From pet medications to cleaning supplies and vet visits, these pet care measures add up. Even the pet’s food expenses can add to the pile of cost. This is why it is important to cut down pet care costs without endangering your pet’s health. Spend less with these Savvy Pet Care Saving Tips…
1. SLASH YOUR PET’S FOOD BILL
Some owners overfeed their pets, leading to a condition called obesity. But, feeding a smaller amount can improve your pet’s health and save you money. Consult your vet about the appropriate food amount your pet needs. To save more, you may buy pet food in bulk.
2. DENTAL CARE FOR LESS
Gingivitis can damage your pet’s kidney and your finances since it requires expensive treatment and professional cleaning. To prevent this, do regular dental care at home. Wrap a significant amount of gauze on your finger and swipe your pet’s teeth.
3. CUTTING DRUG COSTS
The best way to cut down drug costs is to prevent diseases. Consult your vet about the vaccination that your pet needs such as one against Feline Panleukopenia virus. Vaccination is truly cheaper than the treatment for your pet’s disease.
If your pet is already ill, ask the professional if a generic brand of medication works as well as the branded one. Generic brands are cheaper than the branded ones but they can also impart the same effect. And if your pet needs a drug that we take such as antibiotics, compare around the several pharmacies to get the best price.
4. PREVENT ACCIDENTS
Image Credits: Gavin St. Ours via Flickr
Keep poisonous, sharp, and dangerous items out of your pet’s reach. For instance, acetaminophen, household cleaners, and liquid potpourri can cause accidents. Yarns can also get stuck inside your kitty’s intestines and cost you more than thousands of dollars for the surgery.
As everything turns digital, there is an increasing need for more tangible items. These physical copies of our photos for instance, become priceless.
Handcrafted items speak volumes of love. Nothing beats a custom-made gift because it will make your partner feel that you really have thought of them. On that note, here are Special Handcrafted Gift Ideas For Valentine’s Day Under S$50.
1. FOR THE SENTIMENTAL SWEETIE
PIXAROLL
Wouldn’t be great to have your personalized pictures (matte or glossy), stamps, magnets, phone casing, and wall decor delivered on your doorstep wherever you are? Well, Pixaroll’s App allows that. Pixaroll App transforms your photos into keepsakes that lasts a lifetime. It is available for FREE on ITunes and Google Play.
This Vday, you may purchase 12 pieces of 2.5 x 2.5 inch photo stickers for only S$10 or 24 pieces of 3.5 x 3.5 inch photo stickers for S$18. You use these to design a notebook, book, canvas tote, gift wrappers, or a phone casing for your beloved.
If you want to remind your lover of how good looking she or he is then you may customize a stamp or chop block (S$49) for him or her. Pixaroll’s chop block measures 2.5 cm and there are 4 ink stamps included. Artist’s impressions of your selfies are hand drawn into rubber stamps. So special!
If you want to make a craft that takes a little bit more time and patience but shouts “labor of love” then purchase a DIY Painting Kit from Paintastic Art Craft. The kit usually includes the canvas template, acrylic paints, brush, and instructions. They offer kits with affordable prices and weekly special offers.
In fact, this lovely flower painting that took me 5 days to make comes with free easel and only costs S$4.90.
The painting sizes for sale range from mini to large so you will be able to find a size that is suitable to your needs. This can surely be a fun experience for you that may even turn to a great hobby.
Whoever said that sweet and lengthy written expressions of love are so 19th century ago is mistaken. Written love notes will not only overwhelm your partner’s heart but it will also serve as a memorabilia that he or she can keep forever.
You may choose between ThePaperBunny’s greeting cards that say: “We’re Better Together Card”, “Keeper of My Heart”, and “You’re My Favourite”. It costs S$5.90 each. Linen embossed envelope that adds a touch of luxury is included.
4. FOR THE Do-It-Yourself DARLING
Image Credits: Stacie Stacie Stacie via Flickr
Lastly, DIY gifts make the most out of the resources you have at home. So, it won’t cost you a dollar. For more DIY gift ideas made with love, check this out.
Before anything else, reevaluate your saving objectives. Ask yourself why you want to save and what are your priorities. This is to ensure that you know which path to take to reach your financial goals.
Then, review your income and expenses and create an allocation plan. Move the excess funds you uncover to your bank account (preferably with the highest interest rate) to help facilitate discipline against impulsive spending.
2. SAVE ON YOUR VACATION
Follow the airline’s social media page to get updates of promos, free upgrades, and discounted fares. This will help you save money by getting the best airfare deal. You may also use your frequent flyer miles to save for your next vacation.
Another neat trick is to offer to purchase for others using your frequent flyer miles credit card and reimburse the money right away. For instance, if you are going to Bali with your friends, offer to book their flights too. This way you’ll earn more rewards or rebates than you could on your own, without spending extra money.
Use our hotel search engine that searches thousands of travel sites and aggregators to book the best price guaranteed hotels.
3. SAVE ON GROCERY SHOPPING
Use savvy shopping strategies in the supermarket such as using a coupon.
Image Credits: Chris Potter via Flickr
Also, you must beware of the marketing tricks they use such as “the numbers game” wherein they will put an irrational price of “$3.99 or $3.96”(instead of $4) to make you think that you saved more money by scoring a better deal. Read more in a Money Digest article entitled “Watch Out for these 6 Grocery Store Tricks!”.
4. SAVE CASH AROUND THE HOUSE
Reduce your electric and water bills by conserving water and switching off the lights when not in use. Use money-saving household cleaning hacks that enable you to make your own cleaning products.
