How to reduce expenses?

Reduce expenses is critical in improving your finance.
First of all, make a list of all your expenses. Expenses are different for different people, but there are common expenses.
Check list of all expenses:
Home / place of living expenses -
• Rent (apartment, house, condo, room…)
• Mortgage of my house
• Property Tax
• Home insurance
• Electricity bill
• Gas bill (cooking, heating, dryer machine…)
• Cable / TV bill
• Home Phone bill
• Cell phone bill
• Home internet bill

Car expenses –
• Car loan
• Car insurance
• Car fuel /gasoline
• Car repair / maintenance / oil change...
Expense related to job / work –
• Train ticket
• Bus ticket
• Parking
• Toll
• Airplane ticket
Expense related to everyday life
• Food/Grocery
• Breakfast/ Lunch/dinner at work
• Dinning expense weekend or weekday nights
• Hair cut
• Clothing
• Toiletries and Personal Care ( tooth paste, toothbrushes, dental floss, shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, shaving gear, contact lenses, glasses, skin care product, napkins, toilet paper, paper towel etc)

Expense related to child
• Nanny
• Day care
• Before and After School Care
• Kids learning course (karate, swimming, piano, drawing, soccer, baseball, kumon…)
• Diaper, baby food, milk formula…

Expenses related to your hobby or activity –
• Skiing/snow board, hiking / fishing, golf, bowling
• Drinking
• Traveling
• Party
• Gifts
• Vacations
Expense related to subscriptions
• Magazine
• Club
• Rent movie /DVD

List goes on. These are samples, only you know exactly what your expenses are. I found it very efficient to put the list into excel spreadsheet and track it. I will attach a sample template later. If you are not sure what all your expenses are, review your check book, credit card statement, online payments and remember where your cash goes.
Once you have the list, ask yourself, how do I reduce the expense on that item? What can be done to decrease the expense in that area? Can that expense be cut off totally? Do I really need that? If you really think and ask around, you can always find ways to reduce or cut off your expenses. I will give you some tips in next blog post.