Navigating Higher Costs: Where To Cut Back, Where To Spend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – While we can all be hopeful that gas prices will start to drop, the fact is families are looking for ways to afford the gas on top of the higher costs of everything else.
The estimates are the average family will see their gasoline cost go up anywhere from $1,300-$2,000 per year, so where do you find that money in a tight budget?
Spread over a year, we're talking about somewhere under $200 per month, which is no small amount.
No one wants to think about cutting back, but Fred Derubeis has given it some thought.
"A little less entertainment, theaters, concerts, maybe ball games," he said.
While that's Derubeis's view, family financial expert Rob Bertman said not so fast.
"There are ways to do it, where you can still keep the things that you enjoy, but still make room for the extra price of rising gas prices," Bertman said.
Bertman went on to say that families should start by dissecting where their money is going before they start making sacrifices.
"There are plenty of other things that people can identify after they first have tracked their spending and know where their money has gone," he said.
He suggested using one of several apps that are out there, for free, that will draw in information about where you're spending money, so you can look it over and decide what needs to go or what needs cut back.
It also might not be much more complicated than monitoring your errands.
"I don't really know very many people who leave Target or Walmart, or Amazon without having things in their cart that they didn't originally plan on getting before they got there," Bertman said.
We all have absolute needs, but Bertman said part of the assessment might also be prioritizing the wants.
"What are the things we want to keep spending money on? Let's not touch that," he said.
Finding the places to cut are usually a lot more obvious than most of us want to admit and he suggests looking for monthly expenses you can cut – such as subscriptions.
While a popular suggestion lately has been possibly purchasing an electric car, it sounds good on the surface, but Bertman said you're essentially trading an extra $160 per month in gas for payments of $500-600 per month for a car payment.