We’re sure that you hear about saving money all the time. How important it is, why you should always save as much as you can and then little pieces of advice here and there as to how you can do this. Well, the problem is that you’re probably not retaining much of that information or you wouldn’t be here, reading this post right now. We’re glad you are though, because we are going to make this post your one stop shop to understand how saving money doesn’t have to be difficult. Keep reading down below if you would like to find out more about this.
Set Yourself A Budget
First, you are going to need to set yourself a budget. How can you save anything if you don’t know how much is coming in, how much is going out, and how much you are spending on things that you really don’t need. This isn’t tough to do, all you need is a list of your incoming and outgoing expenses. Take the total, of the outgoing away from the incoming, and see what you have got left. This is what you have left to spend however you want. We highly recommend including an amount for savings in the outgoing expenses, just so that you are not tempted to blow it all.
Make sure that you are updating your budget regularly so that you know it’s accurate. An inaccurate budget is pointless, and not something that you need in your life. This will only lead you to either spend money that you don’t have, or spend less than you could have when you wanted something.
Clear Off Those Debts
Something else that you need to do in order to save money is to clear off your debts. You might think that this sounds a little funny considering you have to pay these things off, but you cannot start saving money until you have paid off everything you owe. Once you have sorted all of the debts out and you are clear, saving money is going to be a lot easier. You don’t have a dark cloud hanging over your head every time you have some money, thinking that the interest is building on your debts etc.
If you are struggling to do this, then you can call the company that is managing your debt and ask them if you can set up a payment plan. Talk to them about what you can afford, and they will likely accept what you propose as long as it is reasonable. Then, you can start saving the money that was going towards paying off the debts.
Live Within Your Means
Once you have set a budget, you are going to have to learn to live within your means. This means that you should not be running up credit cards with the promise to pay later, and the same goes for things like store credit. As soon as you get free and clear of debt, you don’t want to get straight back into it, and while you might not think it, that is exactly what a credit card is.
Living within your means does not mean that you can’t have fun though. You can still do the things that you enjoy, whether this is playing on the pools betting, or if it’s going shopping, heading to amusement parks or whatever it is that you like to do. As long as you are doing any of this within the confines that you set yourself in your budget, everything is going to be just fine.
Put Away Those Extra Pennies
Most of us don’t carry around cash anymore, but for those of you that do, what do you do with those little extra pennies? You probably drop them somewhere without even noticing, or somehow they disappear. Do you know how much you would probably have if they didn’t just disappear all the time? It’s not rocket science to know that they all add up in the end, so it’s well worth saving them in a jar or something.
Whenever you get a coin that you know you’re probably not going to use, put it in the jar. Over time, you will accumulate more and more, which could amount to a fair amount of money when you do finally count it out. We’re not suggesting that you are going to save millions here, but certainly more than if you got rid of all the pennies.
Think Of The Bigger Picture
Finally, you need to think of the bigger picture. If you are struggling with saving, then you need to try and remember why you are saving in the first place. You don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t afford something that you need, and sometimes this happens. If you have savings though, you have these to fall back on and that fear doesn’t have to be present. You can always replace the savings in the future, but you can’t magic up money when you need it if you don’t have it.
When you struggle, it might help if you write down all the reasons that you are saving. You may be saving for something specific, or you may just be saving just in case. But, once you remember why you are doing this, we promise it becomes far easier to achieve.
Hopefully, you have found this article helpful, and now see that saving money doesn’t actually have to be difficult. There are plenty of things that you can do to get yourself in the position that you want to be in, you just have to be willing to do them, which is the hurdle that a lot of people fall at. The idea of being able to save and the reality of it are not the same thing, and there are some people who just don’t like the reality. We wish you the very best of luck, and hope that you now see saving money doesn’t have to be difficult.
