7 ways you can minimise your financial woes in 2017

If you suffered from financial troubles in 2016, it is time to turn over a new leaf in 2017. Money is a tool that we all need to get by, but it shouldn’t be the source of our daily frustrations. If you’ve suffered from having excessive expenses or credit debt, you can make a few positive changes that will free up cash and relieve you of unwanted financial headaches in 2017.

Sell stuff that you don’t use.

If you take a look around your home, you will probably find several items that you don’t even use, which can make you an extra $1000-2000 this year. Go into your wardrobes and garage to see if there’s any items such as:

• Unused clothing such as shoes, dresses, jackets, t-shirts or jeans.
• Unused or unwanted furniture.
• Unused or unwanted vehicles.
• Unused or unwanted equipment.

You can easily list your items on sites like eBay, Gumtree or Amazon to start getting enquiries and selling your items.

Rent out a spare room.

If you live in a property that has a lot of space, you can easily make an extra income by renting out any unused space. You can rent out an area, which can be used as an office space or you can rent out an unused room that can be used for accommodation. Weekly rents could fetch you an extra $200-400 a week!

Invest in energy saving lighting.

Many properties are still equipped with inefficient lighting. Take a look around your property to see if incandescent light bulbs are still being used throughout your property. If they are, replace them with energy efficient LED light bulbs. This will reduce your property’s lighting energy consumption by up to 60% annually.

Reward programs

Rather than paying for everything with the cash from your bank account, see if there are any rewards programs that you can participate in. The points that you collect from the program can go towards gift cards or holidays. For example; Virgin has a rewards program (Velocity Frequent Flyer), which allows its members to earn points every time they shop. The points can then be used to purchase items such as flights, watches, fragrances and gift cards.

Claim expenses through a business or company.

If you can conduct your work as a contractor, you will be able to claim expenses such as commuting costs and your business’s assets as expenses. This will help to reduce the amount of tax that you need to pay the tax office every year.

Purchase a Pay as you go mobile phone instead of going on a plan.

Many people love to get the latest phone and get themselves into a contract that will have them paying several hundred dollars more for the phone over the long-term. What’s worse is that if you go over your monthly allowance, the additional charges can be excruciatingly high and you will end up paying twice or even three times more than your monthly allowance limit.

Try to purchase the phone outright and get a sim card where you can ‘top up’ the phone with usage credit. That way you won’t use more than you have.

Consider the following ways to minimize your heating and cooling costs.

If you feel hot, try to keep cool by opening windows and drinking refreshing drinks, rather than keeping the air conditioning running.

If the temperature is cold, keep warm by using hot water bottles, blankets and warm clothing before you turning on any electrical heating.

Start implementing these things as soon as possible so that you can reap the cost savings throughout 2017.