Collaborative Post¦ We can all need a helping hand once in a while and especially when it comes to our finances. Maintaining a financially healthy home is, in fact, often easier said than done and many people before you have struggled with making the ends meet.

Image by: Pexels

Even if it’s not at this point for you, yet, it’s still an excellent idea to figure out how you can live a bit more within your means. It doesn’t even have to change your lifestyle all that much as long as you’re able to make a few priorities and pinpoint what you can do without.

Here is a handful of tips to help you sort your personal finances out once and for all so that you can feel a bit calmer at night. It’s the kind of stuff that makes your home a bit happier too, though, and it will definitely be worth it, in the end.

Start by increasing your savings

Even if you do find ways to make more money, either now or in the future, you should still find ways to cut down on your expenses. This is particularly important if you’ve either forgotten about your budget or just never really created a proper one as you’ll be surprised at how much you can actually save when you put your mind to it.

Increasing your saving is all about paying yourself first, and before all of your other expenses, before allocating a set amount to bills and groceries. Your savings are your first priority, in other words, and this shift will certainly show in your bank account as well after a couple of months.

Areas where your household is able to save a lot more includes groceries, of course, which you can cut down on by buying the shop’s own brand and learning to buy in bulk. Freeze as much as you can, use that slow-cooker, and learn how to meal prep as well; it will boost both your savings and your goals of keeping a healthy diet.

Other areas with potential for saving even more are your service delivery companies. Consider changing them out for a better one, give them a quick call to express your wish, and see if they don’t offer you a better deal. A lot of people have done this successfully and worked our a much better deal as the service delivery would like to keep them as a customer.

Everyone wins, in other words, and your savings account wins more than anyone.

If you need to refinance your mortgage to help with this, you can look here.

Working out a better budget

Every phase of your life needs a revised budget so make sure that you go through it from time to time, and try to increase the amount you’re able to save as well. That way, you can always feel confident that your personal finances are perfectly healthy at all times.

The next step is to create the kind of budget that gives you order and control in your life again. It might even feel a bit liberating in case you haven’t had this before as you’ll have a complete overview of what you should be spending as well as how much you’ll be left with, at the end of the month.

It’s the kind of stuff that lowers your stress levels a bit and makes it so much easier to breathe freely when you have money worries.

You can do this after you’ve worked out a few better deals with your service delivery companies, though, to make sure that you’re able to create an up to date budget. Check out this article for some great tips on how to make a budget that your household can stick to without having to go hungry.

Keep in mind that you may be able to get a few better deals on other stuff as well that you used to spend a lot of money on. If you have products that you use a lot where the quality really matters, such as olive oil and shower gel for those with sensitive skin, you might want to allow yourself to buy from the high end of these products.

You could actually wish for it from your friends and family for birthdays and Christmas, by the way, as a nice bottle of expensive olive oil is a great gift in any way. Now you’re able to enjoy the kind of products you love without having to pay up for it each and every time.

The rest of the things you buy, on the other hand, should be from a cheaper ranger so that you’re able to save a bit more. You could get cheap tyres fitted, for example, without having to hurt your budget too much – and you might even be able to find more room for savings as long as you cut down on your expenses significantly.

Get your debt under control

Sorting out your personal finances is about more than increasing your savings and decreasing your expenses, though, even if this is a great way to start and a sure recipe for success. Unfortunately, most of us have an amount of debt that needs to be paid back such as mortgages, car loans, student debt, credit card debt, etc – the list really does go on.

If you’ve been neglecting your debt a bit, one of the first things you need to do is give those creditors a call. It doesn’t have to be a difficult conversation at all; you can improve your credit and work out a deal with them quite easily yourself and the creditors will just be happy that you called to find a way out.

It’s a good idea to offer them a lump sum of money if you’re able to, though, as they might take some of your debt off in return but don’t despair if you’re not able to do this – and you should certainly not create even more debt in order to do this.

You might want to consolidate your debt instead, for example, if you have multiple loans to different lenders as this will make it a bit easier for you. It doesn’t have to come with any other expenses, by the way, but some will increase your debt a bit by consolidating so watch out for this and shop around a bit before you make any decisions.

Make sure that you have enough leverage in your budget to save up for an emergency fund as well. In case you should find yourself in difficulties in the future, you will have this emergency fund to fall back on and it will help a lot in terms of the emotional stress we suffer when money is tight.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.