When my husband and I got married I was the main wage earner. It was tight but we were able to set up a budget that worked for us. Once we both began working full time, rather than allowing our expenses to significantly increase, we decided to keep our lifestyle almost the same as before. So, even though we could have afforded a few luxuries we decided if we had been satisfied without them in the past then we didn’t really need them. We did eventually purchase a home and that increased our living expenses but outside of that our budget remained nearly identical. As a result, we have been able to live debt free (except for our mortgage) and have been able to make prepayments on our mortgage to decrease the amount of interest we have to pay.
With the troubled economy and the increasing possibility of job loss it’s a good idea to step back and take a serious look at what you are spending your money on and consider how you can cut back in order to build up an emergency fund. Even in the best of times, it is recommended that you have from 6 to 8 months worth of living expenses saved. It is possible that you will have to do more with less, so why not start saving now by cutting back on the things you don’t really need?
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