Are you living paycheck to paycheck?

.

Do you feel like you have more month and money to last the month?
.
Well you are not alone, thousands of people are in this same situation. One of the first things you want to do is get a handle on how your money is being used.
.
Track your spending, here is how:
1. Create a file or spread sheet on your computer listing your fixed expenses (ex. mortgage, insurance, taxes, etc)
2. Create a section also for miscellaneous expensive (ex. everything that is not the same cost every month)
3. Track this for a month to see where you are spending your money. It is important to track everything.
.
When you do this for one month, you will be surprised to find that you will have some miscellaneous spending that is more than you though… maybe.
.
I know that when I did this, it revealed to me that I eat out more than I thought, much more. I found that I could save $100’s a month eating at home.
.
Yahoo has an article also on this subject. Here is an excerpt:

We all want to save more money. After all, none of us like the feeling of looking at our bank account (or under our mattress) and realizing that we have no money left and our next paycheck is still a week away. By saving a few dollars here and there, we can get some breathing room in our monthly budgets and hopefully start saving up for future expenses, as well.
.
This article is for anyone who feels stretched financially. It will give you some ideas on how to save more money each month. Oh, and if you’re actually keeping your money under your mattress please go sign up for a bank account! Keeping your money in a federally insured bank account is a whole lot safer than keeping it under your mattress. (You should also have a savings account set up, where you can earn interest as you save.)
.
Here are the first places you can look to shave some money off your monthly expenses.
.
Your Phone Bill
For most of us, a phone bill is a non-negotiable expense. We need a phone in order to communicate with the outside world — friends, parents, coworkers, service providers, etc. But a lot of people these days are paying more than they need to for phone service. If you have both a cellphone and a landline, it may be worth canceling the landline and directing all phone traffic to your cellphone. And speaking of the cellphone, ask the company if you can switch over to a less expensive plan. In particular, look into prepaid plans — these do not require a contract and are sometimes cheaper than the regular plans. Do an Internet search for cheap prepaid plans and you’ll get a lot of different options to compare.

.
To read the full article, click here.
.
This money that you save, actually save it. In the next post, I am going to share with you what do actually do with the savings. You may be thinking, use the saving to pay bills, but I am going to take you further than that.
.
.
.