Top 10 Personalfinance tips

The word “budget” can seem like a bad word. It just feels … tedious. If you hate budgets but still want to get your finances in shape, Paula Pant at Afford Anything has the answer. “Practice the anti-budget. It’s only two steps: First, figure out what slice of your paycheck you want to ‘save’ — by which I mean, use for anything that’ll improve your financial life, such as making extra debt payments, investing in a 401(k), or literally saving in cash,” she says. “Second, automatically transfer your ‘savings’ from every paycheck into a different account; ideally at a different bank.”

There are a ton of free services available to you in Canada. You don’t have to spend money on a lot of items in fact. For example, by downloading the Flipp mobile app, you can compare grocery item prices and price matches to save money. The app’s pretty intuitive and encourages you to pre-select the items you are looking for before you head to the store. By doing this, you don’t have to compare and price match for items during checkout. Also, head out to Costco once or twice a month. You can buy items in bulk and Costco offers superior quality items at a heavily discounted price. All you need is a bare minimal membership costing $60. With the Costco Membership, you’ll also end up saving on gas prices. If you are into reading books and magazines, head out to the nearby library. Canadian libraries are damn good in terms of book options and volume. You can also get a library card and rent a couple of books you want to read. Doing this way, you don’t have to spend money on buying books unless you have to and it is not available. Another point to note here is, where ever possible walk, run or cycle around the neighbourhood. You don’t have to take your car everywhere, walk around, use a cycle, it’s good for health as well as nature. Spend less on gas.

If you want to make extra money, start a “side hustle” (a job on the side of your day-job). There are tons of options for side hustles . Whether it’s because you want to get out of debt, save for a down payment on a house, or just pay your bills, a side hustle can change your finances for the better. Don’t feel stuck making the money you do from your current job – there are always ways to make more money. Next steps:

• Read: 45 Ways To Make Extra Money (blog post)
• Read: How To Be More Efficient Working From Home (blog post)

Putting together a budget is one of the best things you can do to keep your finances on track. There are a variety of different budgeting styles to choose from, like the envelope budgeting system, or you can use a free budgeting app that you can use either on a desktop or download onto your phone. If you don’t like computers and prefer to use a pen and paper, there are free budgeting printables you can download and print out. Make sure you include EVERYTHING in your budget, including irregular spending, so you can see exactly where your money is going. Once you have a working budget, you can make better decisions about how to spend, save and invest. Budgeting is one of the most underrated personal finance tips and tricks, so make sure you conquer your budget. Related: The Debt Snowball Technique

You might have heard of the app, Turo. If you haven’t, it’s ok. Using the Turn app, you can rent out your car, when you wish to and for a couple of days every month. It depends on you as to how many days you want to rent your car out, for whom and at what price. Creating your profile is very easy, it hardly takes a few minutes to rent out your car. You can choose the date, time, meet the person you will be renting it out to and also have special instruction if any. Turn is great, I’ve tried it and it works seamlessly. You can look out for these options, which will help you in earning more monthly income and at the cost of renting out your car for a few days in a month.