Budget Control For Year 2009

As the economy is on the downside for year 2009. I guess most of us will need to continue to work hard and long hours from Mondays to Fridays and sometimes weekends too just to maintain our existing lifestyle.

Then, we start to think ..." when can we actually have emough money a comfortable retirement ? or bring my whole family for a holiday / vacation ? or own my dream-house ? " We always wish we had all these, but somehow or another, where did our hard-earned money gone every month ?

Does this sounds familiar to you ? In fact lots of people today in our society earn a decent living and yet they have problems making ends meet. Ever wonder why ?

Sometimes we just spend our money away basing on the lifestyle that we used to live on. Let us look into some of the few common ways that we can cut on our daily expenses and save more.

1) SPENDING TOO MUCH ON INTEREST. Do you pay your credit card payment in full ? or do you just pay the minimal amount ? Those who have unpaid balances carried forward month to month may find that you are one of the credit card company's preferred customers. Those interest charged on the unpaid balances may be small amount on a monthly basis, but it eventually adds-up to a huge amount month after month. These are all unseen money that is going out of your pockets everymonth especially on those interest charged and the late payment charges if you do not pay your credit card bills in full and on time. On top of that, just imagine if you have multiple credit cards. The unseen amount just gets bigger every month. Pay the full amount of your credit card statement and pay them on time. It will easily put back some savings into your pockets.

2) PREMIUM COFFEES. Treating yourself once in a blue moon with a premium coffeehouse blend ( eg. starbucks, Coffeebean, etc ) is considered okay. But, if there is part of your routine every other day, then the caffeine from these coffee outlets are going to drain your savings aways just like how you drink them. 

3) COMPULSIVE SHOPPING. Do you come across people who frequents the shopping mall every weekend and everytime they go to the mall, they are sure to come back home with shopping bags in thier hands ? It is even worse for those who are branded-concious and everything they wear on them has to be branded. Imagine if you are the type who is branded-concious and goes to the mall every weekend even though there is nothing in particular to buy, and comes home a couple of shopping bags everytime. This is going to drain a huge amount of money away from your pockets everytime you do that. It is best to only buy and shop for the things that are necessary and once in a while for those luxurious items.

4) EXTRAVAGANT DINING. Especially for Asians culture, they just simply like to eat and sometimes it could be thier past-time hobby as well. As more families are more becoming affluent and more air-conditioned high-class restaurants and food outlets are open, people tend to patronized these places as a social-norm in our society today. Such places charge for the environment and settings and practically you pay for 3 - 4 times more expensive for the same plate of food. Cut on these and you can easily save a lot on a regular basis.