Who else loves the idea of saving money, but isn’t successful at doing it?
Let me paint a picture for you: You decide to open a savings account to put money into for future purposes, but you always seem to end up digging into it each month. Sound familiar? Because this is the game, I seem to play EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH. If you’re right there with me, keep reading because I’m going to share with you some tricks I’ve put into practise to start actually keeping my savings as it is.
I found opening a savings account almost overwhelming at first. I knew I wanted to save but there are so many different types of savings account, I didn’t know which was best for me. After hours of reading through each account description, I found my best option was speaking to an advisor who helped me pick the right choice for me.
This helped A LOT as it allowed me to understand the agreement I was making when opening this account, what interest I would get on it and the commitment I was making to saving. Speaking to someone about your reasons for saving, your finances and how long you want to save for can really help you make an easy choice for your account type, which is more important than you think. You want to go for something that is secure and allows you to get the best deal. Some savings accounts you have to pay to keep open, which is something I wasn’t really looking to do.
Now the account is open, the next step is figuring out how to start saving. Where is that money going to come from, and how much can you afford to save each month? The best way to do this is to sit down and write out every source of income you have and how much you earn altogether. Then you want to deduct any bills and expenses you pay for regularly. With what’s left over you can work out how much of that you want to put directly into your savings account and how much you want to keep for leisure.
Try coming up with an end goal. An amount you are working towards saving, you could then divide this by how long you want to save for, creating an estimated amount you should be saving each month. This will help you reach your goal in time, as well as helping with consistency. Another trick I found some banks have on their savings accounts is a feature called ‘rounded spending’. This allows you to round up any purchases, putting the change into your savings account. For example: I spend £22.60 in a shop, the remaining 40p will directly go into my savings account. It isn’t much, but as Tesco says ‘Every Little Helps’.
Budgeting is a MASSIVE part of saving. By sitting down and budgeting how much you spend a month can show a clear indication of how much you can afford to spend, and how you may be able to cut back in a few areas to save you more money. Sometimes we don’t realise how much money we are wasting until it’s all down on paper. This is a good tip if you are trying to save on limited money. Things like nights out and takeaways don’t seem like a lot of money at the time, but the pounds soon start adding up.
If saving money is a serious concern for you, maybe try cutting down how much you spend on these things by eating at home or splitting bills with people on nights out.
If you’re a foodie like me, you end up spending more than half your paycheck on food. One hack I found was making a meal plan each week, that way I can budget exactly how much I am spending on my shopping. I’m only buying the things on my list, no impulse buying.
I’ve also found eating before going food shopping can cut your cost in half, those piles of snacks aren’t as appealing when your stomach is full. When shopping, you can also look for deals and reduced prices which aren’t hard to find.
Signing up for rewards cards can save you big bucks too. Most of the supermarkets have a loyalty scheme in place that can get you money off or exclusive deals with the scan of a card. All this saved money can go straight into that account you have.
My last tip is a little drastic, but if you need to save serious cash and your budgets aren’t enough. You can always choose the increasingly popular choice of moving back in with family or friends.
The majority of people now (especially in this economy) can’t afford to live alone anymore, especially while trying to save. Many have decided to move back in with family members or gather a bunch of friends together to rent with, reducing the cost of bills. This has proven especially useful for those trying to save for bigger goals such as: buying their own home or starting a business.
One thing to never do while trying to save is taking out loans. It sounds very tempting, and these companies or even the banks paint a pretty picture. But taking out a loan will cost you more money than you even borrowed to begin with. Doing this will make sure you never are able to save.
Now you have a clear idea on how to successfully save money. Happy saving.
Lauren is a content writer that is creating her own book and aspires to become a published author. While writing content, she also spends her time performing as an actress for different projects presented to her.
