Budgeting Bliss: Enjoying Your Dream Lifestyle on a Realistic Budget

Staying on a budget can be difficult, especially if you want to maintain a particular lifestyle. However, there are a few strategies that you can use to help you stick to your budget and still enjoy the things you love.

Spend the right amount of money on food

The average American household spends $770 per month on food, which is a significant amount. But that money could be used in a better way. For example, people can use it to pay off credit card debt.

There are many strategies to budget for food more wisely. One important thing to remember is that eating out frequently costs more than cooking at home. Therefore, even if you detest cooking, it pays to read up on quick, simple dishes that will keep you from ordering takeout every day of the week.

It takes an art form to choose the ingredients for those meals. You can choose from various expensive, individually packaged goods, which are ultimately more costly than eating out. Alternatively, you can purchase fewer (nonperishable) products in larger quantities and use them for several months before running out of supplies. You can save money over time by buying items like dry beans, pasta, almonds, sugar, dried fruits, wheat, grains, vegetable, or chicken stock, as well as a variety of canned veggies.

For a good reason, grocery coupons made a tremendous comeback. In 2009, Americans clipped 3.3 billion coupons. The financial savings from those shiny pieces of paper? $3,5 billion or such. Planning your meals ahead of time using the things you see are on sale in shop circulars, the Sunday newspaper, and online at websites like CouponCabin.com and Coupons.com is the key. Remember that other coupons may be obtained directly from the manufacturer's website.

You must still occasionally go out on the town, of course. The social coupon phenomenon—from companies like Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoutmob, and others—comes in helpful in this situation. You may eat very well for very little money if you get discounts from reputable restaurants and reserve them for special occasions.

Utilize Airline Savings Apps to Their Fullest

Use an app like Hitlist that tracks flight prices from your home airport and notifies you when great discounts appear. The net effect is that you can travel to your dream locations for less money.

Another means of reducing flight costs is via Hopper. In order to receive the lowest price, the app analyses historical airfare data and tells you whether to make your reservation right now or wait. Additionally, you can go to Skiplagged, which discloses possible savings through techniques like hidden-city tickets that you won't discover anywhere else.

Find a roommate

You obviously need a place to live, and you may do so without burning a hole through your budget.

If your circumstances permit, finding a roommate is one of the most effective strategies to lower living costs. Move into a bigger place, and you can still spend less by sharing your room with someone else, or stay in the same area and cut your rent in half.

Particularly in regions with high living costs, this rule holds true. For instance, sharing a place in Los Angeles could result in monthly savings of more than $200. You might save a stunning $700 a month in San Francisco, and that is equivalent to giving oneself a pay boost of almost $9,000.

To ensure you can pay someone else's share of the rent, choose your roommate wisely and consider setting up automated payments.

The cost of decorating and keeping your home properly might also be significantly reduced. Choose old appliances and furniture over expensive new ones. Spend the time necessary to clean and renovate them. You'll not only save money and pick up some essential skills, but you'll also be able to take pleasure in your work and respect those things more than just being disposable, throwaway products. Extend that do-it-yourself mentality to maintenance as well.

Even if you lack Bob Vila's expertise, you can still handle many household issues without spending huge amounts of money on a professional. Simply search for a YouTube video that demonstrates how to unclog a sink.

Avoid frugal fatigue

With growing economic concerns, more individuals are becoming familiar with this type of tiredness.

To put it briefly, frugal fatigue is the mental and emotional strain that results from feeling as though you must carefully consider every purchase you make.

It doesn't matter if you're used to having a lot of extra money or are more accustomed to having a tight budget. Anyone attempting to be more mindful about limiting unnecessary expenditures may experience this type of tiredness.

One risk of frugal weariness is that you will grow weary of being so careful with your money. As a result, you can start overspending as an occasional weakness or a persistent trend that threatens to wipe out your money.

If fatigue starts to impact you, it's critical to identify it. You may go on a spending binge if you are fed up with keeping to a budget and are sick of pinching pennies. Don't succumb to the urge.

Instead, exercise creativity and kindness toward you and your loved ones. Spend lavishly and indulge yourself, but exercise caution. Use websites like Woot, Clark Howard's recommendations, or Frugalista to uncover affordable offers that allow you to have a little fun without blowing a lot of cash. By shopping around and scheduling your free time around sales, you can save tons of money on everything from restaurants and theme parks to plane tickets.

And in everything you do, keep an eye on your spending. Consider your spending habits if you're one of the 42% of individuals who want to use layaway to purchase Christmas presents. Remember the fundamental budgeting principle: Never spend money you don't have.

The primary reason behind the burgeoning credit card debt in the country is that most Americans don't follow this basic principle. They use credit cards to buy things for which they don't have any money. Lack of sufficient funds and compounding interest makes it challenging for consumers to pay off credit card debt. However, if Americans learn to stay on budget, they will avoid falling into this situation.

Conclusion

Now that you have a basic understanding of budgeting, you also realize how crucial it is to use creativity in addition to money management to live comfortably. You can reduce your financial stress while also having more pleasure if you plan ahead a little more.

Author Bio: Attorney Loretta Kilday has more than 36 years of litigation and transactional experience, specializing in business, collection, and family law. She frequently writes on various financial and legal matters. She is a graduate of DePaul University with a Juris Doctor degree and a spokesperson for Debt Consolidation Care (DebtCC) online debt relief forum. Please connect with her on LinkedIn for further information.