Everyone should try a simple money-saving exercise at least once in their lives. It is, in the end, one of the best ways to save money because it isn’t about pinching pennies, but rather about discovering and obtaining what you truly desire. It’s so simple that you might be hesitant to try it. Just give it a shot. It’s as follows:
Make a list of everything you’ve spent money on, are planning to spend money on or may spend money on.
One effective way to save money is to set up an automated transfer from your daily spending account to your savings account each month. This trick reduces the likelihood of using your savings for daily expenses and helps you build a consistent savings habit.
Create a Budget
Before automating your savings, take the time to understand your cash flow by tracking all your income and outgoing expenses over a 30-day period. This will help you identify areas where you can cut back and allocate that money towards savings.
Use Tools to Your Advantage
Consider using apps or browser extensions that can help you save money without much effort. For example, automated savings tools can track prices and alert you to price drops, or browser extensions can apply coupon codes and check for lower prices elsewhere.
Make It a Habit
To make saving a sustainable habit, try to make it as easy as possible. Set up automatic transfers, and consider using cash instead of credit cards for discretionary spending. By making small changes to your daily habits, you can accumulate savings over time without much additional effort.
Remember
- Set up automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings account each month.
- Track your income and expenses to create a budget and identify areas for reduction.
- Utilize tools and apps to make saving easier and more efficient.
- Make saving a habit by automating transfers and using cash for discretionary spending.
Don’t just read this and come up with a few ideas. Take the time to write everything down. If necessary, review your bank statements to ensure that you remember and include everything.
Now go over the list and think about each item carefully. Spend the most time on the major issues, such as the past, present, and future possibilities. If your beach timeshare is worth half of what you paid for it, costs $1,000 per year in expenses, and is rarely used, you should learn from it – not to punish yourself, but to enrich your life.
If you consider the number of times you will use that Recreational Vehicle and the cost, each day of use could cost you $250. That’s fine if it’s worth it to you, but you might prefer hotels that cost $100. Alternatively, you might be able to rent an RV for a lower overall cost, freeing up funds for other important goals.
Saving money, you see, isn’t about making sacrifices. We’ve all met the scrooges who pinch their pennies, save their money, and then do nothing with it. The goal should be to save money in one area of your life so that you can use it to enrich your entire life.
Let’s say you notice you’re spending $8 per month on magazine subscriptions you don’t read or insurance for a motorcycle you rarely use. What have you lost if you cancel your subscriptions or sell your motorcycle? Is it a major issue? What will you get for $8 instead?
– Put it in the bank for ten years and use the $1200 to go on another honeymoon.
– Use it to pay for a day off work with the kids once a year.
– Invest it to have an extra $50 per month in retirement.
– Each year, buy six good books to learn something new.
– Once a month, make banana splits for the family.
– Donate $100 to a good cause every year.
If used wisely, $8 per month can go a long way. Consider what you could accomplish if you didn’t waste $200 per month. That’s why it’s crucial to figure out what you really want – and what you don’t. This is one of the most cost-effective methods of saving money.
What are the 30 days rule?
The rule is simple. The first step to being moneywise is to hold back before buying something expensive or which you don’t really need. Make a note of the item – write down all the details like description, price, and the offers available. Now, tuck the note away for 30 days! After a month, review your “wants”.
7 simple ways to save money
1. Record your expenses. The first step to start saving money is to figure out how much you spend.
2. Budget for savings.
3. Find ways you can cut your spending.
4. Decide on your priorities.
5. Pick the right tools.
6. Make saving automatic.
7. Watch your savings grow.
If You Want To Make Money: Avoid Debt!
Everyone who is just starting in life should avoid getting into debt.
Debt is one of the few things that can bring a person down. It’s a slavish position to fall ill, but we see a lot of young men who are barely out of their “teens” who are in debt.
“Look at this: I have been trusted for a new suit of clothes,” he tells a friend.
He appears to regard the clothes as being freely given to him; this is often the case; however, if he succeeds in paying and is then trusted again, he is developing a habit that will keep him poor for the rest of his life.
Debt saps a person’s self-esteem and causes him to despise himself.
Working for what he has eaten up or worn out, and now that he is called upon to pay up, he has nothing to show for his money; this is appropriately referred to as “working for a dead horse.”
I’m not talking about merchants who buy and sell on credit or those who buy on credit in the hopes of making a profit. “John, never get trusted; but if thee gets trusted for anything, let it be for mature,’ because that will help thee pay it back again,” the old Quaker advised his farmer son.
Mr. Beecher advised young men to take out a small debt to purchase land in the country districts if they could. “If a young man only gets in debt for some land and then gets married,” he says, “these two things, or nothing else, will keep him straight.”
To a certain extent, this is safe, but getting into debt over what you eat, drink, and wear is not. Some families make the mistake of obtaining credit at “the stores,” and as a result, they frequently purchase items that could have been avoided.
It’s all well and good to say, “I’ve been trusted for sixty days, and if I don’t have the money, the creditor won’t care.” Creditors are the only people in the world who have such good memories. You will be required to pay once the sixty-day period has expired.
If you do not pay, you will break your promise and most likely tell a lie. You could make an excuse or go into debt somewhere else to pay it off, but that will only get you deeper into debt.
Horatio, the apprentice boy, was a good-looking but lazy young man. “Horatio, have you ever seen a snail?” his boss inquired. “I – believe – I – have,” he murmured. I’m sure you never overtook one,” the “boss,” said, “so you must have met him then.” “Now, my young friend, you agreed to pay me; you have not done so, you must give me your note,” your creditor will meet you or overtake you and say.”
When you give a note on interest, it immediately begins to work against you; “it is a dead horse.” The creditor goes to bed at night and wakes up the next morning better off than when he went to bed because his interest has increased during the night; however, you grow poorer while you sleep because interest is accruing against you.
Money is similar to fire in that it is a great servant but a terrible master. It will keep you down in the worst kind of slavery if it has control over you; if interest is constantly piling up against you.
Allow money to work for you, and you will have the most loyal servant on the planet. There is no such thing as an “eye-servant.” Nothing animate or inanimate will perform as well as money when invested at a high rate of return and properly secured. It works at all hours of the day and night, in both wet and dry conditions.
“They fined a man for kissing his wife on Sunday,” it was said in the former “blue-law” state of Connecticut, where the old Puritans had laws so strict that “they fined a man for kissing his wife on Sunday.” Nonetheless, these wealthy old Puritans would have accumulated thousands of dollars in interest, which would be worth a certain amount on Saturday night; on Sunday, they would attend church and perform all of the duties of a Christian.
They would wake up on Monday morning considerably richer than they had been the night before, simply because their money invested at interest had worked diligently for them all day Sunday, as required by law!
Do not allow it to work against you; if it does, you will have no chance of financial success in life. “Mr. Speaker, I have discovered the philosopher’s stone: pay as you go,” exclaimed John Randolph, an eccentric Virginian, once in Congress. This is, without a doubt, the closest any alchemist has ever come to the philosopher’s stone.