Posted by Amanda Green

When people look to save money, they often make resolutions that help their finances but don’t greatly improve their overall budget. They promise not to buy a second pair of designer shoes, for example, and therefore they forgo the accompanying expense. But it would be far more productive to make a resolution that affects your day-to-day finances.

The savings on an individual basis may be smaller, but the aggregate benefit stands to be far more influential.
For these reasons, deciding to save money on your food expenses can amount to an excellent new year’s resolution. Without sacrificing quantity, quality, or nutritional value you can find ways to cut your meal costs and save some money.Here are some tips for how you can go about doing this:
Plan Ahead
When most people go to the grocery store, they buy items that they think they need in addition to items that they simply want. If you plan your meal out ahead of time, however, you can reduce your shopping list to one item type only: items that you know you need. This will save time as well as money. To this end, plan out all your meals for the next couple of weeks. Then, go shopping and getting only those ingredients that are needed to make these determined meals.
Maximize Value
Maximizing the value of your purchase requires two elements. First, it means buying foods that have high ratios of nutritional caloric content relative to cost. These foods include beans, rice, lentils, and pasta. Second, you can always find savings when making purchases in bulk. If you have the storage space, non-perishable food items are best suited for large-scale purchases.
Don’t Eat Out
This last tip goes without saying, but eating frequently at restaurants can cause your food budget to balloon. Choosing to eat at a restaurant instead of at home is like getting two Insurance quotes and opting to take the more expensive policy. But even despite the nutritional and cost benefits of cooking your own meals, many people are still understandably tempted to eat out. If you are one of those people, designate a specific day of the week during which you can eat out or set a hard limit on your monthly restaurant expenditure.
Hopefully these tips can help you start cutting food costs and saving some money in the upcoming year. While the savings described here may not seem like much, they can certainly add up quickly if followed over a longer period of time.

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Posted by Money Tips Staff

Furnish Your House on A Budget

Although housing prices are currently quite low, you’ve probably still dropped a pretty penny to purchase your new home.  And if you didn’t get quite what you hoped for on the sale of your previous property, you could be looking for ways to save around the house.  So whether this is your first home or you’ve simply made a move, you might be seeking furnishings for less.  Of course, that doesn’t mean you want your interior space to look like a frat house, complete with cheap, mismatched décor from a second-hand store or even a street corner.  But if your budget is pretty limited, you might wind up feeling like you have little choice in the matter.  However, there are plenty of ways to get the furnishings you want to turn your house into a home at far less expense.  Here are a few tips to help you get started.

First, you need to consider all of your options.  For starters, you could buy everything new, and surprisingly, you can actually save money and get brand new furniture.  Although few stores have a “rent to own” program these days, many offer payment plans that include up to a year of interest free payments.  And if you shop sales or haggle with the proprietor, you may even be able to start at a lower sum than you bargained for.  Of course, going to a store is still going to be your most expensive option, so why not look online?  You can often find better prices on the new furnishings you crave, you’ll get a much larger selection, and with websites like Overstock.com, you can find vastly reduced prices over retail.

But still, you can save a lot more by going with second-hand, and you don’t have to succumb to the eclectic mishmash of furniture that this often implies.  For one thing, there are a lot more resources available these days to find used furnishings than simply popping by your local thrift store.  You can look for estate sales to get some really nice matching sets at a fraction of the cost of new, or you could look for reclaimed furniture outlets (where refurbishing is common), but again, going online could save you more.

Craigslist is a wonderful place to find the furnishings you need, whether you’re looking for arts and crafts, French countryside, or mid century modern furniture.  You just never know what you’ll find in your area.  Are you looking for couches, end tables, a bedroom set, or even standing desks?  What about a dining room table that seats ten or a couch with a hide-a-bed?  You may have to do some searching and visit a few places, and you’ll almost certainly have to haul the furniture yourself, but considering that you can get pieces that are practically new (or at least in very good condition) for cheap or even free, it’s worth spending some time to tool around on this sharing site.

And of course, you can save a ton by doing some refurbishing on your own.  Reupholstering couches and chairs and refinishing cabinets and tables can mean that old furniture you get for practically nothing becomes as good as new with only a little extra expense.  So you’ll get the customized pieces you want for a lot less than buying them new.

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How to Save Money on Bookkeeping for Your Home and Business

Posted by Elizabeth Retton

You might be thinking to yourself that the answer here is easy: do it yourself!  But unless you have some experience with bookkeeping, finance, accounting, and/or tax laws, you might not actually save money through this method of managing expenses for your home and business.  Okay, so most of us muddle through alright when it comes to household finance, but you might be surprised by how much you’re missing out on in the way of savings by adopting a DIY attitude.  And when it comes to your business, you could almost certainly benefit from a bit of expert advice or even a long-term relationship with a professional accountant.  But how can you get these essential services for less?  Here are just a few tips to help you save on bookkeeping for both your home and your business.

1. Get organized.  You may not be able to do everything on your own, but keeping your records in order is something that absolutely everyone can do, and it will assuredly save you money down the line.  You can store pay stubs and payment records for monthly bills in a simple accordion file (or a more complex file system) for easy reference and enter everything into an Excel spreadsheet (including income, expenses, deductibles, and so forth) to take to your accountant come tax time.  You can even do easy calculations (totals) on your own to save time (since professionals charge by the hour).
2. Get software.  If you’re having trouble keeping all of your financial documents orderly, consider a program like QuickBooks to help you out (good for business or home use).  Although it isn’t cheap (you’ll pay upwards of $150 for the pro version), consider how much you might pay an accountant for each hour that he has to slog through piles of your paperwork.  In the long run, this handy tool could end up saving you a lot (especially considering you can use it year after year).
3. Take a class.  Old-school bookkeeping is easy, but not very efficient.  And while computer programs are faster, they may leave you scratching your head.  So why not take a class to familiarize yourself with modern accounting practices?  Often you can find weekend courses (or even online classes) in your community (check with the community center or a local community college) at low cost to help you learn programs like QuickBooks.  And you can look for information online about current tax laws and how they affect you.  There are so many amazing tools at your disposal these days when it comes to doing your own bookkeeping; don’t let a lack of knowledge stop you from taking advantage of them.
4. Hire a temp.  When it comes to bookkeeping for a business, you may need a little more help.  The process is no doubt going to be more complex than managing the expenses for your household and the laws will differ, as well.  So instead of pulling out your hair as you try to go it alone, or spending beaucoup bucks to let an accountant deal with it, think about hiring a temp or a weekend bookkeeper to whip your records into shape.  This route is far cheaper than your average accountant and it will save you a lot of time and trouble, as well.
5. Write it off.  Did you know that any time you spend money on legal services related to your business (or even legal advice on taxation for yourself) you can write it off?  No?  Well, there are probably a lot of write-offs you’re missing out on if you’re doing all your bookkeeping on your own.  In some cases, you have to spend money to make money, so unless you’re willing to take the time to learn everything you need to know on your own, it behooves you to hire someone to help you maximize your earnings, minimize expenditures, and make sure that you get all the deductibles your home and business are eligible for each year.

Elizabeth Retton is a contributing writer for Ian B Thompson Sheffield Accountants , with 25 years of experience in accountancy.

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