Get out of debt in 2019
Don’t you just love new beginnings?
Putting the past behind. Starting new and fresh. With Christmas and 2018 tucked away, we have new beginnings ahead of us in 2019.
Do you remember starting the new
school year? New books, clean stationary, different teachers? As mom, it’s a
good idea to make year plans, write lists and stick with commitments.
I don’t know about you, but money
these days is tight – especially when you have a growing family. There never
seems to be enough! Money issues have been the tipping point of many marriages.
Budgeting is not only difficult, it’s often just impossible. As Richard Quest
on ‘Quest Express’ and ‘Quest means businesses’ reminds us: every penny counts
– even the one you find lying on the pavement.
To start the year on a good note, here
are some money-wise tips and quotes:
Shop wisely:
- Don’t cut quality, cut quantity. Who need 40 pairs of shoes?
- Buy less expensive – you don’t need designer handbags or expensive clothes to make an impression
- Pay cash. It’s so easy to overspend when you use your credit card.
- Ask yourself: ‘Do I need this or do I want it?’
- Make a shopping list and stick to it.
- Add-up while you’re filling up your trolley.
- Supermarkets highlight ‘specials’ and surplice stock in-store along with magazines, sweets, cooldrinks and other gimmicks at till queues. This encourages impulse shopping and spending that extra cash you’ve saved in the store.
- Be wary of buying ‘specials’ you don’t need.
- Don’t shop when you have your children with you.
- Have a life policy. When my father died, my mother was left with four small children to bring up on her own. Dad’s life policy pay-out helped mom to buy a second house that she could rent out, and this brought in extra cash every month.
- Remember that you will have a future when your children leave the nest one day.
Budget. Budget. Budget:
- Draw up an excel sheet. Every business does. Think of your household as your own little business.
- Budgeting will stop you buying things you don’t need or buying to impress.
- Pay your most important expenses first.
- Be thrifty, not stingy.
My Ouma always used to say: ‘Waste
not, want not’. Teach your children not to waste. Toothpaste. Toilet paper.
Water and electricity.
Do things for yourself:
- Unless it pays you, why pay somebody else when you can do the job yourself?
- Why buy when you can make?
- Be organised. How many times have you spent more on a present than you budgeted for because you bought it at the last minute and it was the only thing you could find?
- There’s a certain satisfaction in doing your own housework, gardening and washing your car.
I
learned this at school: ‘Penny wise, pound foolish’.
New Year Sales:
- Only buy what you know you are going to need or use.
- They’re great to stock up on for presents during the year.
- They’re perfect when you have small children – you can always buy a size bigger for next season.
My late mother-in-law used to say:
“Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves”.
Plan 2019:
Anticipate expenses before they
overwhelm you. Save where you can: Switch off lights, use petrol sparingly,
start a lift-club, shop weekly not daily, grow your own vegetables. Cut out
unnecessary luxuries, cigarettes, alcohol, take-aways. Money-saving,
environmentally-conscious moms are changing to washable nappies and even
sanitary pads. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Make 2019 debt-free so that
2020 can be your profitable year. It’s the best gift to yourself and your
family.
