4 Steps To Finding More Money To Save

This past month we've seen the importance of saving money. Now we are going to look at one of the greatest culprit that keeps us from having money to save: reoccurring expenses.

Reoccurring expenses come in the form of anything you pay for on a regular bases. For most people these are monthly bills like rent, insurance, electricity, etc. but they can include semi-regular expenses like memberships, banking fees and gas. In fact to give you an idea for how often these reoccurring expenses pop up in our lives scan this list:

Utilities (water, electric, trash, etc.)

Groceries

Housing

Magazine subscriptions

Gym memberships

Office supplies

Paid computer software updates

Clubs

Pet care

Taxes

Internet

Cell phones

Online memberships

Gas

Car repairs

Gifts for birthdays and Christmas

Quite the list! And every business and hobby has its own reoccurring expenses.

But wait – aren't most of these expenses necessary? After all, we have to eat. This is what makes reoccurring expenses so sneaky. So many of them do have valid reasons to use our money, so we rarely even consider if we truly need them or if there are cheaper alternatives.

Another thing that makes reoccurring expenses "money holes" is they are usually broken into smaller payments masking how much we are truly paying for them. Take a $20 monthly membership. Most of us could probably find ways to come up with an extra twenty dollar bill every month. But multiply it by 12 and you have $240 in one year. Gone. Never to return. I don't know about you, but I could do a lot with $240. But when the amount comes in small bits here a little and there a little, it doesn't even register how much we are spending.

So how to we beat this culprit? There are several ways, but I'm going to give you 4 steps that will help you evaluate your expenses.

Step 1 Write down every single expense and its amount.

Step 2 Tally how much you spend on each expense over a year starting with the largest one.

Step 3 Evaluate which one of those expenses you could eliminate and put the money in savings. I know. This one hurts, but think about it for a minute. If you could take the $240 a year membership we discussed earlier and put it toward something better, wouldn't be worth it? What if by saving that money you were able to invest it in something that would benefit your family, bring in future income or free up more of your budget to give to those in need?

Step 4 Look at the expenses you have left and look for ways to save money on them or cheaper alternatives. Don't give up on ways to save just because it's a true need for living. Do some research. Pray about it. You never know how God will reward your diligence to be a good steward. A blessing of capitalism is we do have options for where our money goes, so investigate ways you can cut and save the difference.