Managing Home Maintenance Costs

This is a continuation of our blog post on wireless trends.  We cover the last three topics that seem to be the foremost issues for wireless carriers which also impact consumers no matter were you live. One area we have noticed that only a few consumers are beginning to become aware of is free WiFi. Instead of having to pay for your data, many consumers are now taking advantage of free Wifi to gain access to the internet. You have to frequent coffee shops, restaurants even laundromats to find free Wifi, but many business are adding WiFi every day because they understand that it could bring them additional business. Starbucks and McDonalds have certainly learned this and have embraced the free WiFi approach.

It does not seem to matter what country you are in there are five wireless trends that all markets seem to embrace at one time or another.  Some countries are behind others are ahead, however they will adopt these trends at some point in time. These trends are :

• The decline of voice revenue
• The data crunch
• Mobile broadband

In some countries as well, particularly Canada and the US , the data crunch is overtaking the ability of the carriers to provide capacity. There is a tremendous cost to augment their networks, however they seem to be following in the same direction as other countries have. Using a combination of rates and added capacity they seem to be managing the growth in their networks. More on this later.

Wireless Trends – The decline of voice revenue

Voice revenue is under pressure because many of the new carriers are offering unlimited minutes or so many minutes that it might as well be anytime minutes. This puts a lot of pressure on the traditional wireless carriers.

Combine this with unlimited texting, unlimited data and alternate services such as Skype and WiFi, and you see potentially a huge impact on the carriers revenue. Consumers are not stupid. They are switching, they are avoiding long term contracts and they are looking for better deals which allows them to control their monthly costs.

Wireless Trends – The data crunch

More and more people are switching to smart phones  which are gobbling up vast amounts of data on mobile networks putting a lot of pressure on the networks run by the carriers as well as causing some consumers to have large monthly bills.

As more and more people move to smart phones, data will continue growing at a phenomenal rate. Email, photos and video contribute to a large portion of what is being downloaded or sent. The amount of data traffic will only increase.

There are ways that consumers can limit their data bills and carriers may even encourage their customers to follow these sorts of solutions to take some pressure off the wireless networks. WiFi at work, at home, or at coffee shops is a great way of taking advantage of free data connections, which helps the consumer as well as the carrier. Data traffic is channeled to landlines when a WiFi connection is used for data.

Wireless Trends –  Mobile broadband

The future is clearly  mobile! Consumers love the convenience and also the freedom to check their email, send text messages and browse the internet while on the go. Riding the bus to work in the mornings, half of the bus riders are checking their email or staying in touch with family or colleagues. Same thing on the ride home. Anytime, anywhere is the motto for most people for voice , data and even video on their smart phones.

Feel free to leave your comments and opinions about our thoughts and ideas regarding wireless trends. Spam comments will be deleted. For more posts about wireless evolution, click here.

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This may seem like an odd title to write about for a blog that is dedicated to managing home maintenance costs. However when you think about it if you know were you spend your money, then you can make some decisions about what to spend and what not to spend. Developing a budget is one of the tools that can help you with this objective to manage your overall home costs. Get started and set a budget.

Save Money – Set a Budget

There are a number of guidelines when it comes to building a realistic budget. Here are a few:

• Be realistic about your budget. Setting it too small or too large will not allow you to achieve your objectives
• Track your expenses against your budget so that you can compare
• Develop your budget with the family so they can help you meet your targets
• Need vs. Want. Evaluate whether the planned expense is something you need to have or merely want to have.
• Always look for alternatives and ways to save money. This can be the difference between meeting your budget objectives vs. overspending
• Just because you have not spent all of your money in a specific area of your budget avoid the tendency to spend it anyway. You might need this to offset an over expense in another area
• Pay yourself as well. this is important so that you and your family have some mad money to spend on dining, hobbies etc

There are probably many other tips and areas that should be considered when setting up a budget. Based on my own experience, these are the important ones. If you have tips of your own, please feel free to leave comments on our blog. Spam comments will be deleted.

Categories for Your Budget

You probably cannot identify every budget item that needs to be included. We have listed some of the main ones for you to consider.

• Auto – including gas, maintenance and repairs
• Insurance – including home, auto, life, health insurance costs
• Groceries – self evident
• Utilities – cable, phone, cell, electrical, heat
• Taxes – federal, state, city, provincial taxes, property taxes
• Entertainment – including dining, movies, shows, etc
• Vacation – travel costs and hotel, including dining and vacation entertainment
• Home Maintenance – this is a big one and the expenses can be large. You may want to draw up a maintenance plan and then decide how much you need to set aside every month to ensure that you have sufficient funds to deal with the major expense. These include – window replacement, furnace , water heater, air conditioner replacement, roof repairs, driveway repairs, fence repairs etc
• Home Decoration – Allow some money in your budget for decoration and furniture additions or updates
• Pay yourself budget – although this may be a small item, budget to allow yourself to spend some money on frivolous items from time to time.
• Clothing – plan your expenses around sales and updates to your wardrobe. Take advantage of sales to stay within your budget.
• Office or work related expenses – lunch, transit, coffee at work
• School – folks with young children will need to set budgets in this area as well, particular for that back to school time frame.

Keep Your Budget Simple

Sounds like a lot of work to set a budget and track it. It can be unless you keep it simple and really assess if you really needs things or just want them. It can be very rewarding at the end of each month to know that not only did you meet your budget, but you saved some money as well.  Stick to your guns with the family as well and set a time each week to over how you are doing relative to the budget for the month.

For more information about cost savings and set a budget, click here.

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