Posts Tagged ‘Survive’

Money Saving Tips To Survive On Reduced Company Expenses

This manual is packed full of practical real-life tips and techniques from the Uk, teaching you all you need to know about how to cut your monthly expenses bill (and other tricks), by paying less but getting more value for your company’s money.
Money Saving Tips To Survive On Reduced Company Expenses

Personal Finance Software to Help You Survive Financial Crisis

Do you know how to avoid getting caught in the financial crisis? This question addresses one of the biggest fears most everyone has today. If giants like Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers get shaken to their foundations, how can an average person resist getting caught? The answer is simple: spend less than you earn. The era of blithe consumerism is coming to an end, and we should prepare for lean times. It’s time to keep track of all income and expenses and cut down unnecessary expenditures. These simple things will help you to stand bad times.
Part of the survival strategy is organizing your financial life using a good personal finance manager. It will help you to see where your money goes without the hassle of doing everything manually. There are many money management tools out on the market today. One of them is Personal Finances – http://www.financessoftware.com

Overview
Personal Finances is a personal finance manager that will help you to control your budget better than ever. With a glance at its summary view and reports, you will understand where your money goes, pinpoint areas of excessive expenditure and cut down unnecessary expenses. The program also provides future planning you can project expected spending and income and find out how much money you will have at a future date.
The program is ideal for beginners as it keeps budget management simple and intuitive. The program has a simple, uncluttered interface and a lack of advanced features, which are rarely used by ordinary users. For example, Personal Finances has no college or retirement planner. However, when it comes to managing financial accounts, designing and tracking a family budget, the program outshines many others.
Getting started with Personal Finances is a matter of a few minutes. Simply click around to familiarize yourself with the functionality and refer to the program help file if there’s anything you do not understand at first glance.
You’ll also be pleased to discover no advertising “bells and whistles” that could be found in other money management software. Personal Finances is calm and keeps you that way as you focus on organizing your budget.

Getting Around the Interface
When you run the program, it opens into the main window that puts the financial details, tools and options that matter most to you up front. At the top of the window you can see the main commands. A list of transactions – income and expenses – is displayed in the central area of the window and all accounts are in the left area. The icons at the top of the main window let you quickly go to any part of the program, create an account, category, view calendar and create reports. In the left area, there are buttons that let you add, edit or delete transactions.
There are two views for transactions – Account and Summary. By default, the program opens into the Account tab where you can see the transactions associated with a particular account. However you can click on the Summary tab and see all the transactions, regardless of the account they are associated with.

Setting Up Accounts
Accounts in Personal Finances describe where money comes from. The program supports different accounts, such as real bank account, credit card, cash and pocket money. Setting up an account is a breeze to do. Click on the Accounts icon at the top of the main window, click the Add button, then enter the properties of a new account – name, currency, comment. Personal Finances also allows you to set up an account budget for any period of time, so that the user doesn’t overspend. Existing accounts can be edited or deleted.

Entering Transactions
Entering transactions is just as easy. It requires a click on the Add button in the right area of the main window. In the dialog that opens, you need to select the type of transaction – income, expense or transfer between accounts, then enter all details associated with this transaction such as the account, amount of money, and date that will appear on the calendar or in the list of transactions that are due. Transactions can be defined with categories, family members, and tags. Tags provide a way to differentiate between similar transactions that fall into the same category. Categorization by family members will tell you about spending habits of each member of your family.
Transactions can be scheduled, which makes Personal Finances very handy for repeating transactions – tax payments, electricity bills, etc. The frequency for which you can set up a scheduled transaction is weekly, monthly, and annually. When the due date for the scheduled transaction comes, you should select the transaction in the scheduler list, right-click its record and select the Apply Now option to enter the scheduled transaction into the account used to pay the bill. You should also remember to make this payment in the physical world.

