5 Easy Ways to Save Money Without Compromising Your Life's Quality
Want to be rich? Ok. Here is how you do it: Make Money, Use that money to make more money and Repeat. Easier said than done right?Hence, you have to do your best with the cards you have been dealt with. Everyone has their own system of saving.
How much, when, where? But you need to push harder. Here are 5 easy ways that will help you save up without having to lower your standard of living.
1. The Piggy Bank
Most of us do not keep track of any of the changes we get out of transactions when we are out shopping. They just get collected at the bottom of our purses or in the coin chamber of our wallet till the day we start finding our purses/ wallets too heavy and keep them out. And more often than not we have absolutely no idea where these changes are spent.
Use the piggy bank that you used when you were a kid (buy a new one every time you crack it open or use a jar). The disadvantage of using a jar is anyone can open it anytime and get some cash out. So, ensure that everyone in the family is on board with this idea so that everyone can contribute and exerts self-discipline to maintain the jar.
Alternatively, you can have a swear jar (10 bucks goes into the jar every time a person swears [from that very person of course!). Or a jar which parents fill with a pre-established amount for every positive action of the children (completed homework or household chore).
You can also assign a goal to this jar – say, for your daughter’s new PS4. Or a limit can be assigned- say, save for 6 months and the amount collected at the end of it goes into your son’s college fund.
2. Self- Imposed Rules
Impose a self limitation. Say, you tell your daughter that all notes that you have that are older than her is hers. Then every time you get such a note or coin, you hand it over to her and she can save this and use it any way that you two have decided upon, say this can go to her college fund or be used in buying her prom dress. This not only helps you to save up for which you will have to eventually spend in the future, it also teaches your daughter (or son or ward) the value of saving and how to save.
Many people would say, ”What is the difference? I am spending the exact amount now that I will have to spend in the future. So, how does it help me?” Here’s how: whenever you have money in your hand and know that you have done your investments etc for the month, that money becomes open from spending. Our mind generally does not think twice before spending out of that amount even for things that might not be truly required. Saving a part of that money helps you to save now so that you do not have to spend in the future.
3. Pay Check Deduction
Do you remember the first time you got your salary? You nearly had a heart-attack when you saw that the amount on your salary slip was not what it was promised. Then with the help of your seniors and family members, you realized that the amount missing had been deducted from your gross salary on account of EPF, HRA, Medical insurance, etc. thus, gradually over te years you tend to forget about your gross income and only focus on what is in hand (i.e. net salary).
Use this wiring of your brain to save more by way of pre-paycheck deductions. Many companies have such savings plans with lucrative interest rates. Use one of those and when you get your salary-slip, you will forget about the deduction and focus on how to survive the month on what is in your hand, as is your habit. For example, say in the appraisal cycle of financial year 2016-2017, your net salary (not talking about gross salary here) goes from 60000INR to 70000INR, invest 5000INR in any pre-paycheck deduction scheme. You were already living fine with 60K, so living on 65K should not be a problem, and you save 5K every month (+ interest).
In this way you not only save some of your own hard-earned money but you also earn some interest on the same.
4. Promise Someone You Love That You Will Get Them Something From Your Savings
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Make promises. Tell your wife you will buy her the house with the white picket fence in 2 years. Or tell your daughter you will buy her the football gears along with the Euro cup special football within 3 months. Promise yourself that you will buy the Ford Mustang in 10 years. Or tell your parents that next year you will gift them a trip through Europe.
These promises might seem a tad outrageous at the point that you are making them. But if you really mean them (not building castles in the air), get charged and focus on saving up. Once you have promised someone something, it gives you a goal to achieve and you actually focus on finding more avenues to save up to fulfil those promises.
Love makes you wish to do more, it inspires you, it brings out the best in you. So, when you make a promise to a loved one, you give more than your 100% to keep them. Moreover, having someone keeping you on your toes if you fall slag is also a plus in this scenario.
5. Penalise Yourself, Set Limits
As mentioned before, after we have received our monthly salary, paid our bills, made our investments and done our calculations, we know what is left in our account and how much is our spending limit. The moment we reach this concluding amount, we start spending on junk, with no qualms about it, whether we need to or not, like most of our generation.
Thus, setting a withdrawal limit on amount withdrawn, or move part of your spending money to an account with a time limit on your account (say which allows one withdrawal in 45days), helps you to control those extravagant expenses and save more. You can also have self-imposed penalties like say, if you spend more than 2000 bucks one night-out, you will stay at home the next weekend. While this might seem harsh and hard to follow, you will be able to save some at the end of it.
There are various methods to earn that extra buck and save it: Have a garage sale (get rid of the junk in the house), avoid shopping as a tool of reducing stress, make your own gifts instead of buying them, etc. Just broaden your thinking and look for opportunities to save. The only way you will be able to save is if YOU really want to.
