Saving money is difficult, right?
It means that rather than spending your cash however and whenever you choose, you need to think carefully about how each penny adds up and what it means to your financial goals in the long term.
However, while it’s true that saving money means changing your mindset and becoming more focused on the way that you spend, that doesn’t mean that it has to be as much of a gruelling process as some people think. If you have a goal in mind for what you want to accomplish with your cash, then you’re already moving in the right direction.
The following tips could help you to reach your targets even faster than you thought was possible.
1. Use Saving Apps
The chances are that you’re already using technology for most of the other things that you do in life, from communicating with friends to staying productive at work. So why not tap into your tech for help saving money too? There are plenty of apps and websites that can help you improve your cash situation, including tools that automatically add discount codes to your checkout page for you or cashback apps.
Find apps that you can trust to save you small amounts of money whenever you’re shopping online or offline and add them to your daily routine. You’ll be surprised how quickly you get accustomed to using these tools.
2. Go Cash Only
Even with your tech apps to help you, you might find that you’re used to spending more than you should online. After all, it’s effortless to spend money when all you need to do is click a button or flash a piece of plastic. If that’s the case for you, then it might be time to swap your online shopping and plastic purchasing with more cash-focused real-world shopping.
Going to a store to buy an item rather than ordering it online will force you to think carefully about whether you really need the product – and whether you can be bothered to actually go and buy it. At the same time, using cold hard cash instead of plastic means that you start to recognise the value of every penny again, so you stop spending money on things you don’t need.
3. Cut Your Energy Bills
This might be a bit of an old fashioned tip for people looking to cut their costs every month – but trust us, it works. Cutting your utility bills can be as simple as installing low-flow showerheads and faucets in your bathroom so that you’re not using as much water as you usually would. You can also set your thermostat a bit lower in the winter than you typically would if you were letting yourself spend anything you liked.
If you’re planning on taking out a personal loan to upgrade your home with some new appliances, make sure that you consider the benefits of borrowing a little extra so that you can pay for the devices that are the most energy-efficient too. These are the products that will end up paying for themselves in the long term.
4. Do More Meal Prepping
Meal prepping can save you thousands of pounds when you do it regularly. Not only will prepping your lunches mean that you don’t spend as much at the café at work, but it will also give you more control over what you eat. This could mean that you can start to lose weight and accomplish other personal goals while you’re saving money.
At the same time, you can also prep other meals and dinners and throw them into the freezer for later. Having meals already ready to eat when you get home from a long day slogging away at work makes it much easier to avoid the temptation to order a takeaway.
5. Learn some New Skills
Finally, rather than turning to professional help whenever something goes wrong in your home, find out what you might be able to fix yourself. For instance, the internet is packed full of videos and guides that will teach you how to do things like repairing a leaky faucet or growing your own veggies at home.
Obviously, you don’t need to do everything on your own. However, there’s sure to be some small tasks that are in your wheelhouse that can save you some money in the long term. So get online and see what kind of new skills you can get.