Reporting
Personal Finances helps you to understand the flow of your money and control expenditures with handy graphs and reports. You can see the reports generated by categories, family members and tags. Clicking on any item in the report you can drill down to transactions associated with the item. You can generate reports that cover any period of time. Results can be printed out or saved to HTML, CHM, or TXT.

Security
For your peace of mind, Personal Finances allows you to protect the budget database with a password so that no one will get access to your confidential financial information except you.

Portability
If you want to keep tabs on your budget on the move, you can get a portable version of Personal Finances that will run from a USB flash drive. The program can be run from any computer, without leaving any tracks behind.

Personal Finances has a free version and a full-featured commercial version with a 30-day free trial, so you can download the program to see if it will meet your personal finance management needs.

Keeping a budget with Personal Finances (http://www.financessoftware.com) provides big benefits in the form of savings and elimination of unnecessary expenses. This will definitely help you to survive the financial crisis and step into better times.

Fifteen Great Money Saving Ideas and Tips to survive this Recession

Any expert would tell you to sit down and analysis your current spending habit before considering any money saving ideas and tips. You should do a budget of all your income and expenses and see how much money you have left at the end of the month. Armed with your spending information you should then consider the money saving tips below. Keep a record of how much you should be saving next month and compare the results. It is important that you continue this exercise annually.

In the current market it is difficult to know what to do with your savings so I suggest you consider looking at the last money saving idea for a tip that will save you thousands of pounds in the future

Switch to Freeview TV

Switch to Freeview digital TV and save up to £200 a year. You will need to buy a Digi-box receiver for around £50. Then you will receive more than 40 free digital TV Channels for free and there’s no monthly subscription to be paid.

Switching your Gas and Electricity Providers

Consider switching your fuel providers it could save you £100’s. As a nation we don’t like changing our utility providers and as a result our suppliers don’t offer us any better deals. They use their cheaper deals to entice new customers. Use a Comparison site to find the best deals around for your Gas and Electricity.

Cheaper Telephone and Broadband bills

Shop around for cheaper telephone and broadband suppliers. Many providers offer cheaper dual packages and low-cost dial up services as well as cheaper line rental. Use a Comparison site to find the best deals around today

Reduce your Mobile Phone costs

Consider switching your mobile from a monthly contract to a pay-as-you-go scheme if you don’t use your mobile a lot. If your family all have a mobile phone then you should consider a package with all the phones included.  Make sure that you all share the number of call minutes and the texts each month. There are deals around that will provide you with new phones within the package and they will allow you to alter the number of texts and call minutes each month.

Shop around for Better value Insurance Cover

Shop around for cheaper Car Insurance, Building & Contents Insurance and Life Insurance.  Remember everything that glitters is not golden. When looking to rebroke or change Insurance providers you need to compare like with like and not on price alone. Always look for the same cover and definitions for each Insurance policy or a better policy for a cheaper price when looking to change providers.

The cost of life cover only Insurance has reduced due to the fact that we are all living longer and the unthinkable has happened Life Insurance policies have become cheaper.

If you have any Critical Illness Insurance cover then tread very carefully and use a mortgage broker to rearrange a cheaper policy for you. The reason for this is the Insurance companies have changed many of their Insurance cover definitions and the number of conditions that they will cover. For peace of mind you should use a mortgage broker for protection. Should they change a good policy for an inferior policy then you could claim compensation for negligence.

Food Shopping

1.      Always make a list and try not to deviate from your shopping list.

2.      Don’t take your children or husband shopping as you will probably find it really hard to say no when they ask for something and they will only increase your shopping bill.

3.      Have your supermarket shopping delivered, it’s a great way of ordering what you need to maintain your weekly budget.

4.      Try and cook all meals from fresh, they are healthier than ready made meals and more nutritious. Invest in a cook book if you lack inspiration or knowledge.

5.      Look for a Farm shop with a butchery attached; our local Farm shop sells half a Lamb for £20 and half a Pig for £30 they are already frozen ready for the freezer. What a bargain!

6.      Consider using the supermarkets own-brand products as they are often the same or similar as branded products without the brand name and price tag.

