Every month we go through this ‘will they or won’t they?’ raise interest rates, and we sit pondering how this will effect us. It’s hard enough for families to plan there finances and lifestyle without the debate of which way interest rates are going. How do you plan 6 weeks down the track let alone 1 year!

The answer is take control of your own finances and leave little to chance. This simply means knowing where you’re spending too much in certain areas, and where you need to make some cutbacks.

However, to give you an even bigger helping hand with this, I’ve come up with 5 top cutbacks you could consider:

1. Food Bill

Food is unfortunately, an essential, so it’s not one you can simply slash from your list. However, there are ways you can cut back on your spending.

For starters why not pay a visit to discount supermarkets like Aldi’s. Because they keep their shop overheads low, they can offer lower food prices than the major supermarkets. It’s also worth checking out your local market for bargains on fruit and vegetables or even better grow your own. Another great way to slash your food bills is to shift from brand name goods just because it doesn’t have a flash label doesn’t mean it’s an inferior product.

2. Your smoking habit

Not only is smoking bad for you, it can cost you more than $5,000 a year! You could hold a $50,000 share portfolio with that outlay every year. Now with the governments increased taxes it is an incredibly expensive habit. By quitting smoking, not only will you save money due to no longer buying cigarettes, but you will also save money on your life insurance.

3. Pay TV Package

Do you really need Foxtel? Or is there a cheaper package you could downgrade to? If you’re not getting the most out of your package, shop around for a better deal or cancel it all together. Now with the extra free to air channels how much TV can you watch!

4. Your gym membership

Gym memberships are expensive. $100 a month is the equivalent of $1,200 a year. So are you really getting your money’s worth, or have you simply failed to remember to cancel your membership? If you’re not using the gym on a regular basis, there’s no point in paying for it.

And even if you still want to keep fit, there are plenty of other options where you can get fit without the price tag, are you paying $1,200 a year to walk on a tread mill when you could walk around your neighbor hood for free!

5. Paying for lunch

Simply stop heading out at lunchtime to buy your Subway sandwich / food court rolls. Make your lunch at home instead – you can easily do this for roughly $3 a day. So compared to your $10-15 bought lunch, that’s a saving of around $205 a month (based on 23 working days).

And finally…

Not strictly a cutback, but it’s worth seeing whether you can also get better deals on your home insurance, car insurance and gas/electric bills or a little more research into a cheap mortgage or refinance your home loan. You may be surprised how a little shopping around can easily save the pennies!

Related posts:

  1. Secret to building wealth
  2. Paying Off Your Home Loan Faster
  3. Interest Rate Busters – statergies to fight the rate rises
  4. Opposition has no credibility on economics says Swan