Last year I made a promise to myself that in 12 months, I would save up $20,000 to put towards buying a house. I knew that this would be a big challenge and whilst my salary was enough to allow me to save that amount of money, I understood very clearly that I would have to cut down how I was spending my money each month. The first step that I took was the biggest, getting a better deal on my car finance, I need a car so I could sell it, and so I went searching for auto refinancing in Florida, to get a better deal. I was actually surprised at the amount of money I was able to save through the refinancing and this inspired me to go harder in other areas. Here then, are just some of the ways that you can save money each month.
Bills Changes
We often accept bills the way that they are and assume that they are something which we simply have to pay, but this doesn’t have to be the case. If you have a mortgage then you can renegotiate the terms or switch to another mortgage provider, if you have services like gas, electric, water and internet deals, you can also save money. Set a day aside and call around all of your providers, ask them if there are any better tariffs or lower deals which they can put you on. If this fails, go to comparison sites to see if you can get a better deal elsewhere.
10 Second Rule
I scoffed at the 10 second rule when I first read about it but I have been using it for the last year and it works really well. The idea is simple, whenever you want to buy something new such as clothing, a game, an item of furniture or whatever it may be, you need to stop for 10 seconds, and think about whether or not you really need this item. It may sound foolish but I promise you that if you try it, you’ll put many items back on the shelf, and save a great deal of money.
Tracking
In order to cut down on your spending, you first need to understand what you spend your money on and the best way to do it is to track your spending with a phone application. There are many apps out there which allow you to track your spending and they all work in a similar way. With most of these apps you can simply scan your receipt when you purchase something, and then it will be added to your account. At the end of the month you need to review exactly what you have spent, and where, and then you can use this information to highlight where you need to lower how much money you spend each month.