Start a savings regime by ‘trimming the fat’

The Simple Dollar doles out some advice for people trying to break the habit of spending all of pay cheque every month. It offers a simple plan for paring down some of your regular frivilous expenses and turning them into the start of a savings plan.

“Find things that you routinely spend money on and reduce them. Good
places to look include any monthly bills strictly related to social
activities (like country club membership or your cell phone bill) or
entertainment (like Netflix or the cable bill). Look for things you
don’t use – maybe you don’t watch the premium movie channels you’re
paying for, or maybe you’re not utilizing Netflix as well as you
thought you would, or perhaps you’re buying way too many text messages
each month and aren’t using them. If you’re unsure about whether to cut
something, cut it. You can always bring it back if you find that it was
more useful than you thought.”

Then, add up how much you’re saving each month by getting rid of those expenses, and set up an automatic bank transfer from your primary bank account into a savings account. You’ve just set up a saving regime with the money you used to spend as disposable income. Nice!

Got any tips on how you got started with a savings plan? Share in comments please.

Chipping away at the paycheck to paycheck routine [The Simple Dollar]