3 METHODS TO SAVE MONEY EVERY MONTH

Through saving, you can achieve any financial objective. Whether you want to buy a house, get a new car or make sure you have a retirement fund, all these things can come easy if you learn how to save money every month.

If you are like most people, you probably find it difficult to save money, especially if your income barely covers your monthly expenses. But with a little thoughtfulness and effort, saving doesn’t only become possible, but even easy.

Here are 3 methods to save money every month:

1.    Make saving money your priority

It is more likely to get the desired results if you turn the saving money process into a priority. Start with a list of all the reasons why you need the money: a bigger house, a new car, a holiday, etc. Then you should estimate the costs for each objective and set up a time frame.

In general, people manage to save up to 10% of their income without feeling the pressure of the lost income, but you can do better than this, depending on your personal goals. What you can do after deciding how much money you need is to divide the sum by the number of months or weeks. Do you want to get a new car ($10.000) in 2 years? You will need to save $416 per month or $104 per week ($10.000 divided by 24 months equals $416, divide that by 4 weeks and you get $104). This means you need to save about $14 per day to be able to afford that new car in your time frame. Can you do that? We believe you can if you will treat saving money as a credit you have to pay every month.

2.    Find the money to save

You will be stunned to find out how much money are wasted every day on food than ends up thrown away or on impulse buying. To find some money to save, start with a shopping diary. Make a list before going shopping every time and only get the things on the list. At the end of the week check if you really needed all the things you got to adjust better the shopping list for next time you hit the supermarket.

Better yet, you can decide on a shopping budget for every week and stick to it. Some people don’t spend more than $100 per week on groceries while others can go up to $350 or more.

You can also check how much you are paying for different subscription plans (phone, the internet, etc.) and see if you can make any changes or cuts there too.

Eat more at home and less take away, you can even pack a lunch box for the office and call it your “special save-money diet”.

If you are used to going out during the weekends, invite your friends over and have a snack at your place.

3.    Pay your savings account first

You are probably used to paying the rent, phone and electricity bill before anything else. Now it’s a good time to change your habits and transfer the money to your savings account first. Then you can redistribute the money left depending on priorities. Don’t worry, even after you’ll put 10% away, you will still have enough money to cover the essentials, just like before you started saving.