A survey of «Resolve your Debt»credit repair company with global reach, revealed in November 2022 that 60 percent of respondents agree «not knowing how to manage their income» and 63.8 percent state that they make a monthly budget to avoid unnecessary expenses.
Besides, 53 percent of the participants who affirm that they do not have control or record of their expenses, They allocate most of their money to going out to restaurants, movie tickets, parties, clothing, among others.
Now, ant expenses, a concept that refers to frequent purchases of small amounts, which makes them go unnoticed by consumers in their spending records or daily living budgets, but have a significant impact on finances.
Among these, ant expenses, in which Colombians incur the most by 2022 were sweets with 25.7 percent, fun and entertainment plans with 14.3 and cigarettes with 6.7 percent.
In turn, the consumption report for January 2023, from the Consumer Knowledge Group (RADDAR), showed that, in 2023, for every $100 that Colombian households had$7 went to meals away from home, $5 to entertainment and $3 to clothing.
However, it is important to note that, when comparing these figures with those registered in 2022, a decrease of 0.28%, 2.10% and 2.60% respectively begins to be observed, very surely explained by the perception of households regarding the state of the current economy.
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How to avoid ant expenses?
Juan Pablo Herrera, dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Externado de Colombia University, said that there has been a high consumption of certain goods and services that, despite their low amount, generate negative effects for personal finances, showing the need to adopt some habits and prevent these expenses from being an eternal headache in the future.
«First of all, it is necessary to be aware of the impact of the so-called ant expenses for our finances, therefore, it is suggested to carry out the control of each expense made daily and thus, dimension its magnitude in a weekly, monthly or even annual period ”, they point out.
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He also managed to carry out control of each expense made. This will allow you to identify those expenses that are essential and those that are not, minimizing the latter to the extent possible.
additionally, The fact of identifying those essential expenses will make it possible to the design of a monthly budget that includes income and expenses to set additional goals such as savings.
You can even allocate a fixed monthly amount for identified ant expenses, thus keeping track of them. For this purpose, allocate in digital matters a single financial product such as a credit card to program the automatic debits of payments, as well as carry out a strict control of card movements, and carefully verify the conditions under which subscription renewals and business offers are accepted digital It will always be a very good way to control this type of expense.
