'Pay-to-Use' Helps You Save Cash

With the souring economy, people are realizing that they really need to find ways to save more money.

One way to do that is to initiate a "pay-to-use" program, which is fairly simple. When you use, say, an appliance that you own, you pay a predetermined amount to your emergency fund.

For example, if you did not own a washing machine or dryer, you would have to go to your local laundromat to wash and dry your clothes. In order to use the machines there, you would have to pay for each load you washed.

When setting up a pay-to-use system, you simply pay yourself for using the machines you already own, rather than the laundromat owner.

In the above example, you might decide to pay a dollar toward your emergency fund each time you wash your clothes. You might also decide to add two dollars to your emergency fund for every laundry load that you placed into your dryer.

By making small payments for the appliances you use, your emergency fund should start to fill up quite quickly.

Even better, you'll develop additional skills that will boost your budgeting and personal finance skills. Here are just a few benefits of pay-to-use.

It teaches details about your spending.

People often think about spending in terms of shopping, but every time you turn on a light or get into the car, you are spending a little bit of money. Most people probably aren't aware of how often they use many of the appliances and other items they own, but a pay-to-use program will clearly show you.