How To Save Money And Still Have A Life

You know how it is, there's never enough money left in the days or weeks before your next pay check arrives.

Even more so with the constantly growing fuel prices, food that goes up every week and the economic meltdown we seem to be facing.

But are there ways to save money?

Ideally without becoming a complete hermit.

Here are a few tips to help you save money:

1. Cut down on your credit cards

The standard advice is to stop using credit cards altogether. But let's get real here, cutting down on them will be fine. Gradually, you should be looking to pay off some or all of your card debt. Start with the highest interest rate cards first. And if you're offered the chance to swap your current card debt to a 0% card to help you do this, take up the offer while you can.

2. Trade down

Near enough all grocery shops have a range of their own products that has been formulated to be as close to the more expensive brand leaders as possible. Give it a try. And also check out some of the really basic lines as well - some of these are very close to the regular things you buy - milk is milk for instance. Others (like watery orange juice) aren't, so don't go mad before you've trialled them.

3. Shop infrequently

If you use things regularly then bulk buy when it's on offer. Boring stuff like toilet rolls, canned foods, etc. And if you have to make a shopping trip, make sure your stomach is full. It may sound weird, but you'll buy less on impulse.

4. Stop impulse buying

Ouch. These are getting harder to do! If you know you're likely to buy things on impulse, leave your credit cards at home and tell your shopping friends they aren't allowed to subsidize you "until you get the cash out". If that seems like a complete impossibility, stop your trip to the shops altogether - even if you break out into a cold sweat at the thought, but quit shopping for a while, regardless.

5. Get help

Talk with friends - they have likely spotted a pattern developing where you go into auto-pilot and just buy things. Maybe you shop when you're feeling depressed. Whatever, find out and work on it.

There's also a cheap hypnosis download to help change yourself to save money. Download it now and play it to yourself immediately. Get your save money hypnosis track here.