Everyone wants to save money – but not everyone can do this efficiently. If you can relate, you might want to incorporate a few habits that can help you save money.
Without further ado, let us jump into the list of simple habits that can help you save more money than the usual percentage that you might be able to save every month from your disposable income.
Read on to learn more!
Avoid Buying Property
Buying a house or buying a car is typically at the top of people’s bucket lists for what they want to do with their money in life. This is also the point where you want to avoid impulsive buying and act more logically while keeping the bigger picture in mind.
With that said, the first tip is to avoid buying a car. The underlying reason is that there are loads of expenses involved that one has to deal with after owning a car. Most people think that buying a car only involves the price of the car – they tend to forget the mandatory costs of car ownership, including gas costs, wear, and tear, car maintenance, etc.
Besides, you cannot count out car insurance – you get the point. Here is the thing – if renting out works best for you, then you will want to stick to renting out instead of getting involved in debt to the point where you might struggle with paying insurance, mortgage, and other costs.
You will want to opt for one of the best high-yield savings accounts and form a monthly or weekly strategy to save a fixed amount of money from your regular income – click here to know more. Subsequently, only buy property when you feel confident about your bank balance and then make financial purchases mindfully – keeping in mind the bigger picture.
Plan Your Meals
You will want to plan all your meals in advance instead of spending your hard-earned money on expensive meals, eat-outs, and takeaways. Now when it comes to grocery shopping, you will want to avoid going to the grocery store when you are hungry.
You will be surprised to know about all the extra things you buy based on impulse when you go grocery shopping. Make a list of things and stick to the list when you go for groceries. This way, you can prevent spending your money on things that you don’t need.
Did you know that food is the third-largest expense in our lives? The first two spots are taken by housing and transportation. With that said, you will want to be mindful of your meals and create a system that will allow you to save more money on food.
The trick is to reduce food costs without malnourishing yourself. Now, if you don’t know how to plan your meals, you will want to start with the basics – with a meal planner. By this point, you might have just eaten whatever you wanted at the time.
With a meal plan, you won’t be giving in to your impulses – you will have a weekly plan ready where you will have sorted out your breakfast meals, snacks, lunches, and dinners. This way, you won’t be wasting as many ingredients, and you are not going to have to worry about what to buy at the grocery store.
Instead of throwing random things into your cart, you will know exactly what you need; this way, you will save loads of money in the long run.
Say Goodbye to Coffee
If you are a coffee person to the extent that you cannot wake up without your morning coffee, then this piece of advice might come off as a bit challenging. Many people love caffeine – we consume caffeine nearly every day.
As a general rule, you will want to quit anything you become dependent on. Now speaking of coffee, many people crave their caffeine fix, or they get headaches or shaky. Many people cannot focus until they have their coffee in the morning.
Nonetheless, if you do have to get coffee during some part of the day, we recommend skipping Starbucks and saving money by making your coffee at home. But suppose you are making coffee every day at home – for twenty cents per cup – then this is economical, and it is fine to have coffee for this fraction of the cost at home.
But when you buy coffee every day – it can end up costing you a lot more money than you can possibly think. Nonetheless, the only habit that can help you save money on your overall expenses is by avoiding addiction.
It doesn’t matter whether it is sushi, coffee, or chocolate – or anything else that you are addicted to – every time you lose control, you will want to be in control of your expenses and your desires so that you can spend your money mindfully instead of in an uncontrolled manner.
Integrate the 30-Day Rule
Have you assessed the consumer behavior that most people display? Think about how we are attracted to items that are on sale. If this sounds familiar and you happen to be an impulsive buyer, you will want to follow the 30-day rule – especially for the bigger purchases.
The 30-day rule will prevent you from making buying decisions based on your whims. The last thing that you will want to do is to deal with buyer’s remorse, where the item that was supposed to be fun for you ends up making you feel guilty about it because you spent your life savings on the item.
Whenever you are to make a big purchase, you will want to plan it in advance, and we are talking about months and not days or weeks. This way, you will have plenty of time to think over all aspects of the item and to acknowledge its importance in your life.
Allow yourself 30 days to ensure that you actually want to purchase an item rather than buying it immediately and regretting it later. You don’t want to be cheap – but – you will want to spend your money on things that matter.
