Hi guys. Today we are going to talk about simple tips that help us save money without necessarily needing to make any more income.
Contents
1. How to Save Money on Food
One of the most common ways to lose track of how much money you are spending is through food purchases.
While most people budget for groceries and any foods they may need when around the house. Most of us don’t have a budget for snacking or any “little” meals we may consume throughout the day.
The first thing you should do is track all the money you spend on any foods you may take throughout the day to save on food.
What did you have for lunch? Write it down. What did you buy when you made a pit stop while on that street? Please write it down.
Do not forget to indicate how much it cost you. Writing down helps you put your food expense in perspective, which means that it is the easiest way to make yourself feel guilty for foods you may have avoided.
Secondly, carry packed lunch to work. In comparison, carrying packed lunch is way cheaper than buying lunch, and the difference can be up to half of the price.
For instance, it could cost you $5 to buy lunch but cost you $2.50. In a year, you could save up to $500 just by carrying that brown bag to lunch.
Planning your meals and budgeting appropriately for what is planned is another way to save money on food.
What are you most likely to eat every day, week, or month? The answer to this question gives you a shopping list that you can use when doing your grocery shopping.
When you are shopping with a list, you are intentional. Essentially, this means that there is little chance you will pick a chocolate bar off the shelf because it is not on your list.
Lastly, you can conserve both time and cash by doubling the dishes you make when cooking. If you are making dinner, the quantity should be enough such that the food is leftover for another meal, maybe your lunch the next day.
This guarantees the effective use of ingredients as the 2 dishes are designed with one batch of them. However, be sure to refrigerate the food leftover to ensure that it doesn’t get spoilt.
2. How to Save Money on Transportation
In 2017, almost 16 percent of incomes around the United States were spent on moving from one place to another.
This percentage is quite high, especially considering that you could walk to your destination without ever needing to spend a penny.
This is our first tip on saving money on transportation; take a walk when you can. Some distances are quite short and do not always require one to get into your car. If you can, try and shorten the distance from work or school to your house by moving closer to them. or you can buy fuel-efficient cars.
Some distances are quite short and do not always require one to get into your car.
Alternatively, where the distance to work or school is too long to walk, you can instead cycle, or you can drive a fuel-efficient car.
What are the yearly payments that you make for your car insurance? are you getting an inexpensive offer or simply the most practical one?
Before renewing your car insurance with your current insurer, every year, check the rates offered by competing companies. Chances are actually, you could make savings on the insurance of yours in case you weren’t too lazy to see whether there can be any viable alternatives.
To save on transportation costs, regularly maintain and service your car. You might not realize that issues such as tires that have not been well-inflated or an engine that has not been tuned use more fuel than one that has undergone these maintenance services.
While the margin by which you save might look small at the moment, these savings could add up to $1000 annually.
3. How to Save on Banking, Credit, and Debt
First, budget for any debt you have and pay off your credit cards in full every month. When budgeting for your income, assign between 10 and 15% to pay off any debts you may have, including student loans and mortgages.
That guarantees that every month, you’re continually reducing the debt of yours. Also, by fully paying off your credit cards, you don’t incur any rates that would lead you to debt and cost you even more money. Plus, you get to enjoy the cashback.
Savings accounts are how you pay yourself, which should be done before spending the money you earned. It is recommended that you direct 10% to 15% of your income towards saving every month.
To make saving easier, give yourself a goal. What would you like to do? Go for a safari, buy a new car, or get that ridiculously huge and expensive TV?
How much will you need to achieve your goal? Also, as you try to get out of debt, you can use free debt counseling services to best do it.
Type “free debt counseling” on the search engine of yours and check out the choices that you’ve. These nonprofit counselors are able to counsel you on how better to finances to finish off the debt of yours and just how you are able to negotiate with creditors regarding repaying the money of theirs.
Negotiating may make certain you don’t pay serious interest rates, and budgeting for the transaction stops you from entering into much more debt as you make an effort to get out of it.
4. How to Save on Family, Friends, and Home
Gift-giving is actually a pricey affair. so, it must be budgeted for and limits placed where needed. When you limit how much can be spent on buying gifts and how many of them each person can receive, you save a lot during the holidays.
Furthermore, the most thoughtful gifts aren’t always generally the priciest ones. Be sure you plan for gifts that are exclusive since I can guarantee you, guilt is but one certain way to spend quite a good deal of cash.
Most importantly, when you have decided to start a family, start saving for college, and any material needs the baby might need right from when they are born all through college. It is not early to start saving for that little one.
When purchasing clothes for your family, make sure that they are affordable without being cheap. It will cost you more to repair and regularly replace a garment than it would to buy a quality alternative in the long-run.
Quality clothes can be used over a long time and could even be passed down to other family members. As for your home, first, ensure that you regularly maintain and clean it. Doing this saves on expenses that you may incur in repairs for faults made by the accumulation of dirt or the lack of maintenance. If possible, refinance your mortgage for lower interest rates.
Explore and find out whether you can get an alternative lender for your mortgage, preferably one that charges a lower interest rate.
The savings you make on decreased interest rates make sure you accumulate home equity a lot quicker, which raises the power of yours to cover huge emergency expenditures.
Finally, to save on your home, actively cut down on the energy you are using and use less water when going about your duties. To do this, cut down on any energy use that is unnecessary or pointless. For example, on hot days, before firing up the AC, open your windows to let air in, and determine if the cooling from the air is sufficient.
Low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators are some of the ways through which you can reduce the amount of water you use in your home.
5. Other Saving Tips
- Building an emergency fund is another way of ensuring that you are saving money. Emergencies come up most of the time, as well as getting such a kit guarantees you have a backup in case of whatever.
- Keeping loose change can also help you save. Every day, throw your loose change into a container, and after a while, you can deposit it into the bank. You will be surprised at how much you can save from that.
- Use hard cash instead of cards, especially where you have a problem with overspending. When you need to spend a particular amount of money for a specific purpose. Carry the exact amount in hard cash and leave your cards in your house or your car.
- Always budget for entertainment along with other similar tasks. If you do not assign them a certain percentage from the income, you’re far more apt to eat into cash budgeted for other activities.
- Use applications that help manage money. A variety of them is available for free in any of the stores. With a money manager, you can track your spending right from your income and use it to budget. A number of apps provide financial advice from what they are able to observe from the spending.
- Write down ALL your spending, preferably in a physical book. It might be tedious, knowing where your money goes. But it gives you perspective, enough that you know which areas you need to reduce spending to save.
- Having more money without earning more might seem impossible. But you might find that it is much easier than you thought if you apply the suggestions given.
The pictures retrieved from …
- https://www.moneycrashers.com/ways-save-money-groceries/
- https://unsplash.com/photos/nPOtzvGLYW0
- https://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-2016/how-to-save-money-on-bank-fees.html