Personal Money Management by Lowering Discretionary Expenses

There are a number of ways to keep track of your spending. For example, using personal finance software applications like Expense Tracker and Budget Forecaster from Strativia Software helps make easy to lower your discretionary expenses. In doing so, it gives you more money to spend on other things or save for future expenses, like retirement, a child's education, or sudden emergencies.

For your convenience, we've taken a look at three critical areas of discretionary expenses - Air Travel, Cell Phones, and Clothing - though there are plenty more to mention. The suggestions below, however, translate well into other areas of discretionary spending. And after having studied these examples, you'll have a clear understanding of what to look for.

Air Travel:

Lower your airline expenses by flying, whenever possible, in off-peak seasons (such as the start of Fall), at off-peak hours (i.e. red-eye flights), and on off-peak days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). Book your flight as far in advance as possible and try to include a Saturday night in your stay. And although they can seem less convenient, connecting flights from point A to B are less expensive than direct flights. If you can tolerate the layovers, you can save yourself some considerable dough.

Cell Phones:

Minutes tracking is a must when using cell phones. Don't be complacent when it comes to your cell phone minutes. Stay on top of how often you talk on the cell phone and try not to go over your allotted minutes. By the same token, make sure that you're not paying for an overabundance of minutes that you never use. Good personal money management includes making sure the cell phone plan you're on is the right one for you. If it's not, then rather than pay expensive overage charges or pay a larger monthly rate than needed, switch plans.

Another way to get a handle on the cell phone line item of your personal finance software is to make every use you can of the less costly modes of communication, including: free "in network" calling, talking during off-peak hours (usually free for an unlimited, or at least an exorbitant, number of minutes), email (free if you already have an internet connection), and (dare we say it?) writing letters.

Clothing:

Always look for the sales and use coupons. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reports that the average consumer spends almost $2,000 per year on new clothing and its upkeep. You can cut this line item in half by simply looking for the deals. 

Here are some other ways to save money on clothes:

• One other option you may consider is to try to buy non-trendy clothing that never goes out of style. This will keep you from having to replace your entire wardrobe year after year.
• Buy out of season. Buy your summer clothes in the fall and your winter clothes in the spring. That'll greatly lower your total discretionary spending in your personal finance software.
• Ask for a discount. Whether you're in the military, government, or a civilian, you have a right to a discount if a store wants your business.
• Beware of high-maintenance clothes, like those that require dry-cleaning only.
• Donate your old clothes to charity and write it off on your taxes. That'll make the numbers on your expense tracking even lower.

One key point to take away from here when it comes to personal money management is that you should always shop around. So many people are simply too lazy to comparison shop even though doing so can save them money.

Kenneth C. Kelly is the President of Strativia, a financial management software development and services company specializing in applications for personal and business use.  Strativia is the developer of Budget Forecaster, a sophisticated home budget and personal finance management software package.  Website: www.strativia.com. Contact: info@strativia.com.

Budgeting & Personal Finance

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