7.      When last did you shop at your local market?  The food is generally cheaper and fresher from your local market as they have lower overheads and can therefore pass on the savings to you.

8.      Use the discount supermarkets like Asda, Aldi and Lidl. There are big savings to be made here. Don’t worry about shopping here; the food is quality and the car park is full of expensive cars, which suggests that everybody is shopping here – rich or poor.

Always ask yourself whether or not you really need a product or service and always consider alternatives. Don’t be enticed to buy the special offers like, buy-one-get-one-free promotions or the 30% off discount offer. It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it in the first place. Remember a bargain or an offer is either priced to get rid of stock quickly for a reason or it is priced into the product to start with.

Save money by Buying in the Sales

Clothes we all agree are cheaper if bought during shop sales. It’s possible to save a hundred pounds or more on a designer evening dress or a suit or any other type of clothing. Sometimes we just need to be patient and not be impulsive when deciding to buy items. Slowly, slowly catch a Bargain!

Have a look in the charity shops. You will be amazed at the designer clothes and the quality of some of the items they have for sale.

Always check on e-Bay for anything that you are considering buying, people all over the country sell clothes that are new or nearly new and have either never been worn or are nearly new. There are some real bargains to be had if you are willing to spend the time searching.

Recently there have been some swap sites being launched on the internet to swap designer clothes for cash or other garments.

Consider Shopping Online

The internet has grown rapidly over the past five years and you can buy just about anything while sat at home in a comfy chair. You can use the comparison websites to search out the cheapest price for the item that you are looking for and you can compare one brand with another without leaving your chair.

Are you claiming all your allowance

Many of us don’t know what benefits and tax credits we and our families are entitled to when it comes to claiming  for Pension Credits, Child Benefit, Child tax Credits, Working Tax credits, etc. It is reckoned that around £8 billion a year is not claimed by people who are entitled to claim benefits.

Prepaid Credit Cards

I love this idea as it gives you all the benefits without the credit card balance and you cannot overspend on it. To use a prepaid credit card you need to transfer an amount of money onto the card first before you go shopping. I guarantee that you will only spend what you can afford. This is a truly money saving product that everybody should have.

Quit Smoking

If you are smoking 20 cigarettes a day then you will be spending around £2,117 a year or more. This is a mind blowing amount of money and it will just be going up in smoke.

Now look at the benefits to your health and the health of your children, family and friends. We found when my wife and I gave up smoking that the house smelt cleaner and fresher. Our home does not need painting inside as often anymore, which is now saving us a small fortune as we don’t need to paint as often.

Just think if you packed in the weed, you and your family could enjoy a foreign annual holiday each year. You could choose to overpay your mortgage and finish paying it earlier. Alternatively, you could choose to save the money over the next twenty five years and save £52,925 plus any interest. Wow!  What are you waiting for?

One persons junk is another’s pride and joy

Consider selling anything that you haven’t used in the last two or three years. This is a pretty good indicator of whether or not you need it or not and if you have not used it the chances are that you don not need it. Sell it for some hard cash on e-bay.

Annual Holidays

This year is an exception compared with previous years when we were all going to America and other exotic holiday destinations. Now we find that our money in America won’t go as far as it did last year due to the exchange rate. Our European holidays have also just become more expensive due to the exchange rate. America is now 25% more expensive and the Euro is nearly on a parity with the Pound. So why not have a holiday in the UK and support our economy. At least your money will be worth the same and you will save on the cost of holiday travel. You would be surprised at how beautiful our island is.

Savings

If you are fortunate to have any savings then your need to search out the best Individual Savings Account (Isa) accounts. You can also chose to save up to £850 per month split between the two types of accounts.

An Isa provides Tax-free savings and a saver can invest up to £10,200 into an Isa each tax year irrespective of whether you are a low or high rate taxpayer.

Under the new provision announced by The Chancellor Alistair Darling in the last budget you can be put £5,100 into a cash Isa or a saving account and £5,100 can be invested in stocks and shares.

