Home » Discover 3 Incredible Strategies You Can Use to Save Money without Misery

Discover 3 Incredible Strategies You Can Use to Save Money without Misery

Save money without miseryHey, friends! Today we enjoy another post from our friend Bill over at TradeRush Review. If you’re interested in guest posting here at The Frugal Farmer, just let me know. We offer the opportunity to guest post to bloggers everywhere. 

Did you know that in 22 cities in the United States, women actually earn more money than men on average? Well, I personally think this is promising. These days, women are becoming more and more independent and treated as equals of men.

According to The Huffington Post, despite women making less income than men generally across the USA, trends are starting to change. According to NerdWallet, a personal finance website, in the USA, a typical woman earns only about 79 cents for every $1 dollar a man makes; however, in Inglewood, California, a majority of women earn a whopping $1.20 dollars for every $1 dollar that a man earns on a regular basis.

Furthermore, NerdWallet revealed that in Inglewood City, women out-earn men by the largest difference in the list of 22 cities mentioned above, and in those cities, many of them are pretty poor areas with median incomes lower than those of the entire US in the year 2013.

This only means that women now have a greater ability to stretch their money during times of financial hardship, regardless of living in underprivileged areas.

The top 5 cities where women make more money than men are:

 

    • Inglewood, California
    • Trenton, New Jersey
    • Orlando, Florida
    • Albany, New York
    • Carson, California

Women nowadays are becoming more and more empowered in terms of work, and are wiser and wiser when it comes to saving, spending, and investing their money.

Warren Buffett’s Financial Advice

Money-wise, we can all have financial stability and prosperity following Warren Buffett’s advice in terms of saving, spending, and making wise investments.

I had a lot to learn from Warren Buffett myself, which helped me become more self-reliant and, despite being a man, as financially productive as my women counterparts. Here are the things I learned from Warren Buffett…

First, Warren Edward Buffett is an American business tycoon born on August 30, 1930 and is a known investor and philanthropist. He is the CEO, chairman, and biggest shareholder of the Berkshire Hathaway Company, and was named the most successful business investor of the 20th century. He was the world’s wealthiest person alive in year 2008 and has consistently ranked among the wealthiest people across the globe every year.

In 2012, Time magazine named him as one of the world’s most influential people to date, and as a noteworthy investor and philanthropist, he is called the “Oracle of Omaha”/”Wizard of Omaha”/”Sage of Omaha.” Warren Buffett is probably most notable for his strong values toward investing and also for his inspiring frugality despite his massive wealth.

Investment and frugality — recently I did try adapting these values into my own life and not only did it help me save more money, it actually saved my life.

Let’s Zoom In and See the 3 Real World Examples of Saving Money

      1. Set up your money to automatically pay bills, save, and invest. I realized that unforeseen, unfortunate circumstances could happen any time, so it’s always best to have some money stored away. This is how I learned to save money while getting out of debt: By changing the way I budgeted our funds (such as setting up our money to automatically save an amount first), then the money left was used to pay the bills and if there was some extra cash left, for investing. Not only did it help me pay for all our necessary emergency expenses, it also gave me peace of mind and confidence that I would never have to borrow money from others and be buried in debt.

 

      1. Negotiate your bills one at a timeI also learned to negotiate my bills one at a time by listing down the family’s needs vis-à-vis all our wants. Sacrificing our wants for our needs actually helped me save more money every single month. We made it a rule that if we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t buy it. Whenever we felt the need to reward ourselves for all our hard work, we made sure to work double before we could actually buy our luxuries. The worst money mistake that costs you millions is not being able to live beneath your means and within your seams.

 

      1. Focus on the big wins. Now that the first two strategies had helped me keep my family afloat, I also ventured more in order to tap into hidden income. I found out that the best ways to invest your money (during summer when you have more spare time) is to engage in home businesses no matter how small — food stalls, arts and crafts, or garage sales. You can use money from these simple means and invest it in bigger projects such as stocks, mutual funds, and/or what-nots. This is how I focus on the big wins and not the minutiae.

The Bottom Line

It’s actually pretty simple to make more money by stretching your income so you can help yourself, your family, and even others. The key, though, is not just living in frugality, but also maintaining discipline, consistency, and practicing smart thinking and a little bit of risk-taking. This is how you can attain true financial freedom these days, no matter what gender or age you are.

Now Here’s What I Want You To Do Next (Your “Homework”)

Leave a comment to let me know about your thoughts or additional strategies for saving money. I’ll be around today to answer questions and give guidance. So make sure to leave a comment right now.

Know someone who would like this post? Please share!

9 comments

  1. Tara says:

    First off, two of those cities are capitals (Trenton and Albany) and I’m sure a big part of women earning more is women often go into the public sector (and non profit) because more women than men earn college degrees and those state jobs are often jobs that do require bachelor degrees. So it makes sense that women would be higher wage earners in those cities. As a women, not that I think we should earn more than men, but it is nice to see that in some sectors, we’re equalizing in the pay gap.

    I like your idea about earning extra money in the summer. Some people are lucky to have “summer Fridays” at their day jobs, either getting a partial, half, or full day off and that’s a great time to get cracking on some extra income opportunities.

  2. Hannah says:

    I would say systems are the most important thing you can implement to help you save money. Our system is a zero sum budget, but other people find success with looser systems. Whatever it is, the extent to which you can take discipline out of your spending equation (such as the pay yourself first technique), the easier you will find the savings process.

  3. I have had some great results when I negotiated some of our bills – propane, newspaper, garbage, etc. Since most of them are monthly charges, the savings are like a gift that keeps on giving!

  4. I completely agree that one of the biggest money mistakes is not living below your means! In the years since we have gotten our act together and drastically cut expenses, we’ve managed to save and invest so much more, not to mention make serious progress on our debt payoff goals. Controlling living expenses is probably the most important thing you can do to give yourself a leg up financially, in my opinion at least!

  5. I’m a big fan of automating saving…it makes it much more painless. If you don’t see the money in your account or paycheck, you are much less likely to spend it. I’ve tried to increase the amount I save if I get a raise to prevent lifestyle inflation. And I’m also a fan of negotiating my bills…if they don’t budge, make sure to ask to be transferred to the retentions department or tell them you are thinking about cancelling the service.

  6. SavvyJames says:

    My experience has been that the easiest, most efficient, way to save/invest is to first, establish well defined goals – so there is never any doubt what you are working toward – and second, automate your savings/investment contributions.

  7. Sticking to budget, which falls under discipline and control, is really important that everyone should learn. I myself found it hard to learn this at first. But, when I did, I felt accomplished because I knew this would just bring results to my savings.

Comments are closed.