Reducing 10% of our personal budget

Oct 14, 2008 Peeping Tom

Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA

INTRODUCTION

With the prevailing and future possibilities of further financial hardships, it is advisable, for each of us to start reviewing our personal budget and how we can reduce our daily expenditure by at least 10%. Given the financial crisis that is engulfing many countries. It is our hope in this process that the government will help in buffering our cost of living by reducing VAT to 7%.
The key is to determine where you spend your money. If you don’t know where your money is going, you are most likely spending too much. We all know that our budget is already stretched and it seems unfair for us to have to cut back in order to make ends meet given the excess and punitive tax system imposed on us by our government. We need to teach them not to take our money.
Many of us bleed large amounts of money each month in areas such as entertainment. Over time we’ve accumulated habits that suck out large amounts of money without much thought. We don’t see them as expenses because they’ve just become part of the way we live. The good news is that a lot of these expenses can be eliminated with little or no pain, just a little thought and a willingness to break some habits.
SPENDING LEAKS
We all have many spending leaks. Fast food expenses can add up in a hurry and take a significant chunk out of our budgets. We Guyanese spend a significant amount of our budget on fast food and drinks. We need to cut out at least one trip a week to the fast food restaurant. Simple things like reducing our electricity as advertised by GPL will help bring our utility bills down.   We should live each day with conservation and reduction in mind when using water and electricity.
Planning our dinner meals for the entire week will also help reduce our budget and stop spending leaks.   One thing I have learned over the years is that I should never go to the grocery store or the market when I am hungry; I tend to buy all the wrong foods.
Many of us do not save our coins. Every time you have coins put it aside for later. Whether it is in a piggy bank or taken off the top of your spending money, start collecting them.   Those coins can add up to a meal for your kids for a day at school.
GROW MORE FOOD
I support the ‘grow more food’ campaign. There is a great need for us to plant on a large scale, but if each of us takes at least the personal side of this campaign serious, we can see our expenditure greatly reduced.
You may even be able to grow enough to sell to your neighbours and gain alternative income.

CONCLUSION
“One Dollar Saved is One Dollar Gained” should be our motto, goal, today, tomorrow, and every day given the current and projected financial crisis. We all have to take the global crisis seriously and put ourselves in preparation mode. I will not stop lobbying for a VAT reduction and for our government to allow us to keep our money. Just like we have to cut back our expenses in order to survive, so should the government. They need to give back the excess money they have collected from us. We keep getting very mixed messages from our banks and insurance companies whether or not our savings are safe. It is imperative that you keep a very close eye on your bank. In addition, we need to lobby our government to create incentives to energize innovation among our entrepreneurs in order to create more jobs and opportunities for us to increase our income levels.

Send your comments to: Peter.ramsaroop@gmail.com

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