You can withdraw your money at anytime as long as you have not locked them into a fixed rate deal, once the money is withdrawn you cannot return it and if you withdraw during the year you will lose the tax-free incentive and the money will become taxable in the year you with draw it.

If you are a lower or high rate taxpayer then you will not pay any tax on the money invested in an Isa each year. Under normal circumstances you would pay 40% on the interest received from other saving schemes. If you are a lower rate taxpayer then you would pay 20% on the interest received from other saving schemes.

Your Mortgage

At present your only hope if you have any savings is a maximum return of 1.5% per year – this is appalling and outrageous! So why not over pay your mortgage which will be on an interest rate of 4% to 7% depending on your mortgage deal.  By overpaying your current mortgage will save you many thousands of pounds in interest and you can choose to reduce the term of your mortgage as well. Imagine paying your mortgage off two or three years early. If you paid £500 per month and you were to overpay your mortgage and you paid it off three years earlier you will save £18,000 plus the interest you would not be paying in the last three years. This saving could ultimately be worth around £21,000.

Saving to Survive the Credit Crunch

Many things are starting to bite as the global economic recession sets in. In these times of economic difficulties, it pays to be vigilant about your finances. The best way to get a grip on your finances and start saving money is to know what you’re doing with it.

1. Draw up a budget:

You will need to pin down the amount of money coming in and money going out. It should be easy to figure out how much money is coming in. You’re likely to have more difficulty with the outgoings.

The ultimate objective in working out a budget is for you to have a surplus, that is, to spend less money than you make in a month. Unless you generate a surplus each month, it will be difficult to get ahead financially. Any small amount will help: saving money as little as $10 a day on lunch at work gives you $50 a week which mushrooms into $2,400 over a 48-week working year.

You will need to know where you are actually spending your money to have an idea of cost items you can cut down or cut out altogether. List down everything; hide nothing; and be ruthless in cost-cutting.

2. Save:

If you normally spend less than your monthly income, saving money would just come naturally. The rule of thumb is to target saving at least one-tenth of your monthly earnings. Assuming you are able to do that, it will not be enough to just place the money in your transaction savings account. Look around for a savings account that offers higher interest yields.

3. Reduce energy consumption:

Energy bills amount to approximately $1,500 a year for the typical household. Energy for heating your home can easily account for one-half of your power bills during winter, while hot water costs constitute about one-fourth.

Saving money on energy is not difficult to achieve. Applicances that are fitted with special energy saving technology will cut your power consumption. But there are small corrections you can do that add up to big savings.

You can save about $100 a year by making sure the TV, computer, and other appliances are turned off when not in use. Putting these appliances into standby mode is not the same as turning them off completely. Over the course of a year leaving items such as your TV and other electronics on standby could account for around 10% of your power bill.

You’ll be saving money if you find ways to trap heat inside the house in winter. For instance, making sure doors get shut, windows are properly sealed, and bare floors are covered can help. You could save as much as $200 a year by ensuring proper insulation on your ceilings, walls, and floors.

4. Compare energy costs:

As well as using appliances less and turning them off you should look to cut your bills further by comparing gas and electricity energy plans available in your area. Comparison websites can help you evaluate plans and prices, while electricity retailers publish online guides on energy consumption and estimated running costs of various appliances.

You need some patience in comparing prices because many variables are involved. The comparison websites provide many tools to assist you in this regard. It is useful to remember that the most expensive rate in your area is likely to be the default tariff.

5. Avoid unnecessary fees:

It is good to keep a sharp eye on your checking and savings accounts, loans, and other items which can be subject to bank fees and charges. An overdraft on your accounts will automatically cost you $30 in over-limit fees per transaction; sometimes, a penalty fee is charged. The easiest way to avoid these charges is to keep a cloise eye on your accounts and ensure they hold sufficient funds. Look around for low-fee or no-fee accounts on offer from some banks.