SUGGESTION ON HOW TO SAVE

1) Charity and Donations

Church goers are supposed to give the first fruits (money that you get from working or from the government given to them  to the Church. This to pay the minister, and expand the gospel as well as support the schools and often the later is put in a separate envelope. After that, there is the collection plate plus charities such as giving to the gospel missions or donating to help the poor. You should give enough so that you will not be able to spend rest of your money haphazardly on what would not be beneficial, such as eating out every day at expensive restaurants, buying things you will throw away after using them just once, buying a computer just to play games, etc. . I believe putting a certain amount each money is best rather then the percentile routine, but then math is not my best subject.

With political donations. It is best to support your political party. And especially if what the present party is going is detrimental to the citizens - such as high taxes, extravagant spending, spending on what is immorality such as baby killing, letting the elderly die without comfort, preference for same sex marriages, etc.  You do get credit for it.

Charities.  This is often overwhelming and if you gave to every charity, you will wind up in debt or in serious money trouble.   I had my mother-in-law as an example.  So give to what charities you consider will do the most help.

2) The Pay Yourself First

Or rather, pay yourself second if you give the first fruits to the church.  Usually it is ten percent the same for tithes considering that you do not want to buy something extravagent.  But in reality it should be ten percent or less after you give the first fruits to the church.  And the goal is six months income. But there is another finance that is added to it also known as mad money.  No its not to pay for the trip to Europe or that diamond necklace. That is if anything happens such as getting ill, going to the hospital, nursing home that will cost quite a bit, funeral, etc.  A suggestion is if you have a few savings accounts (necessary now that Bank of Montreal is becoming anti-Christian) to using the interests towards the Mad Money account.   It used to be you could have a regular bank account and an online account, but now you may need a couple.

3) Saving for the Big  Item

I remember people I know, saying with sadness, "we were saving for a new car," and then added, "but we decided we could not afford it so we will put more on the mortgage."  And I wondered why they said that? Surely if their car was breaking down, they did need a new one.  So I figured it was because they came into money from their tax refund, they had not put any money aside for the new car and that was the problem.  You cannot just wait until after February.   The best thing is to after deciding what big item you need or want-need, is to find out how much you can put together each month so that in a year or two or three, you can buy it.   And then specify.  A caveat.   One item at a time.

4) Told you must give up your cable, your home phone, or both.

The thing is like most it should be your choice and not someone suggesting ways to spend money so you feel you have to give up your cable.   Personally I wish what they used to have in England where you put money in a box to see what was on TV for a certain period of time. There are some shows that do not appear on the basic cable and if you want to get news that is not from a leftist point of view, you may have to subscribe to the second or third tier. And it also may save your life, especially when it comes to Muslim terrorism when the regular tv stations say that all Muslims are peaceful.

With giving up your home phone, if you seldom get toll free numbers and do not make that many calls out of your city that would not make your cost more, by all means just use your cell phone.  But remember that toll free numbers are not toll free on cell phones. There is a cost especially when you get the message, "Your call is important to us," and have to wait a while. Then against if you have phone, cable, and computer included on your Shaw, Bell, etc., you can wait for a while on your home phone and do not have to pay extra.

You see there are advantages and disadvantages.


5)Watch your budget when you shop for food

What not to do is to buy the cheapest unless you are sure they are non-GMO. With vegetables especially frozen, you may not know and unfortunately non-GMO maybe more expensive. It is like when I was younger, that even though margarine contained transfats, and Kool-aid was just flavoured water with lots of sugar, many parents used that because they could not afford butter or real juice and only used fruit in season.  And watch for trans fats or anything that could deliberately harm your health. Often times, this may conflict with your church giving, but  then the elders and deacons do not want you to harm your health, so they will caution you about paying on time for luxuries or things you do not have the money for that will not help you spiritually or others.
The best way to keep your food budget lower is to start a garden.  Even if you can only grow enough food for one week or one day, that besides being invited out, will be one week or one less day of food to buy. It will also make sure you do not buy food that has pesticides or chemicals in.   You can also buy in bulk, etc,

6) Health

If you have a chronic condition, you may have to spend more.  For instance, if you are diabetic, the healthy food are often more expensive and taking herbal medicines, multi-vitamins designed for blood sugar reduction as well as eye healing vitamins cost more then the regular vitamins even ones designed for over 55.   Also if you have bad eyes, there are eye examinations even if you just have myopia or age related, prescription glasses do cost money.

7) Gardening and other outside activities

A rainbarrel is a good idea. And in winter you can water indoor plants with melted snow. You can start plants in pots and then later on enlarge your garden by digging.  You save a bit that way.

8) Insurance and Taxes:

You need this, especially home or rental insurance. Best pay once a year because you get a discount. And of course, there is also taxes.

9) Clothes and other things.

Some are lucky. They can go down to Goodwill or Value Village and pick up something.  I cannot, so I take advantage on the biyearly sales. As well as the other things, do not buy unless there is a sale.

10)For the Old People

Getting help for what you cannot do for yourself, may having you agreeing to pay for someone to fix up your house, do your lawn, shovel your snow, etc.  Some may do it voluntarily, but if you are persuaded to pay them,it is best to do what you can for yourself.  That is, when winter comes, if there is not much snow, you can clean the sidewalk yourself, but when there is a lot of snow, you can pay for it. With gardening, you may be able to plant, but may not be strong enough to dig up the lawn or build one of those boxes to grow all your vegetables.  The same for lawn mower.  You can buy the gas, but someone may have to mow your lawn especially if it is quite large.   So if you can do it yourself, do it, but not if it is too much.