If you thought the first half of the year went by quickly, you won’t know what hit you in the second half. Fall is fleeting when it’s full of back-to-school jitters, Thanksgiving celebrations, and Halloween haunts. Then winter sweeps you up in a flurry of snowflakes and gingerbread only to deposit you in the New Year, where you can expect the whirlwind to start over from scratch.
If you’re worried about how your finances will fare in what’s left of 2018, check in with these three simple tips. They can help budget-conscious families survive another year out of the red.
1. Organize your finances
A budget is every parents’ secret weapon. It helps you figure out how much you can afford to spend on things like your children’s new fall wardrobe, Halloween treats, or gifts from “Santa”. It also helps you put more towards these expenses in case you don’t have a lot of cash to work with.
A budget, by listing all of your purchases, reveals your worst spending habits. These financial weaknesses can lead you to considerable savings if you’re willing to reduce or eliminate them from your budget.
You might see your family spends more than you realized on takeout or nights at the movie theatres. Your budget might show you’re spending twice as much as the national average on groceries for the month. Once you reduce what you spend on takeout and groceries, you can put what you saved from these cuts towards a nest egg. This savings account can help you cover any expense in the future.
2. Know where to look for help
Time is an important factor when it comes to your savings. They don’t just magically appear, no matter how much you wish they would. You need to build them up, dollar by dollar, until you have a considerable nest egg for the fall. This process can take weeks, if not months, to complete successfully.
Families that don’t budget in advance might have to take out payday loans to make up the difference. Without a nest egg or emergency fund at your disposal, an online payday loan is the next best way to cover essential bills and repairs.
Online lenders like GoDay are a convenient alternative to mainstream borrowing, as they’re an unsecured loan that doesn’t require collateral or a co-signer. Online lenders also put less stress on credit histories than traditional banks, which can help families living in big cities like Toronto where the cost of living is higher. These families can find the simplest payday loan Toronto has to offer to help supplement a nest egg.
3. Use apps to cut costs
When saving isn’t enough, you need to reduce how much you spend on the season. This is every parents’ biggest challenge as they face down big expenses like Thanksgiving and the holidays. If you can’t cut out spending entirely, your next step is to moderate how much you spend.
A phone, equipped with the right shopping apps, can help you spend less during these important times of the year. These apps include services that:
- Aggregate coupons to reduce what you pay at the till
- Share rebates to earn cash-back on eligible items
- Compare prices to locate the store with the lowest prices
- Access the second-hand marketplace to help you buy and sell used items
When you fill your smartphone with the right combination of these apps, you can reduce what you spend on unavoidable gifts, groceries, and other household items.
Sometimes, major expenses come up that can’t be avoided. For example, if your hot water tank breaks on you, you can’t simply not have hot water. The choice whether to rent a new tank, or to improve your home and upgrade to a tankless water heater will depend entirely on your current financial situation.
With how quickly time flies, you can’t afford to wait until you download these apps or check in with your budget. If you expect these tips to help you this fall and winter, you need to take advantage of these tips right away. The earlier you get started, the better prepared you’ll be for some of the most expensive months of the year. More importantly, the time you put in now could save your family from arriving in the New Year with debt.