Focus on the Biggest Financial Leaks to Minimize Budget Stress
You’ve probably been told that when it’s time to save, every dollar counts. While this is true, cutting out your morning coffee won’t have the same impact as shrinking your home. Make an effort to cut your biggest expenses to fix your budget with the least stress.
As advice site The Muse explains, every financial decision you make takes time, effort, and mental energy. Some changes you can make will have more impact than others. If you put the effort into making these larger changes, you will be able to relieve stress as much as possible. For example, if you can cancel your cable TV bill with a single phone call, you end up doing much more than resisting the urge to drink coffee every morning. The more costs, the more time and effort you have to spend on reducing them:
Make smart choices about the big items in your budget and don’t get hung up on buying up a penny. After all, if you spend 50% of your salary on renting a home, giving up coffee won’t help anyway … Targeting high spending can mean finding a roommate and choosing a cheaper car. or spend a few hours calling service providers to negotiate better rates for your biggest bills.
Of course, this does not mean that you cannot waste time or energy on little things. Just treat them proportionately. If your house was on fire and your dog was just peeing on the carpet, obviously one of these crises needs to be dealt with much sooner than the other. Likewise, if you spend five to ten hours a week on coupons to save $ 30 at the grocery store, but your rent is 50% of your family’s income, high rents should require a lot more attention from you if possible. …