There’s no doubt about it, saving money can be difficult, especially if you live to paycheck to paycheck and also have debts to repay, It can be easy to feel trapped in a poor financial situation leaving you looking for a fast loan or easy way out which more often than not will leave you better off in the long run. What if we told you that there were ways in which you could start saving money and you might not even miss the cash? Well, read on to find out more.
Really look into your direct debits and standing orders
Direct debits and standing orders for services you no longer use or want can easily be removing funds from your bank account and you may not even know it. Log into your banking app on your phone or online and find the section that allows you to view all your direct debits and standing orders – are there any that you thought you no longer paid or that have increased in price? It can be tempting to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to money worries, which makes it easy to miss payments like this that come out each month without us noticing. So take the time to sit down and review them and you could save yourself money instantly by cancelling those that you no longer use or that you thought you no longer paid.
Try a no spending challenge
Somehow everything seems a little more fun when it becomes a challenge, so why not set yourself the challenge to spend no unnecessary money for a day, week or even month? Gamification is a popular way to make activities that are usually stressful or unpleasant, something that you may even come to enjoy as it tricks the brain into treating them like a game or a challenge and will reward you with a hit of dopamine when you succeed or win. If you’ve never done a no-spend challenge before then start out small with just a day or a week, use only the food you have in your fridge and pantry and get creative with what’s left in your freezer, try walking or cycling to save money on transportation, don’t buy any unnecessary items, eat out or go on excursions and see how much you can save. What’s left in your account at the end of the period can then be divided up to help pay off your debts or can be put towards your savings.
Sign up to a bank such as Monzo or Starling.
There’s now a new age of banking that gives consumers far more freedom with their money and allows us to more easily save in a way that suits our lifestyles. Monzo and Starling are just two of these new-age banks that pride themselves on being entry digital, relying on the unique usability of their banking apps. Monzo, for example, gives you a clear view of all your spending, breaking each transaction down and assigning it a category, making it easy to see what is essential and what is excess. You can even set up savings pots which round up your transactions to the nearest £1 and put the spare change away for you without you noticing. For those who like the idea of gamification then you can link Monzo to an app called IFTTT, which stands for IF This Then That, which automatically moves money around in your app depending on certain conditions – for examples, using IFTTT you can set up a 1p savings challenge, where your app will move 1p into your savings on the 1st of January, 2p over on the second of January and so on and so forth until it is moving £3.65 on the 31st of December. By doing the 1p savings challenge you could have saved £670, by moving small change into a savings pot every day without needing to lift a finger.
Keep a moneybox
You’d be forgiven for thinking that physical money boxes are just for children, but they’re in fact a great way to save spare change that often gets lost or spent frivolously. Why not try one of the ones that are made from ceramic and need to be smashed to be opened? Start putting 20ps or if you’re feeling brave then £1 coin’s into the pot whenever you have them on you and then simply forget about them and let the rack up. Depending on the coin you choose to save then you could save hundreds without even noticing, and you get the satisfaction of smashing the jar too.
This is a collaborative post
