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Does the bad economy have you down, especially with the holidays upon us? We have some quick lifestyle tweaks to help you cut costs all year long and during the holidays as well.
Quick and easy methods to cut your costs
Is your wallet feeling the squeeze that comes with having too many expenses? Try these quick tips to improve your bottom line.
Change the way you pay your credit card bills
Credit card bills are a dreadful monthly reminder of how undisciplined you may be when it comes to spending. Nobody loves receiving them in the mail, and paying them is even worse. Still, they won't go away on their own, so you might as well learn how to manage them to avoid paying more than you should in finance charges.
Your monthly finance charges are based on the average daily balance on the card. One way to reduce your monthly finance charges is to split your credit card payments. Let's say you pay $100 each month towards your credit card bill. If $100 is the amount you have decided to dedicate to a certain credit card, pay it in two separate payments of $50. By putting something ($50) towards lowering balance earlier in the month instead of at the end, your average daily balance will be lower. This results in lower overall finance charges and makes the task of paying down your credit card a bit less daunting.
Go generic
Depending on your personal taste, purchasing a brand name item could be important, especially when it comes to clothing. While brand name clothing may feel better than off-brand clothing, there are some items where the generic alternative is just as good as the brand name one.
One such example where this holds true is with prescription drugs. In 2006, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores found that the average cost of a brand name prescription drug was $111.02. To compare, the cost of a generic prescription drug was just $32.23. When you consider the fact that you can basically get the same drug for a huge discount, it makes sense to go the generic route.
