this one.... will have to make sure that I can fulfill all the various requirements to get the bonus and avoid the monthly fees. I can close the accounts in 6 months.

[Gailete]

I've been thinking of some things that I can do differently this next year. Our income is relatively small compared to expenses, so I need to find new sources of income and find new ways to save.

This may sound weird but this year as part of the Amazon Vine Program I got three different planning calendars. Two were way too big for me to handle easily, but one has plenty of spaces on pages for both appointments and a way to add my weekly bills to be paid on each weekly spread. I've been keeping track of bills in a spiral notebook for years now that has really helped me keep track of things, but I'm thinking if I can coordinate it with my appointments as well as some pre-planning of things I need to get done. I run an on line business that except for going to the doctors it seems to take over my days. But to find a way to make more and decrease expenses, I NEED to have time to work on those objectives, so I want to set aside 2 days a month. As most of us know that unless they are written down, goals don't seem to get accomplished.

Not sure how this will work out, but I saved my first $1000 this week when signing up for my 2018 Medicare prescription plan. My new plan should, over the year, save me that much on my prescriptions. My next couple things to tackle are car/house insurance. These are things that I know need to be done, but I tend to put them off until I have 'time'. Well since I haven't found that 'time' I am going to have to plan the time. I read magazines that have articles of how to save money, and I just don't seem to find the time to do any of these things. So I will make appointments with myself to research and institute some of these ideas.

We will see how it goes

[bjsint]

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You can check out their website for a quick quote and see how much you would pay a month based on how many miles you drive on average