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Simple Ways To Save Money Without Feeling The Pinch
Finding additional ways to save a few coins can be challenging, especially with a tight budget. However, it’s still advisable to save some money for rainy days regardless of your current financial situation.
JUMP TO: Clear All Your Debt
This quick guide will walk you through some of the simple ways to save without feeling the pinch, so without further ado, let’s get into the nitty-gritty:
7 Simple Ways To Save Money Without Feeling The Pinch
1. Clear All Your Debt
If you’re carrying a balance on your cards, you may be shocked to learn how much you’re paying in interest. High-interest loans can eat up a considerable chunk of your monthly earnings. In November 2019, the APR on credit card accounts was 16.88%.
Paying off your debt in time will save you money and free up cash to meet other expenses. That said, getting rid of all your debt is the first step if you wish to start saving.
2. Reduce Your Food Bill
You can save money by managing your food bills—cutting back on takeouts, and avoiding bulk buying whenever you go out to shop. Cook your food and list items you need to purchase before leaving the house. This will prevent you from ordering take outs and bulk buying each time you’re at the grocery or the supermarket.
Be on the lookout for stores with special offers on groceries. For example, Woolworths has weekly specials to help you save a few coins. Reduce your meat intake to save a few bucks. Instead of having meat a couple of times, turn to other dishes and find a way you can lower your food bills without straining.
3. Reduce Each Category’s Expenses
As you’re minimising expenses, you might have already removed all the unnecessary items on your budget. The next step should be saving between $5 and $15 in every expense category and putting that money aside.
Find ways to save around $5 each week—for instance, you can carpool to save on fuel expenses, or you can drop off two or three items from your grocery list to save some money.
4. Organise Your Errands
You also need to organise your errands. For instance, if you always go to the grocery store every Friday and then make another trip to the produce shops every Sunday, you can start by jotting down everything you need and make one trip to get all you need. This will save you the amount you’d have spent on transport (whether you fuel your car) or go by public means.
The same applies to your daily errands. There’s no need to use your car when going for short distances that you can go on foot or use public transport. In short, the whole idea is to decrease the number of unnecessary errands you make every day translating to every week, then set aside the surplus money into savings.
5. Put Money In Your Savings Account
Route a specific amount of cash into your investment or savings account. By doing this, you can keep off the temptation to spend money while promising yourself to do better in the coming month.
Having a savings account is especially beneficial to individuals who have no self-control over finances. The good thing about most savings accounts is that they are automated, so a specific amount will always go into your savings accounts each time you’re paid.
In addition, get into a challenge to save a specific amount every week. For example, aim to save a specific amount of money in a particular week and increase it the following week. You can have this challenge with interested friends and relatives who also have a specific goal for saving.
6. Begin Budgeting
Budgeting is an essential step in any successful saving plan.
Sure, budgeting may be a challenge, especially when you’re struggling with your finances. However, budgeting is crucial, especially when saving towards a specific goal. Know how you spend your money and what expenses drain your finances. This way, you’ll know what you need to cut and what you need to retain.
Go through your receipts and bank statements to establish what you spend your money on. List all the expenses and see what needs you might retain and the wants you can easily do away with. For example, why would you be charged for subscriptions that you no longer use or don’t even find time to use?
Also, you might find you spend a lot of money on fuel, airtime (particularly if you have mobile banking) or eating out. Most of these expenses are unnecessary and might be ignored, especially if you can do without them. The best way to keep track of your spending to detect unnecessary spending is by budgeting.
7. Pay Attention To Recurring Expenses
Recurring expenses are those that you pay for every month, such as groceries, transport, insurance and rent. These expenses are easy to disregard since their costs make sense when you first start paying for them.
If you go through the automatic payments that are deducted from your account every month, you’ll be surprised to know the amount of money that slips through the cracks.
You may still have a subscription you no longer use, such as a gym membership. Cancel any gym subscriptions, especially if you only visit the gym centre a few times a month. It would help if you paid when you visit and not let a subscription run.
Final Thoughts
Saving money is simpler when you do it subtly. Once you find ways to reduce expenses on your daily bills, you’ll have a lot of cash at your disposal to meet any financial goals you’ve set for yourself.
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