How to give Yourself a Raise

Most people think raises can only be obtained from an employer. While that is one way to get a raise here are five tricks to giving yourself a raise.

• Get out of debt

The best way to find extra money is to stop paying it out to everyone else. If you stop spending money (you don't have) on credit cards, car loans and mortgages you would have a lot more money in your pocket. This is hard to do but worth it! Becoming debt free requires patients and persistence but it will put you in the most freeing position financially. 

• Look for opportunities

Start looking for ways to earn more money: babysit, start delivering pizza or sell a bunch of stuff! You'll learn really quickly how little you really need to get by. After all, if you can't learn to live on less than you make you'll never become debt free.

• Save on gas, groceries and utilities

Saving on these things takes a lot more planning, but it will save you hundreds every month. Start a carpool, drive slower or avoid driving a high MPG vehicle. Learn about price matching or the money-saving power of grocery shopping with a list! Turn off lights, take shorter showers use energy saving appliances whenever possible.

• Make it yourself, eating out less

This is the hardest one for me. I love to go out and have someone else do the cooking and clean-up. By preparing your own food you can save hundreds. Still want to go out? Set aside a set amount (ours is $100/month) to use on eating out. Its not even 25% of what we used to spend eating out but it saves money. 

• Cut the habit

All of us have our "habits" that cost us here and there, these ones add up fast. They rarely get the credit they deserve for being the budget busters and money pits they are. The daily diet coke(s), the pack of gum or candy, the magazine/TV subscriptions, movie theaters and concessions, going out to lunch more than 3 times a week, the buying new shoes and clothes because they were on "sale",  thinking that our "earning more points or miles" is a good reason to buy more on the credit card.

There are a million ways to cut spending in your life and give yourself a raise. Its worth the time it takes to sit and crunch the numbers, to have a savings and to be at peace financially.