One of the biggest problems which any people have when it comes to saving money or putting cash together for a big purchase, is the small spends which we consider to be unimportant. In fact in many cases if you ask someone what they were doing to save money, they would probably talk to you about working additional overtime, cancelling nights out and meals or perhaps even getting a second job. These spontaneous daily spends however are very likely to be the thing that is preventing your from reaching your financial goals, and here is how to knock them on the head entirely.
Understanding
The first step is that you understand what you are spending your money on, and how much it is equating to. The best way to do this is to simply track your spends for one month, you can do this using a spending tracker app – there are many on the market. When you track your spends you must be sure that you register every single cent that you spend. Once you have done this for the month, the app will show you in great detail just how much you have paid, and the results could potentially make for tough reading. You may not think that your daily Starbucks was doing much harm but once it all adds up, it will really hit home.
10 Second Rule
Naturally you need to quickly get rid of frivolous spends such as the daily coffee or sandwich but you should also look to employ the 10 second rule, a great way to stop unnecessary spending. the rule is very simple, whenever you want to buy something, stop for 10 seconds and ask yourself if you really need the item. This may sound foolish but you’ll be surprised at just how much stuff ends up going back on the shelf.
Planning Ahead
Most daily spends come from poor planning so in order to get on top of it, you first must get on top of your organization. Taking your own lunch to work for example will stop you spending money on convenience food every day, planning your travel times around a work mate could mean that you spend less on gas thanks to car pooling. The key is really in the preparation, make sure that you have organized yourself at home, before going out and consequently spending money.
Don’t Take It
Another very simple solution to prevent you spending money unnecessarily is simply not to take any with you. It would make sense that you take a credit card with you just in case of an emergency, but in terms of cash, leave it at home. If you don’t have the cash on you then you cannot spend it, it is as easy as that.
There are many different ways that you can save some money. If you own a pet, you should definitely consider investing in an affordable pet insurance, and easily save some extra cash. Don’t underestimate the damage that this frivolous spending is having on your financial goals, you can be the best saver in the world but if you cannot cut them out, you will never get to where you want to.