Lastly, use the multi-purpose household items instead of specialty products since you can use it in many ways than one. For instance, you may use vinegar to cook and to remove blood stains on your sheets or use a toothpaste to clean your teeth and treat your acne.
Often enough, we find ourselves getting caught up with unpaid bills and empty wallets in the blink of an eye. We ask ourselves, “Where did all the money go?” We scramble to track back the cash outflow from our bank statements, collating the many receipts we could find stuffed in our wallets, and rack our brains to think back on where the majority of our money was splurged to.
The next moment, we spot something we desire and spend the money on impulse even with the knowledge of being short on cash at the back of your minds. And before we know it, we become cash-strapped.
So the question boils down to how do you think you can keep track of your personal finances and manage your spending well without feeling guilty or broke? We share some tips with you on ways to monitor your finances well.
(Source: moneypincher)
1. Start by Tracking Your Expenses
By means of a plain piece of paper or a computer spreadsheet, get the ball rolling by creating a Personal Projected Budget for each month of the year. Try searching online for free printable Budget Templates to obtain user-friendly and fuss-free spreadsheets.
We recommend that before you even begin jotting down a budget from scratch through filling in the areas with a guessed estimation, track down your current expenses beforehand to get a better overview of your spending. Record your every purchase down for a period of a month through as many forms of spending you can gather, such as your receipts and bank statements.
For example, you might have jotted down a reasonable sum of $150 for a budget hotel staycation. However, after doing a bit of online analysis, you might have realized that you require at least $250 for your preferred staycation. Do your research!
(Source: psoda)
2. Create a Budget
Now, you can get started with creating a budget you know you can stick to. You can further break down your list of expenses into sub-categories such as Transportation, Daily Necessities, Phone Bills, Insurance, et cetera and have a better overview of different areas your spending goes to. Start off aiming for short-term goals, before saving for your long-term goals such as retirement.
Begin to monitor and track your spending closely once you’ve decided to stick to your newly implemented Personal Projected Budget. Spend a reasonable amount of effort working on your target while resisting splurging on impulse. If you want something really badly, jot it down on your finances tracking list and work towards saving for the item.
For a more sophisticated approach, you can always track your expenses through the means of a software. Here are a few platforms that our team recommend. Of course, you can always choose a software you prefer and feel more comfortable with.
a) Mint
Mint is a free, web-based personal finance tool that allows users to plug in to their banks, investments and other financial accounts for an overview of your current financial position. We love their graphics that are not just easy to organize but also pleasing to the users’ eyes. Money saving just became a whole lot easier and more visually attractive to everyone!
b) You Need A Budget
Get off the financial roller coaster with an award-winning budget interface proudly presented by You Need A Budget. Although you need to pay for the usage of this software, it comes free for a month for anyone interested to try to see its suitability and whether it helps apply in your daily life.
c) BillMinder
Don’t worry about fumbling through your inbox for monthly statements now, because BillMinder helps organize statements into simple calendars to keep track of all due dates. It comes with charts and reports, notifications and more features that comes handy to users. Currently, the software doesn’t offer a free version, but you might wish to invest in a good software to save up better in the long run.
To perfect your Personal Projected Budget, make adjustments whenever necessary. For example, if a particular spending goal is easy to meet, try cutting it down further and saving a bigger sum or shifting that amount over to another category which requires setting a reasonably higher budget. To sum it all up, it’s all about setting your budget right and making effort to stick to your goals. We also recommend downloading the finance apps on your electronic devices to track your expenditure on-the-go!
Living barely within your income is not a laughing matter. When you are living paycheck to paycheck, you live a life of constant stress, worry, and dread that you might be stuck in an unfortunate debt. It is a struggle to gain control of your money and your commitments. So, here are 3 Simple Tips To Stop Living From Paycheck to Paycheck…
1. CREATE A SYSTEMATIC FINANCIAL OPERATING SYSTEM
In order to cease your worries, a huge turnover can be money flow management. You must give conscious effort to know about where your money flows in and out. Once you have control over your money flow. Then, you will be able to create a systematic financial operating system that consists of: money flow management and budgeting.
Money flow management is accomplished by using a ledger or an app. There are a couple of efficient yet free apps that can help such as: EXPENSIFY, EXPENSE MANAGER, MONEYWISE, POCKET EXPENSE PERSONAL FINANCE, and MINT.
Image Credits: wikihow.com/Do-Envelope-Budgeting
Likewise there are a couple of budgeting such as STATIC or FLEXIBLE budgeting. For personal finances, I highly recommend a simple technique called ENVELOPE budgeting. It starts by storing the cash into separate categories of household expenses that are allocated in separate envelopes.
Budgeting will surely help you gain clarity and control. Start by writing down your monthly income, followed by your monthly expenses, and then subtract the two. Plan and search for a suited technique.
2. PREPARE MONEY FOR YOUR BILLS ACCORDINGLY
Some bills are due frequently while some are semi-annually. Prepare money for your bills accordingly by noting them down. If you have a monthly bill, you may try a trick called half payments. For half payments, you prepare the payment for the bill by subtracting half of the bill’s amount to your bank account per two weeks (bi-weekly).
3. BOOST YOUR EMERGENCY FUND
Prepare for the unforeseen events and financial failures by saving at least 8% of your income per month. You shall call this category your “emergency fund”. It is better to save a certain amount of money than to have nothing save at all.
