When it comes to saving, especially if you’re already on a budget, it seems impossible. There is a lot of advice out there about how to save money that focuses on limiting yourself as much as possible. It does not take into account the fact that no one will spend money perfectly.
It’s better to be smart about your purchases than to limit them completely. When you’re on a tight budget, it’s like being on a diet. The first couple of weeks you see results, but then you break down and everything returns to normal. But it is possible to live the life you want to live while saving seriously. You just need to be a little creative. Here are 8 creative ways to save money.
1. Buy food only with cash
Everyone knows the principle that if you pay with cash, you will spend less money than if you pay with a card.
You may have already tried this. This has psychological backing. When we pay with cash, it evokes a certain emotional response in us. When we see cash, it triggers chemical reactions in our brains that make us happy. If you have to go to an ATM to withdraw cash, it also makes you think twice about whether you really need this thing. But it can be difficult to start paying cash for all your purchases. Especially when many things cannot be paid for with cash (apps, online purchases, etc.).
You shouldn’t set such strict rules for yourself if tomorrow you want to buy something on Amazon and still have to break this rule. If you break a rule once, you are less likely to stick to it in the future. But you can use the power of cash without making this rule so restrictive.
Apply this rule to only one area of spending. It is best to choose the area in which you have the most problems. For most people, this category is food. For many, food is the largest part of their monthly expenses, after rent. It’s very easy to overspend in this area without even realizing it. Food is a necessity. But there is a big distance between what we want and what we need. If you’re a millennial, statistically you spend more on food than other generations. 60% of millennials can’t make their own salad dressing. 44% of Melennials’ food spending is on eating out. When you combine the tendency to spend a lot on eating out, an inability to cook, and quick access to food delivery services, food is an area where you can make a lot of changes by limiting yourself to paying in cash.
2. Entertainment
The second of eight interesting ways to save money is entertainment. How do we spend our free time? What do we do as a family? Sadly, my favorite place to spend a weekend with my family is the Shopping and Entertainment Complex. The name of these establishments, of course, contains the word “entertainment”, but the main thing is still shopping. They sell everything here: movie tickets, snacks, ice cream, toys, shoes, clothes, and many other not-so-necessary things. Kids at the arcade, mom in the fitting room, dad in the food court; in the evening we return home, loaded with spontaneous purchases, inhaling dust, gorging ourselves on fast food, having spent a decent amount of our honestly earned money.
Maybe you should try going out of town, to a park, sledding, skiing, skating in winter, having a picnic in nature at any time of the year, walking through the forest, picking berries and mushrooms in the fall. Objections that there is nothing to get there, no equipment – sorry, cheap excuses. Public transport will take you to any suburb, and any equipment can be rented – it’s not free, but the next blouse (the one hundred and first in the closet) costs no less.
3. Shopping for children
3 creative money-saving tips are shopping for children. Any more or less observant person has noticed at least once in his life that children are growing up. They don’t even have time to try on all the rompers they bought and gifted once before they’ve already grown out of them. Our grandmothers and mothers practiced sharing children’s things, passing them from one child to another as they grew up. A very good tradition, especially since the modern level of communications has made it possible to create many online resources for sale, exchange, and donation.
4. Vacation
Another fun way to save money is to plan your vacation in advance. A trip with the whole family is not a cheap pleasure. Plan at least six months in advance, choose dates, and try to buy tickets in advance before the price increases. You don’t have to choose luxury hotels for a beach holiday. Often, a family vacation in such places comes down to the fact that children spend their days in the pool with animators, and parents spend their days at the bar at another pool. Choose a hotel or apartment closer to the coastline and enjoy the sea, sun, and air.
5. Health
You can’t buy it, as the saying goes. This is true. You can save it because prevention is cheaper than cure. Do not neglect free preventive examinations, try to spend more time in the fresh air, and eat healthy and regularly – many diseases can be avoided in just such a simple way.
No one is immune from troubles, or illnesses either, and then the doctor prescribes a long list of medications. Many expensive drugs, not all of them, of course, have cheaper analogs. Commercials talk about miracle pills around the clock but don’t rush to the pharmacy to get them.
6. Large purchases
Furniture, appliances, cars, and other expensive purchases need to be planned. Choose a model that best suits your needs, do not be tempted by tempting offers. Online stores provide a lot of opportunities to select and compare products, without a consultant standing over your soul, whose job is to not let visitors leave without purchasing.
7. Monthly payments for the apartment
Carefully check what amounts make up your monthly payments. Perhaps many options on the phone or cable TV are not used at all with normal Internet, so why pay for them?
Install meters, replace light bulbs in lighting fixtures with energy-saving ones, and turn off unnecessary services and subscriptions – a small, but not at all extra, amount will remain in the family budget every month.
8. Savings
It would seem, what kind of savings can there be if we are talking about saving? Be sure to train yourself to save at least a minimum amount every month; it is best to create a replenishable deposit, even with a meager percentage. This way you can better understand how much more effective it becomes to use saving skills and plan for fairly large purchases. Avoid purchases on credit – they cost much more than the amount indicated on the price tag.
