There’s always something we can be saving for in our life, but it can be a difficult thing to do. After rent, bills, and other essential spending every month we are often left with little money to play with. This doesn’t mean we can’t save any money and often it’s a case of adjusting our outgoings and habits to allow us to save a little more. Living hand to mouth is a problem many of us face. However, you can get out of that habit by tweaking a few aspects of your finances.
Here we look at four sure-fire ways to save money.
1. Lifestyle
You might be asking the question, what does lifestyle have to do with me saving any money? Well, it can have a dramatic effect on the things you spend your money on so it’s worth taking a look and seeing if changing anything you’re doing on a monthly basis can help you save. Living a healthy lifestyle will usually mean you’re eating well and exercising more meaning there is less time to involve yourself in activities such as daily trips to your local bar and eating in fast-food restaurants.
Reducing your spend in establishments like this will save you an enormous amount of money and you’ll find at the end of the month you have a much larger pot you can put into savings. Having a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just include healthy eating and exercise, it involves being healthy in other aspects of your life too, moderation is an important word we should all remember and keeping a healthy mind is also vital to a beneficial lifestyle.
When it comes to deciding what to do to help maintain your lifestyle in a way which will benefit your bank balance it’s important to understand what you’re taking part in, reading detailed reviews is a brilliant way to gain more understanding and will help with your decision making process. Eugene from Region Vavid states it’s vital to read unbiased and detailed reviews to ensure you’re making the right decision if you’re going to purchase anything. This way you will be able to save money on products that aren’t right for you by knowing what they do before buying. This will stop you from wasting money on numerous products and leave you with more money at the end of the month.
2. Reduce Your Costs
Every month we have a set amount of money leaving our account so we can live comfortably, usually our rent and bills. These can often be expensive and leave us with a smaller amount than we had hoped for. The good thing is, we don’t have to settle for the first number we are given, there are plenty of companies that offer the same service so it’s worth doing some shopping to find out what the cheapest price you can get is. Things like your cell phone provider often get overlooked. A Lot of people pay for data plans they don’t even scratch the surface of. But there are tools like this calculator from moneysavingpro.com that can help you to find a plan suited to your needs. This works across the board, you can find cheaper and better deals for near enough everything you subscribe to and one of the best ways to do this is by talking to someone on the phone. Call up your suppliers and talk with them, I live by a simple motto of if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
The person on the other end of the phone is only doing a job and if you make sure you’re nice and polite they will have no reason not to help you, try to reduce the cost of your bills and if necessary don’t be scared to change company. Everyone is in competition with each other and they all want your business, use that to your advantage. Other ways to reduce your costs are shopping in different stores, some are cheaper than others and there’s often very little difference in the quality of the product. Some stores have a premium on their wares just because of their name, don’t get caught in this trap, shop somewhere cheap and cheerful and you’ll save a surprising amount of money.
3. Have a Budget
One of the best ways to save within the smaller aspects of your life is by having a monthly budget, you can do this by calculating how much you’re spending each month on each category and finding out where you might be overspending. From here you can assign a set amount for each category of spending and then living by that. For example, if you usually spend $250 a month on groceries, you could set a budget of $200 a month and cut down on the non-essential items you usually purchase, that’s a saving of $50 a month, and $600 a year! You can do this for everything and I would advise you to do so, it’s amazing what you can save by cutting down a little bit.
4. Look For Discounts
This is something I do constantly, I’m always on the lookout for a bargain! Whether I’m in the supermarket, or online shopping, I will always be searching for the cheapest price I can get. There are many websites that will always charge full price because they have little to no need to offer any kind of discount, but there are many shops that will want you to buy from them so prices will often be reduced.
When it comes to saving money it’s all about your mindset, you are able to save money if you really try and it’s important to do so. Having a little nest egg for a rainy day will come in handy at some point and could end up getting you out of some trouble. Reduce costs and look for the discount, start with that and apply it to your monthly budget. It’s never too late to start saving!
