With so many obligations pulling us in every direction, the task of fixing your financial situation can easily fall to the wayside.
Getting your finances under control can seem like a daunting task, but fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take to starting fixing your financial situation.
These 5 ten-minute financial fixes are easy to implement and won’t take much time, but they will all make a positive impact on your financial situation, help to reduce your debt and allow to you to be in charge of your finances, instead of your finances being in charge of you.
5 Ten-Minute Financial Fixes
1. Run a Credit Check
The first step you should take to fix your financial situation is to run your credit – it’s important to know exactly where you stand.
Credit Sesame is completely free and you can get a credit score, reports & monitoring, a loan analysis, & financial tips and tricks.
Sign up here to get your free credit score report with Credit Sesame.
2. Start an Emergency Fund
It’s essential that you have an emergency fund that has enough money in it to cover six months of basic living expenses, should an emergency situation arise, such as losing your main source of income.
While saving up such a large chunk of money might seem like a daunting task, remember – your emergency fund needs to have enough money in it to cover six months of basic living expenses. This means you should have enough to cover expenses that you need to pay – think mortgage, electricity, groceries, gas, etc. This doesn’t include expenses such as dining out, movie tickets, etc.
A great way to get started on your emergency fund is to do a 52-week saving challenge.
3. Sign up for Cash back
Did you know that you can get cash back on your grocery store purchases, and the vast majority of online purchases you make? You can! I recommend signing up for Ibotta for grocery store purchases, and Ebates and TopCashBack for your online shopping.
Ibotta is an app you can download onto your smartphone, that gives you cash back for grocery store purchases. The thing I love about Ibotta is that there is such a variety of items you can get cash back on, and they’re usually for items that I would be purchasing anyway. For example, right now Ibotta is offering cashback for purchasing carrots, onions, bananas, and zucchini (amongst hundreds of other things!)
Click here to join Ibotta and you’ll get a $10 bonus when you redeem your first rebate.
Ebates is a must if you ever do online shopping.
It’s super easy to use – say you want to buy something from Nordstrom.
Instead of going straight to the Nordstrom website, first go to Ebates, click on their Nordstrom link and you’ll get a percentage of cash back on everything you buy!
4. Start Cooking Meals at Home
Eating out, while convenient, can be an expensive habit. An article published on Bloomberg stated that Americans now spend more money at restaurants than they do at grocery stores, and considering the average restaurant meal costs $13 (plus a tip), you can save a lot of money by cooking your own meals at home.
Meal planning can take a lot of time, though.
To save time and money, I recommend signing up for the $5 Meal Plan. For just $5 a month, you’ll receive a delicious meal plan, with each meal costing about $2 per person to make. For a family of four, this could mean savings of over $44 per meal! (compared to dining out.)
Here’s the link to find out more about $5 Meal Plan here.
5. Negotiate your contracts
You can save a lot of money by negotiating your contracts for services like cable, internet, monitored alarm, and cell service. Just give them a call and explain that you’re considering switching service providers, and is the price you’re currently paying the best they can offer you. I recently did this with my cable service and was able to lower my bill substantially.
Fixing your financial situation can be a big undertaking, but by implementing these 5 ten-minute financial fixes you’ll be well on your way towards a better financial future.
Do you have any other quick financial fixes? Let me know in the comments!
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