Often times the thought of saving money is stressful. You've been procrastinating actually making it happen because it all seems so overwhelming. We get you. So let's break it up into some simple steps to help you take action on your plans of saving.
1. Create a Saving Goal
As you begin your savings journey, make sure you have a goal in mind. It could be something simple such as wanting to purchase a biker jacket. Or maybe you’re saving towards repaying a loan. Whatever the reason be, make sure you’ve written that down and you know the ‘why’ behind your savings. At the same time, make sure that these saving goals are realistic and fit within your budget.
You should know how much money you need to save every day and the timeline to achieve your saving goal. Once you have a goal in place you will be motivated to make it a reality.
2. Start Saving Small Amounts of Money
Often we think that we need to save large sums of money for it to be defined as “savings”. Let’s bust that myth! No amount of savings is too small. Let’s think about that for a minute- If you save Rs 100 per day, you would have saved Rs 700 by the end of the week and in a month you would have saved Rs 2800. Therefore, every penny counts when it comes to your savings.
Nowadays, there are money management apps dedicated to savings only, which can help you to start small savings effectively.
For example, Wizely, a savings app, is like a digital piggy bank where you can save flexible amounts of money anytime and anywhere. The best part about Wizely is that you can save from Rs 10 to even a lakh. So make sure you leverage this app to make a head-start in your savings journey.
The small steps truly count!
3. Make Savings a Fun Process
Saving money is often thought of as such a serious subject. It’s something we don’t want to think about because it just sounds kind of scary. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
There are so many ways you can make your saving journey unique and fun. From making your goals more visual (put up a picture of that phone you want to buy) to taking part in fun challenges such as the “No Spend Challenge”, there are many ways you can keep yourself motivated.
You can also use apps like Wizely and follow personal finance blogs to keep yourself excited about saving money.
4. Use the 72-Hour Rule Before Making Any Bigger Purchases
Picture this – On a lazy Sunday afternoon, you are scrolling through Amazon without having any purchase plans in mind. But as you are looking through the site, you happen to click on the Gadget section and see a bunch of your dream gadgets in front of you! It’s only the beginning of the month so your bank balance is looking good. Without thinking too much, you add that expensive phone into your cart and you make off the purchase.
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? And that’s okay! A few slip-ups are fine, but if you make this a habit then you could be in some trouble. These impulse purchases can put a strain on your finances towards the end of the month.
So a strategy you can use to avoid these impulse purchases is the 72-hour rule. Before you actually make a purchase, leave the product in your cart for 3 days. Then you can make the decision whether this product is worth it or not. More often than not, you will realize that you don’t really need that product. Or if you are still thinking about it, you can plan that purchase in a much more smarter way.
Also, with apps like Wizely, you can keep a percentage of your salary away so that you don’t get tempted to spend it. And at the end of the month, you can access that saved money for your expenses. These simple but useful tricks can help you be wiser when it comes to saving money.
5. Go on a Savings Journey With All Your Friends
Our last tip is to save money along with your friends. The more people that join in, the more fun you can have while saving money. You can motivate and challenge each other to be more creative in your savings. Or even better? If you have a trip that you all want to go on, save money towards that. Having a common goal can make you all much more accountable.
We hope these small money saving tips help you become more financially independent and make a way towards your goals and aspirations.
