Lights and Water
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The second essential on your variable budget needs to be lights and water. Ok, technically, this would be your electricity and/or gas along with your water.
Your family needs to have lights and water to survive and be healthy. This is not an area you will want to to leave up in the air if you are able to pay it or not.
This is how your budget looks now, with the first two essentials added.
You can find your lights and water bills pretty easily, but if you aren’t sure, look at your monthly bank statements.
Combine the amounts for electricity/gas and your water to add to your budget.
- After paying for food first, you will then pay for lights and water.
If these bills are due later in the month, you can take the money for lights/water and put it into a savings account until the due date.
Or you can leave the money in your checking account, as long as you know it’s there and you don’t touch that money for anything else!!
For a long time, I didn’t think you could really see any legit savings on your lights and water. But you certainly can!!
One quick example of how to save on your electric is during my Great Savings Experiment, I convinced my husband to turn up the temperature of our AC to around 80′ during the peak hours.
Being diligent in watching the AC temperature resulted in dropping our electric bill by a whopping 10% for the next 6 months!
If we had a programmable thermostat, like this one, our savings would have been even higher. It is possible to reduce your lights and water. Every little bit of savings will help you balance out your variable income.
A safe place to live helps reduce the stress of a variable income...
Like this post? Check out all the rest in :
- How to Set Up A Budget Series
- Successful Budget Tips Series
Hi! I’m Charissa. I’m on a mission to help hardworking women overcome money struggles and gain financial peace with a Biblical perspective so they can have the freedom to impact their families and communities. Ready to make some changes that will impact your finances in 2020? Click here to get a free worksheet to help you make it happen!