DontSpendMore.com Blog

Category: Budgeting

  • Factors Impacting Your Car Insurance Rate

    You know, car insurance can be a tricky thing. Yeah I said tricky, but if you were me, you would be using the term ‘weird’ to describe how car insurance rates are worked out. Well, you tell me a better word than weird, when you realize how seemingly unrelated stuff like where you live may actually influence the amount of money you need to shell out towards car insurance premium each month. See, I warned you!

    What is your address?

    If you live in a city that has more cars then you pay more premium rates. Well, the logic applied is that more the cars per square mile more are the chances of accidents. If you don’t like it, go live in some rural area.

    Okay let us talk about some more, weirder things that can influence your car insurance rates.

    How Much Does Your Doctor Charge You?

    A lot depends upon how much your doctor charges you to treat for injuries received as a consequence of a vehicular accident. Often a blanket term like ‘soft tissue injuries’ is used to describe the group of injuries, that are commonly inflicted in a vehicular accident

    Treating these injuries can be expensive and often extend over longer periods of time. Moreover, the results of the treatment are also not quite comparable. Some patients recover better and sooner from these injuries, while others can really drag on for long periods. All these put a strain on the insurance company and they obviously do not want to be left high and dry paying for such claims.

    So bottom line is that more expensive your medical care, more expensive will be your car insurance premium.

    How much does the lawyer charge?

    Okay, the relation between medical costs and insurance premium now seems to somehow fall into place, but what’s a lawyer’s fees got to do with your insurance rates. Isn’t it what you are thinking? Well, each time someone who is at the receiving end of a vehicular accident that you made, files a lawsuit claiming for compensation, it’s your insurance company that has to dole out dollars / pounds as the case may be.

    Besides, the numbers of lawsuits being filed in vehicular accidents are steadily on the rise. So, it’s but natural for your insurance company to save their back and foresee these costs. Guess who has to pay more towards premium then?

    How many fraudsters are doing successful business?

    Whoa, whoa! Now fraudsters have got a say in your car insurance rates too? Well, someone has to pay for the huge amounts of money that fraud insurance claims are draining out of the insurance company’s accounts. Who else fits the bill, better than you? More the number of fraud claims, more expensive will be your premium.

    How cutting-edge is your car?

    If you are the kind of person who melts like butter on seeing the latest models of cars with latest technological and design advancements, then you better be prepared to pay more for your insurance premium as well. You know, car mechanics don’t come cheap and more advanced the car parts, more expensive they are to replace in case of repair / damage.

    Moral of the Story: If you wanna lower your car insurance rates, go live in some rural dump where the doctor charges quite less and the lawyers don’t suck your blood for fees and drive a not-so-latest model car.

  • Easy Budgeting Strategies

    I don’t know about you, but when my best friend hears the word budgeting, all she can think of is cutting back on dire necessities. Don’t ask me, because I really don’t know where she conjures up weird ideas of going without meals whenever I mention budgeting to her.

    I really hope none of you folks have a dangerous imagination like my dear friend, because I am gonna show you some easy budgeting strategies that definitely does not involve anyone going without 3 full meals a day.

    Have a budget plan

    I know it seems to be the most boring task on the face of Earth, but you really gotta do this folks. Sit down with a paper and pencil and preferably with someone who shares your budget like your spouse or partner.

    Make a list of all the things that you need to spend money on for the entire month. Don’t forget to add any expense at this point, even if it seems quite trifle to you.

    Categorize your expenses

    Take a close look and separate the dire necessities from the luxuries and extravagancies. No, don’t be tempted to push ‘shopping for your 18th pair of shoes’ to your dire necessities category. What? I am just saying, that’s all, no ill feelings!

    Okay by the time you are finished you should have a pretty good demarcation between the 3 categories of stuff. You will find that the majority of the dire necessities category is taken up by items like paying your rent / home loan EMI, car loan EMI, credit card bill payment, utilities bill payment etc. But that is expected.

    Time to check your expenditure pattern

    Now take a look at the other 2 categories. Now is the time when you need to refer to your credit card statements for the past 12 months. Is there a pattern emerging? Do you find yourself spending hundreds of dollars each month on clothes/ accessories or stuff like that?

    Majority of the individuals, who analyze their credit card statements in this way, usually agree that they have had a major ‘revelation’. Cut back on the unnecessary expenses and if you cannot do it entirely, consider increasing the time duration between 2 such shopping sprees. Like for example, if you have a habit of buying clothes every month, try reducing such sprees to just 6 per year and from then to just 3 per year. Timing these shopping sprees to coincide with festival discount offers and clearance sales is another great way to easy budgeting.

    Start a new way to earn money each month

    Getting a secondary source of income is a great idea, but that is not what I actually mean here. Have you ever considered paying yourself some money each month? Yeah, people call it by many other names like savings, investments etc, but I prefer calling it this way (it makes you want to do it at all costs)

    Fix a certain amount of money that you need to pay yourself and make sure that you include it under the dire necessities category. Do what it takes to squeeze this money out of your monthly budget each month and that includes cutting back on entertainment, dining out less frequently or walking to work.

    If you stick to all the easy budgeting strategies this month and then discipline yourself to repeat the success every month of the year after that, you will soon become a pro at budgeting!

  • Seven Strategies To Save Over $500 Every Month

    I am sure it is the title that attracted you to read through this article. Well, that’s predictable because each one of us wants to save money. I totally understand your eagerness to get to the heart of the matter, so here are the promised 7 strategies without wasting any more space in introductions.

    Cut back on takeaways

    I know it does not seem very nice when someone hints at taking away the comfort of takeaways from you. But if you knew what I know about saving money by saying no to takeaways, you definitely would nod your head in agreement to this suggestion.

    People have lots of time on their hands. Why else would they spend their time in researching, collecting and evaluating data about the amount of money you could save by avoiding takeaways for just 1 day of the week? If you are dependent on takeaways for your major meals of the day throughout the week (which is a rare possibility) and you decide to cook at home just once, then you can save almost $ 100+ per month.

    Bundle up your insurance plans

    Other than having to pay more for insurance coverage by opting for different companies for different kinds of insurance, you also have to deal with the hassle. Cut back on the stress and decide to provide some relief to both your mind and your wallet. Bundle up all your insurance coverage with a single provider and this should save you at least $ 30-50 per month.

    Walk more drive less

    Most of the households in USA are forced to keep aside a huge share of their monthly budget for car fuel. Seeing how fuel prices are shooting up, it helps to find ways and excuses to drive less and walk more. Avoid using the car for short distances and especially when you have time to take a walk. You could kill 2 birds with one stone- save money on fuel and boost your fitness.

    Car pooling

    I figured that since fuel bills are the most expensive, it would be smart to include more than 1 way to save money on it. Car pooling is a method that I highly recommend due to many reasons. The top 2 are of course focused on saving. First of all you save money and second, you save the Earth by contributing lesser to the pollution.

    Bundle up service plans

    It saves you at least $ 50-60 per month if you bundle up your phone, internet and cable service providers into one. You save almost $ 120-130 per month if you decide to avoid data usage. Maybe you could rely on Wi-Fi for your data needs until you have your finances in order?

    Save electricity

    Switch off the electrical gadgets when not in use as opposed to leaving them on standby mode and switch to CFL bulbs instead of the regular incandescent ones. Buy energy efficient electrical appliances and you should save a few dollars each month on your electricity bill each month.

    Shop for discount deals

    There are discount offers and deals for every shopper who cares to look around. If you shop online, it becomes easier to keep track of the latest discounts and lowest rate offers.

    These 7 tips together should save you at least $ 500-600 a month.