Today I am going to share with you a post all about tips for saving money. I have shared here on my site many posts about my history and relationship with money. It is something that has made me who I am today, I so I am always happy to discuss it openly. I grew up in a single parent household, which meant that we only had one income. Money was tight.
My mother tried so hard and sacrificed so much so that my sister and I didn’t know, but the older we got, the harder it was for her to hide. To try and make ends meet, she made bad financial decisions and over the years there were scary and worrying moments. However, it spurred me on to educate myself and be good with money. That is why I want to share with you my tips for saving money.
Put something away each money.
The first thing that I need to mention in my tips for saving money is to put something away each money. Since the very first day that I started working, I used to put away 25% of my earnings, straight into a savings pot. Over the years, this has had to alter as I have obtained outgoings, but I have never let this fall beneath 10%. Naturally, I understand that this is a luxury, but I would encourage people to still save money, just do it within your means. Even if it is only £10 per month, putting that money to one side and not touching it, will help to develop a discipline around saving cash.
Make small changes to your lifestyle.
One of my tips for savMy Tiing money, naturally has to come down to altering your lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to make a comment about youngsters wasting their money in Starbucks, but changes do have to be made. When my husband first bought our first home, depleted all of our savings and started from scratch, we had to make changes. This involved cutting back on clothes shopping, carefully planning meals to stop wasting money and eating out, scaling back on holidays, etc. There is a lot that you can do and you certainly don’t need to deprive yourself of everything to get there.
Round up your purchases.
This is something that most banks do automatically now, and I adore this function. Whenever I go into a supermarket, if I spend £3.80, my bank will automatically round up the purchase to the nearest £5 and the difference will be sent to my savings. At the start, I set this up but didn’t have much hope that it would make a difference. Only at the end of the money did I realise that I had saved almost £200 in this way. Because you are already spending the money, you don’t tend to notice the extra couple of pounds that it automatically saves. Such a fantastic tool.
Understand your money.
What I have found over the years is that some people with money issues, do not understand their incomings and outgoings. My lovely mother was a prime example of this. As I got older and began to earn my own money, I had a frank conversation with her about her incomings, outgoings and outstanding debts. She had no idea where to start. Her way of dealing with things was by burying her head in the sand. By understanding your money, you can begin to change the way that you spend, budget and save. Only a couple months ago did I have to put together a budgeting document for an aunty that had run int hard times. Power is knowledge.
Have an end goal in sight.
Because we are now in a fortunate position with money, we are going to continue to save regardless. However, a number of years ago, we had an end goal in sight. We wanted to reach a certain point before we could stop saving as much and begin to enjoy the fruits of our labour. For me, I wanted to have a float of £10,000 in my current account that I would never get below. Then as a couple, we had a shared savings account that we wanted £20,000 in. This could be used for holidays, home repairs, etc. That was the minimum that we wanted to achieve. It helped is to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
I hope that you guys enjoyed reading my tips for saving money. It is a very British thing that we don’t like to speak about money openly. Whereas I may not discuss exact figures on my site, I have no quarrel sharing about my previous experiences. Given what I said in the intro about my upbringing, I had the best childhood that was filled with love. Money certainly isn’t the be all and end all. However, I do count my lucky stars every single day that my husband and I are in such a fortunate position. With these tips, we know that not only do we have money for the here and now, but we also have security for the future. As always, I would love to hear from you guys on this. Do you have any small tips for saving money?
