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Our houses are our peace havens, the place where we can finally get to smile after a frustrating day at work. We treasure our homes and the people we share them with even more. But during this post-Covid-19 financial crisis, your household expenditure could turn into another of your many issues. This has everything to do with the huge amount of money we spend on household expenses in a month.
Between the utility bills and other household expenses, the amount you spend will eat up the bigger of your monthly income. Most of us could comfortably cover these bills before the onset of the pandemic. But we are now struggling to make ends meet. Here is how you can reduce stress by reducing your monthly household expenses.
Slash Entertainment Expenses
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Entertainment is a luxury, and we can do without luxury during these times. Sit down and try to track all of your finances. You will be surprised to learn that you spend a substantial amount on entertaining yourself and your family every month. Some of your household members love Netflix, then there are others who prefer HBO.
To keep everyone happy and dutifully carry out the providing role you end up paying for both. Therefore, you end up spending twice the amount. Do a house poll and retain the streaming service with the most votes. Better yet there is a host of free streaming sites on the internet that can be used instead. Try this and use the extra cash to cater for the more important stuff.
Practice Cooking At Home
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People have busy schedules as they endeavor to get more money and better their lives. This habit of working from dusk to dawn ends up being strenuous and affecting the way we live. This is especially harder for those who support households. Having dependents pushes you to work very hard but in the end, the fatigue will surely catch up with you.
Because of the hectic schedules, we cannot find the time to even prepare healthy meals for our families. This has created the habit of takeaways and eating out. The habit is expensive, imagine paying for five different food orders each day. Planning and shopping for enough food to cook for a week or longer will cost less.
Use Shopping Lists
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This is a way of practicing self-restraint. Preparing shopping lists is a form of budgeting. Write down all the items you will need for a month and their prices. Consult retailers around the area to get precise prices. Total these prices and set away money to cater for the listed items. This will help you save a small amount.
Buying bulk products at once is cheaper than buying a single product frequently. This is why you should buy items for the whole month, you will pay the wholesale price. Shopping lists will curb impulse buying habits. You will think twice before buying an item that is not on the shopping list. Ensure you follow the shopping list if you really plan on reducing your monthly expenses.
Conserve Electricity
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Electricity bills are one of the biggest contributors to your staggering monthly expenses. Electricity is used in every part of the house. Apart from lighting which is the primary function, electricity is used for cooking, blending and refrigeration in the kitchen alone. The TV and the HiFi system consumes energy in the living room. The kids also use a lot of power playing video games on PlayStations.
Electricity is important for our daily house activities. We therefore cannot get rid of this bill but we can reduce it by conserving power. Encourage the household members to switch off the lights once they are done using them. Open up the drapes and use natural light during the day. Use energy saving electrical appliances and unplug them after use.
Conserve Water
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Water is the third most scarce resource in the world. I’m talking about clean water, not the murky stuff in ponds or the salty water in filling our oceans. Because of this water bills are usually very expensive. Water and electricity are arguably the highest utility bills in our houses.
Like electricity bills, water bills can also be considerably lowered when we try to conserve. Install quality piping from ppr pipes wholesale suppliers and quality faucets to prevent leakages. Avoid using running water and lessen the time spent in the shower.
Conclusion
The Covid-19 pandemic has had many negative impacts on our lives. We lost our loved ones and others suffered permanent health conditions. The economy was not spared too, restrictions were placed to reduce infections, and these affected businesses and companies.
This consequently led to pay cuts and layoffs. Then we could no longer take care of our financial responsibilities well. This article guides us on how to make do with the little we have by reducing our monthly household expenditure.
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