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By Mike Barclay of 10centsworth.com
If taking a few minutes to implement organization habits saved you money each day, would you take clutter more seriously? I’ve come up with two categories of organization that have made my life easier and saved me money.
Filing
I started filing my coupons by expiration date. I’m always forgetting where I put the coupons, and when I find them they’re already expired. As far as saving money goes, we know that using coupons is one of the easiest way to save when buying fast food or groceries. What is so difficult about having a filing container where you can keep track of coupons? If you know where they are and when they expire, chances are you’ll use them.
I’ve heard it from my Dad and from personal financial blogs that there is value to saving your receipts. Grab a file folder for each month of the year, save all the receipts, and then highlight the date so it’s easy to see before you toss them in. You might not be an accountant or know every deduction you could be taking, but saving the receipts will help whoever does your taxes figure out where you could be getting a big tax check when April 15th rolls around.
Time Management
Time is money, right? Then why do we spend so much “money” aimlessly? For example, the other day I drove to Walgreens, Walmart, Costco and Smiths. I did it two ways. The first involved driving from memory without advance planning. When I finished the trip, I’d driven 34 miles. Then I went back to the starting point, and mapped out a route using Google. I could have done the same route in 20 miles! My car gets roughly 20 miles to the gallon, so I could have saved 3/4 of a gallon, or about $2 at the average national gas price of $3. Driving that much extra every day adds up to wasting about $14 a week or $728 a year.
And while we’re on the topic of kids and errands; have you ever wanted to be in two places at once? What if you could? Well, not you physically, but what if you could get two things done at once? Barter with your neighbors! If you’ve both got kids, carpool with them and swap for something else. Maybe you take care of their dogs while they drop the kids off at the after-school activities. My hourly rate is around $10 an hour. If I had to walk the dogs (30 minutes) and then take the kids to their after-school activity (30 minutes) I’m spending a full hour, or $10 of my time. If this happens on a daily basis, that $10 becomes $70 in a week’s time. If my neighbor and I agreed that I would take her kids to the activity and she’d take care of the dogs, suddenly I’ve cut my losses in half and can spend the other half hour on something that’s productive.
Between these two examples, I’ve shown you how to save $100 on a weekly basis by planning and organizing your time more effectively. Everyone’s schedule is different, but if you get into the habit of organizing your time, you’ll start to notice your days are more productive and you’ll see the savings in your bank account as well.
What do you do to use your time effectively?
