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Effective Ways to Save Money as a Freelance Writer

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When you’re working for yourself you have to learn to be very savvy with your money. Not only are you solely responsible for funding your business, but you’re also responsible for making sure that the bills get paid around the house. Trying to manage a personal and professional budget at the same time can be enough to make you scream. Not to mention the fact that since you’re not a salaried employee your pay is not guaranteed to be the same amount, nor is it guaranteed to come at the same time.

So how do you manage your finances as a freelance writer? While I wish I could say it was easy, managing your finances does take some practice and adjusting. However, what I can tell you is that by finding ways to save on your personal and business expenses, it can make it a lot easier for you to handle everything. Here are some ways I try to cut back on my expenses as I manage my freelance writing business.

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Savings Around the Home

The first place you want to check is your household budget. This is likely where a bulk of your money is going each month. Do a once over of your bills and budget if you have one to get an idea of what your average monthly spending is like. Once you have an idea of what you’re spending each month, see if there are ways you can save in your household spending.

For me, I realized that our energy costs were through the roof, so saving on the utility bills would actually give me a few extra bucks each month to put towards another expense. There are plenty of ways to save on your energy bill including things like turning off lights and devices when they’re not in use, changing your light bulbs from incandescent to LED, and so on. However, a new method that US and Canadian residents have available to them is choosing their own energy provider. You can click here to learn more about deregulation in the energy market and what that means for you.

Other areas you might consider saving around the house might include:

  • Your grocery bill – stockpiling and couponing can really bring this bill down
  • Your home entertainment – shopping around for service providers who offer bundles is the best solution. However, you can also consider the possibility of cutting your television subscription services and just stream television shows and movies through a more affordable streaming service.

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Savings in the Business

Once you’ve gone through all the possible ways you might be able to save on expenses around the house, you can evaluate your business budget to see where you can cut back and save money. Here are some great ways I’ve found to save over the past few months:

  • Utilize free software – A lot of times we invest in products that we don’t necessarily need to run our business effectively. When it comes to utilizing software for instance, you don’t have to purchase the highest costing product to make an impression on your clients. There are a lot of free software options you can choose from that will save you money. If you’re worried about quality, many of the free software options work just as effective as the high priced ones.
  • Barter Your Services – You’re a writer for crying out loud, who doesn’t need an effective writer on their team? If you’re in need of something like accounting or so on, you can reach out to a fellow freelancer and consider offering to update their blog or even create a few social media posts for them in exchange for their assistance.
  • Don’t Use Paper – As a freelance writer, you’re really working online for a better part of your day. If you’re looking to cut business expenses, then I recommend ditching the printing. Unless vitally necessary, printing costs a lot of money from the ink down to the paper. Saving documents to your hard drive and viewing them online is the best way to go.

Learning how to manage your finances as a freelance writer is certainly going to be a challenge in the beginning. You can cut the stress of the adjustment immensely by finding ways to save money. The more money you’re able to save each month, the less expenses you have making it a lot easier to ensure that your writing income will compensate your cost of living.