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It’s not always easy to pay insurance premiums. There are always more expenses and never enough money. Use these hints to squeeze extra cash from your budget and afford premiums. Even if one tip alone doesn’t generate the savings, several combined will.

#1 Carpool to work and to do shopping

Gasoline costs most households nearly $1500 a year. Monthly, there is a national average of $368 spent on gas. If you reduce your gas use by even a third, you will have saved a big portion of your premiums.

The easiest way to do that is to share the commute to work and/or do your grocery shopping with a friend or neighbor. Two commuters halves the price you pay for a ride to work. Three commuters means you only pay a third. Load up those vehicles to really save on money.

The less you drive, the less you pay in premiums. If by carpooling you reduce your annual mileage significantly, you could really reduce your premium levels.

Find carpool partners online using these nonaffiliated sites:

• GoLoco (the Facebook of carpooling)
• Craigslist
• eRideShare

You can also just post something on the boards at work.

#2 Cut back on luxury expenses

By luxury, we don’t mean beach resort vacations or diamond rings, although you could definitely cut back if you are buying that stuff willynilly! What we are talking about are non-essential purchases.

For instance, rather than going to see a movie on a Friday night, have a night in with family and friends. Play a board game or tell stories. To save money, make it a potluck dinner, rather than paying for it all yourself.

Are you a big coffee drinker? Maybe you don’t need to drink so much. In fact, green tea can be cheaper than coffee and better for your digestion and blood pressure as well. If you usually hit Starbucks at some point in the day, bring your coffee from home in a thermos instead.

You can definitely eat in more, and get more calories from nutrient-dense staple foods, such as brown rice or whole grain bread and pasta. Read the rest of this entry »

Some people in politics want everything to be black and white. “Big government bad, small government good” and similar slogans have become rallying cries during town hall meetings and elections. Sound bites are convenient ways of getting a message across, but unhelpful when it comes to more complicated issues. On the face of it, we seem on the cusp of slipping back into recession. To try avoid this double dip, the Fed has announced plans to buy $400 billion in long-term Treasury Bonds. It’s trying to drive down longer term interest rates. While the Fed tries action, this September sees Washington politics try inaction (again). This time, the House rejected funding for government through mid-November. If this measure does not pass by September 30, government will shut down. As if we did not need further proof of political dysfunction. . .

Hanging this “business as usual” shingle outside Capitol Hill should not distract us from the day-to-day reality of trying to keep life together in business. Yes, the Fed may be trying to keep longer term interest rates down but, with many banks undercapitalized, there’s little or no money to lend, even to those businesses with good collateral. All growth is having to be funded organically – that’s assuming we have survival under control. That means using every cent of revenue in the most effective manner. Of course, this means deciding what the most effective strategies are. At this point, we should admit a prejudice. We believe small businesses do best when the employees are all positively motivated. Note we said “positively” motivated. This is not fear of unemployment. Any boss can bully and try extracting every last ounce of effort out of people. We think staff are more willing to go the extra mile if there’s a mixture of encouragement and trust. One of the ways in which you can lift a burden from an employee’s shoulders is to offer a health plan. With more than 50 million Americans without any health insurance or access to Medicaid, there’s a constant fear of illness in the family. Give some reassurance and you will find the staff are more loyal. Read the rest of this entry »