Save More Money With The Lifestyle Habit Changes!
Tuesday, November 02, 2021Disclaimer - This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer page for more information!
Every year, a lot of us resolve to make positive changes in our lives. We work more on our finances, and we are determined to save money this year. For a time, we act to achieve these goals. We start to save money, and life feels great. But then something happens, as time goes by, we lose track of our money goals, and before we know it, we are back to square one. We ask ourselves, why is it hard to save money? What can I do to save more money? Here are some of the best lifestyle habits to adopt to save more money and improve your finances!
Habits make a big difference in the way we manage our money. BJ Fogg, the author of tiny habits believes that we can transform our lives and skyrocket our finances one small habit at a time. For some years, I struggled with my finances. I had a stable job with a decent salary, but I struggled to save extra money. I had to evaluate my lifestyle and the bad habits I was using. If you want to make positive changes in your life, you need a new approach.
When you want to take control of your finances and save more money, you have to dig deep into your habits and make some changes. Reflecting and reading books made me realize these bad habits of mine and pushed me to change them.
Remember To Start Small
If every successful business starts small, so should habits. If you want to make changes in your life, remember to start small. Changes result in the long term when you start small. For me, I had to start with making tweaks to my existing habits. I had to change one habit at a time to create a more sustainable change. Because if you try to change everything all at once, you are more likely to end up overwhelmed and lose motivation in the end.
Track Your Spending
Have you ever wondered where your money was going? I kept asking myself what I was spending my money on, and I couldn't answer. Until I bought a planner and decided to track my money, I wasn't sure what I was spending. I kept all the receipts of my purchases and wrote them down. I realized how much I was spending on a cup of coffee every morning. I had a few subscriptions that I never used, and I was spending too much on clothes and food.
Tracking your spending leads to self-awareness. When you are aware of your spending, it gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes. You could use a planner, app or simply write down your spending. Tracking your spending can also help you to budget better. It's really eye-opening to see how you spend on different things, and you can learn where to cut down. Here are things I stopped buying after realizing how much money I waste on things that don't really matter.
Start Meal Prepping
If you ask, can meal prep really save money? The answer is a solid yes. It is one of the easiest ways to not just save money but time and energy. Also, it was one of the things I learned to enjoy doing. It was a stress reliever for me. Meal prepping can be as simple as making your meals on a Sunday and freezing them throughout the week. There are so many tasty meals that you can make in advance, and you can meal prep for every meal. Eating out less is also simple, easy and it saves you money. Watch your food spending. Even when you're meal prepping, make a shopping list and stick to it. It's easy to deviate from the list and pick up little treats.
Use Cash Over Credit Cards
Credit cards provide convenience compared to cash, but if you want to save money, build a habit of using only cash. One of the best things about using cash is spending the only money that you have. Going cash-only was a great way to impose limits on my spending. Credit cards allow you to purchase big, which feels great but remember that it's borrowed money. You have to pay credit card interest, and it's easy to get carried away. Credit cards are good for building credit scores and having a fall-back but don't get into the habit of using them every day. The pandemic has reduced cash use dramatically. If you can't use cash, try to budget your spending and spend within your means. If you need to purchase something on your card, make sure you use cash back to get a little extra back with every spend1
Reduce Your Impulse Purchases
Many times, I catch myself regretting the things I buy. I had so many impulses buys that did not help me. And one way to avoid this is to delay gratification. If you were like me before, feeling the need of having something we want immediately, then it's time to change. This type of mindset will lure you to your financial ruins. Impulse buying won't do good to your pockets. Wait for a few days before buying things. Feel free to put them on the list, but you need to wait before purchasing. Many times, you will find yourself not needing these things.
Budget For Money
Learning to create and manage a budget is one of the small changes you can start now. This is your first step to financial wholeness. One thing to remember is that you have to be specific and assign control categories. Just before the new month begins, write down all of your expected expenses. This includes the average cost for bills, rent, food and upcoming events. Then, you should look at what income you're making. If you have side hustles, give an estimate for that too. You should see what you're spending in the month and budget for things that you need.
