How to Save Money

And you, how much are you saving? The following document will provide you with interesting tips to get you started. Apart from practising your vocabulary, I hope you find it very useful for your everyday life! Enjoy.

Read the following text and try to fill the gaps with the missing words:

Lesson by Caroline

Vocabulary

Acquire - to get something, to come to own something. "He has acquired a good understanding of English."

Amount - how much there is of something. "They had a large amount of help from people."

Expenses - money that you spend when you spend regularly on things like food, bills, rent, loan repayments and so on. "My salary is not enough to live on. It hardly covers my expenses."

Healthier - the comparative form of healthy. "She doesn't eat sweets and she goes to the gym. She's much healthier than me."

Instalments - any one of a series of small payments that you make over a long time until you have paid the total cost of something. "I'm paying back my loan over 6 monthly instalments."

Minutes - the amount of minutes you can use on phone calls per month as part of your mobile phone contract. "As part of my mobile phone package, get 50 free minutes to any local numbers per month."

Organisation -  the process of planning and arranging something. The verb is organise. "Planning a wedding takes a lot of organisation."

Outflows - similar to 'expenses'. The money you spend - the money that flows out of your bank account. "The company had an outflow of $20 million in 2011."

Suffering - physical, mental, or emotional pain. "War causes widespread human suffering."

Tips to Save in 2012

It is important to _1_ the habit of saving because you never know what might happen in the near future.

To begin with, it is important to list the basic monthly _2_ you have, such as paying rent, utilities, gas, food, mobile bill and credit cards. Once you have worked out the total _3_ of expenses you have to pay, you can focus on how much you will have left and how much, therefore, you can save!

It is possible that while reading this you are already thinking that your income does not allow you to save, but be sure this is just lack of _4_.

Remember that nothing in life lasts forever, and that it is very important to have savings that allow you to live for at least six months without _5_, in case you lose your job.

To put into practice, here are some tips to help you save:

• Eat more at home and less in restaurants, it’s not only _6_ but will help you save money.
• Do not go shopping on an empty stomach, because you will buy more because of the hunger you are experiencing at that time.
• Check your cable TV plan, as well as landline and cellular plans. Do you really need so many channels and so many _7_? Think about it!
• Do not leave appliances connected or the cable to recharge your phone plugged in, all this consumes energy and increases your expenses.
• It is better not to have more than one credit card and only use it in emergencies. You also should try not to defer payments in many _8_. Remember that the interests of the cards are very high and gradually you will get into more debt without realizing it.
• Create a table in your computer or a notebook, where you can organize your expenses to control additional or different _9_. This table may serve to analyse what percentage of your income you can save and determine which things you can cut back on!

Now fill the gaps with the correct missing words:

• Missing word 1 is:
  
  Organisation
  Acquire
  Healthier
  Suffering
  Minutes
  Expenses
  Amount
  Instalments
  Outflows
  
  
• Missing word 2 is:
  
  Organisation
  Healthier
  Instalments
  Expenses
  Outflows
  Suffering
  Acquire
  Minutes
  Amount
  
  
• Missing word 3 is:
  
  Organisation
  Minutes
  Outflows
  Expenses
  Healthier
  Instalments
  Amount
  Suffering
  Acquire
  
  
• Missing word 4 is:
  
  Suffering
  Minutes
  Organisation
  Amount
  Outflows
  Healthier
  Acquire
  Expenses
  Instalments
  
  
• Missing word 5 is:
  
  Expenses
  Minutes
  Instalments
  Organisation
  Healthier
  Suffering
  Amount
  Outflows
  Acquire
  
  
• Missing word 6 is:
  
  Outflows
  Suffering
  Minutes
  Acquire
  Expenses
  Organisation
  Healthier
  Instalments
  Amount
  
  
• Missing word 7 is:
  
  Suffering
  Amount
  Outflows
  Organisation
  Minutes
  Acquire
  Instalments
  Expenses
  Healthier
  
  
• Missing word 8 is:
  
  Amount
  Expenses
  Outflows
  Healthier
  Minutes
  Organisation
  Instalments
  Suffering
  Acquire
  
  
• Missing word 9 is:
  
  Amount
  Expenses
  Acquire
  Organisation
  Suffering
  Healthier
  Instalments
  Outflows
  Minutes