Cut Bills for More Retirement Savings

How Can We Save More For Retirement?

If you are like me, and like a lot of middle aged Americans, you are probably concerned about retirement. I do set aside a monthly amount for my retirement account, but I am very concerned that it will not be enough. Right now I do not have real plans to retire at a certain age, but I do know that things could change. And I do not think that there really is ever such a thing as having too much retirement savings. So I would like to improve my savings rate. Even a $50 a month increase could really add up over the next 15 – 20 years.

Cutting Expenses for More Retirement Savings

As a small business owner, I always strive to increase my income. But I seem to hit the ceiling on that sometimes. So my next attack plan has to be from cutting my expenses. Now everybody who knows me, also knows that I do not want to live like a monk for the next 20 years so I can build up my retirement account. Plus, I still have kids at home, and they have some fixed costs too. So I need to trim some fat out of my budget without reducing my living standard too much.

Budget, Budget, Budget

We have discussed this before. I am also not the type of person who likes to account for every dollar I spend. But I have found that forcing myself to go over my budget, at least a few times a year, really helps me spot the money leaks. Some cuts are really very painless because I found I was spending money on things I really did not use that much.

These tips may seem simple or obvious, but they really were not obvious to me until I sat down and prepared a monthly budget. As I wrote before, I used my previous month’s bills and checking account statement to help me form a mental picture of just how so much money was leaving my checking account, and how I needed to dig into savings sometimes to meet monthly bills.

Areas Where I Cut Cost

These are some of my own budget issues, and when I fixed them, I managed to pull a few hundred extra dollars out of my monthly budget. This may seem like a lot, but I’m betting that a lot of households have similar issues.  The “money saved” entry at the end of every tip is my estimated monthly savings.

• Unused Gym Membership – I was actually paying for 2 gym memberships. One was for myself, and one was for another family member. We had, sadly enough, not been to the gym for months. I found a high quality, and gently used, exercise bike at a garage sale for $20. It was actually more convenient to set aside a half hour to use it instead of having to get dressed and travel to the gym too.  Money Saved – $50 a month!
• The Pantry and Fridge - Grocery shopping can eat up a big chunk of a family budget. We all need to do it, but we do not need to buy a lot of food that we don’t eat so it gets stuffed in the back of the pantry and forgetten about.  When I forced myself to spend a morning cleaning out all of my food storage places, I found a lot of items I had purchased in the last few months and totally forgetten about. I had fallen into the habit of buying certain food items every week without remembering that we were stockpiling jars of salsa and cans of corn. It was time to use up what we had and resist duplicating for awhile. Money Saved – About $50.
• Other Grocery Shopping Considerations – Shop sales and try to prepare some inexpensive recipes for a few meals a week. Even if you are not big on coupon shopping (I’m Not!), you can save a lot of money by replacing some items on your list with in-store specials and produce that is in-season.  In addition, instead of buying prepared meals, it is not that hard to boil your own rice and cut up your own chicken. Money Saved – About $100+.
• Find Better Deals on Monthly Bills – I have posted before about how I got a better deal on homeowners insurance and car insurance by finding another insurer who gave me a good discount for both. I was surprised that shopping around saved me $200 a month on this type of coverage.  It depends upon the services you need, but many people also save money on internet, phone, or tv sercies by switching plans or companies. Also, make sure you have the best cell phone plan for the way your family uses them. Money Saved – $200.
• Eating Out – I love to eat out, and so does everybody in my extended family. It is just something we really enjoy. But we have tried to limit our weekly trips out lately. I can grill steaks at home, and prepare side dishes, for $30 or less (I look for meat on special).  I can take my family out to a steak restaurant for $80 or more. I can also prepare fajitas at home, with fixings, for about $20. The bill in a restaurant would probably tip over $50. If I can replace one restaurant meal a week with a dinner at home, even if I invite other family members, I can save a lot of money! Money Saved – About $150.

Wow, I have saved over $500 without really cutting out anything I love. My family still endulges ourself with some restaurant meals and trips to the book store. We still eat well and put gas in the car. I am not sure if every family can save this much, but I’ll bet if you challenged yourself to trip a hundred bucks every month, you could do it!

Related articles:

1. Recession and Retirement Savings Attack Plan
2. CD vs. Fixed Annuity For Retirement Savings
3. Term Life Savings for Older People
4. Retirement Investment Revisted — Got A Secret Passion?
5. Annuities For Retirement Planning

Tags: cut bils, frugal living, retirement savings

This entry was posted on February 10, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Finance & Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.