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How You Can Save Money if You Live Alone

Save Money if You Live Alone
Photo by Evieanna Santiago on Unsplash

How You Can Save Money if You Live Alone

The financial pressures of living alone are very different from those you’ll experience living with a partner or roommate with an additional income where expenses can be split. You’ll likely be quite keen to save some money from your monthly expenses. Here are a few ways you save money if you live alone.

Save Money if You Live Alone
Photo by Evieanna Santiago on Unsplash

Get a Meal Prep Routine Going

Learning to cook might be a prerequisite here if you need to go back to the basics. Because cooking for one is quite a bit more expensive per person than cooking for a family, cooking bigger meals and freezing or refrigerating portions can help cut down your food bill and time management each week by preparing meals for the week. Choose meals that freeze well like pasta and chicken dishes, and cook enough for a few days, dividing them into portions. Even if you don’t prep meals in advance, having a solid meal plan and avoiding the precooked convenience dinners or quick and easy fast food takeout will save you a pretty penny over a whole month and possible inches to your waist.

Stop Using a Laundromat

Laundromats are the ultimate convenience for the bachelor living alone but cost 3x as much as doing your laundry at home. Particularly if you live in a high-rise building or apartment complex where the laundry room might be shared, it might be a bit of an inconvenience, but buying your detergent and putting in the time to do your laundry is going to save you a noticeable amount of money out of your paycheck.

Relook at Your Insurance Provider

Insurance is one expense that can vary in price a lot between providers, depending on how they assess risk and how they apply these assessments to your profile. It’s always a good idea to shop around for the best insurance deal for you, especially at renewal time each year as most insurance providers raise their prices each year. The first way to unlock a good level of savings is to bundle your home and auto insurance, as insurers will usually reduce rates for a bundle. One example can be seen through the AARP home and auto insurance bundle from The Hartford, which offers great savings to those over the age of 50 and boasts a 24/7 claims hotline and very flexible plans covering everything of value.

 

Have a

Monthly Budget
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Because you’re responsible for all your expenses and don’t have a second income, not being aware of how you spend your money and where your paycheck goes means making changes to what you’re spending and what becomes quite difficult to accomplish, without a solid line by line expense budget, planning and making it from paycheck to paycheck becomes a bit of guesswork. Money managers tend to recommend the 50/30/20 rule of budgeting, which states that 50% of your income should be going to what you need, 30% can be used for what you want, and 20% must be saved. While you might not follow this split exactly, getting as close as you can is a great way of starting on the right path to better money management.

Managing your expenses and saving money where you can when you’re living alone can be quite important, especially as you get older and need to rely on a fixed income. These are just a couple of many innovative ways to cut down on your monthly expenses and unlocking some money to start building your nest egg.