If you deduct the costs from your income, you are left with money that you could save or freely spend. It's also worth looking at your spending over the last few months. I like to print out a statement and highlight things that I can cut down on. For example, both my boyfriend and I use Netflix but on a separate account. It's cheaper to join Netflix accounts as we would be paying £5 rather than £5.99. See where you can cut down, and save some money!
Pay Yourself First
We all have financial habits that get in the way of our goals. Mine was to forget to pay me first. The first thing that you should be doing after payday is to pay yourself first. This means that you immediately transfer your savings over to a separate account. Every month, try to save £100 into an emergency fund or savings account. It should be the first thing you do in the month to avoid spending it and contribute to your future. I know that some people wait until the end of the month to transfer any money left over into savings. While that can be beneficial to those who have a lot of expenditure in the month, it means your monthly savings will vary and be inconsistent. It also won't guarantee that you'll have anything to put into a fund that month. Building a savings account, sinking fund or an emergency fund is beneficial for unexpected costs and saving for something you really need. Make sure you pay yourself first!
Shop At Second-hand Shops
Social media has taught me to keep up with trends and buy the latest gadgets. Not only is this bad for the planet, but it also is bad for your pockets. Using websites like eBay or shopping in charity shops can save you a lot of money while being more eco-friendly. You will always find a bargain at second-hand shops, and often you will find rare items. If you still want to keep up with the trends, thrifting is highly in fashion, and you can get lots of unique, vintage pieces. It won't hurt to buy used things, especially when the goal is to save money. Charity shops are popping up all over the place. I'd set a day aside for some thrifting as you may need to do a bit of digging, but there are lots of treasure to be found. You can find lots of clothes, toys, antiques, crafts and gifts. I'd love to hear of any unique things you pick up!
Avoid Emotional Spending
We have probably been guilty of emotional spending, but what is emotional spending exactly? It's when we shop to feel better. When we are sad, we shop. When we are happy, we shop. The most common for me is when I am stressed, I go shopping to feel better. But don't let your feelings get in the way. You may feel better after shopping, but that happiness won't last long. Emotional spending can be expensive. It's not budgeted for, and you often buy things you don't need. If you're feeling upset, you could try other forms of self-care. You could work out, read or find something else to help you vent and relax. Emotional spending isn't the only way to calm a person down! You need to experiment and try things that will work for you.
We have developed habits that stop us from reaching our full financial potential. Saving money may take a lot of effort and be difficult, depending on your circumstance. Not everyone has the luxury of a steady income to budget and plan with. With some of these lifestyle changes, you'll be able to save more money! You don't have to take on every single new habit, but try a few! Take these habits I have used to save money and see if you can apply them too! What are your favourite money-saving habits? I'd love to hear what habits you've changed to save more money!
About The Guest Writer
This is a guest post from Ali of share to inspire blog. She is a self-growth enthusiast, and she created this platform to inspire and empower women. Check out her blog for more inspiration about financial freedom and personal growth.
5 comments
These are some amazing tips that can help almost everyone save money in good and bad times.
ReplyDeleteA good tip I recently discovered is when you're part of a dual income family, is to live on one persons income and save the other ones. Also through raises/ job position changes. This will maintain that you live on a certain budget, while saving a lot of money through the process :D
I've been so good with avoiding impulse buys recently but with Christmas coming up, I know I'll struggle with not treating the ones around me who I love! I'm planning on doing lots of second hand shopping this year too!
ReplyDeleteRosie
https://www.loverosiee.co.uk
Love these practical tips for saving money while living a happy and fulfilling life! Saving into an emergency fund is a great way to have a safety net in case of t, but I love your ideas for shopping second-hand and just generally using cash over credit, as handing over bills helps with the tracking mentality.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Practical and realistic tips! I kove it. I remember myself years back that I felt my money would just dissappear without understanding how. After started keeping track of my expenses and being more intentional everything changed. I even managed make savings. Budgeting and being intentional is so important. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteFab tips! I think your point about using cash instead of cards is so important, when you're just swiping a card it can be so easy to lose track of your spending. Shopping second hand is always great for saving money too - I love dropping into the charity shops occasionally. Thanks for sharing x
ReplyDelete