Ways to Save Money (Spar Penger)
Saving Money
It is difficult for people to save money, especially if they are living paycheck to paycheck. It seems that you can barely make it to payday, so how are you going to save money? There are many strategies, even if you have extraordinarily little to save.
You can always save your money at home, or you can save it in a bank online or near you. One place that you can spar, or save, is a credit union or other online bank. These places will sometimes even have savings accounts that can help you earn interest.
This article will give you a few hints on how to save some money each month. You might even be able to save enough to send your children to college or for your retirement. Every little bit will help with this, and this article will share how to save those little bits.
Hints
1. Emergency Fund – everyone should have an emergency fund and it is supposed to be three to six months of your earnings. For example, if you make $4,000 per month, you should have $12,000 to $24,000 in your savings account. Some lenders say to start small and build up – you can start with as little as $500 and go up from there.
2. Make a Budget – you should make a budget to see what you spend each month and save accordingly. If you have never created a budget before, you could start at the beginning of the month and start saving your receipts. At the end of the month, put all the receipts in categories such as meals, bills, and personal care. You will see how much money that you spent in all those areas, and you can see if it is too much, not enough, or just right. You can then use all this information to set up your budget for the next month. Try sticking to the budget without going over – and add a tab for savings.
3. Budget with Envelopes and Cash – if it is really difficult to budget your money, you could try the envelopes and cash trick. For every category of your budget you will have an envelope with cash for the month for that category. You could use the categories from above to get started. Once that cash from that envelope is gone from the month, you cannot spend any more money on that category. For example, if you have one for entertainment and put $50 in the envelope, once that $50 is gone you have no more money for entertainment.
4. Save Automatically – some banks and employers have an option for you to save money each time you direct deposit to your savings account. You can set it up for a specific amount or you can have all your change from every transaction sent automatically to your savings account. Either way, this small amount of money each month will build up if you can stay out of your savings account.
5. Start Small but Think Big – if you cannot save $500 a month for a year, try saving $20 a month for six months. Once that six months are over, add a little more each month so that instead of $20 a month, you will save $30 a month. Keep doing that until you can save what you need to each month.
6. Save for Retirement – you will need to start saving for your retirement as soon as you can. If your first job has a retirement plan, buy into it as soon as you are able. If you do not have a retirement plan at your job, start saving an extra amount each month just for your retirement. You can also begin investing some of your money for your retirement.
7. Let Your Employer Match Your Retirement Fund – there are many employers that have retirement savings matches so that they will match your dollar for dollar for your retirement plan. This is an effective way to increase your retirement without much effort on your part. If this is a choice for you, let your employer help.
8. Save Windfalls and Tax Refunds – make it a requirement that every windfall that you get and every tax refund that you get goes straight to your savings account and you cannot touch it. This will help to build up your savings account quickly and without much effort on your part. It would be money that you would not otherwise have so it should not affect your budget to put this money into savings.
9. Save Your Coins – saving your coins can add up to a lot of money each month. If you put your coins somewhere safe, you can easily save $100 or more each month that could go into your savings account. Again, this is money that you won’t miss because it would just be going to be wasted otherwise.
10. Use the 24 Hour Rule – never buy anything frivolous at the time you see it. Instead of waiting 24 hours to buy it – if you still want it after 24 hours, you can get it if it is a reasonable price. This is especially good if you are doing online shopping because you can put the item in your cart and buy it later, if you still want it.
11. Treat Yourself – you can still treat yourself with small treats while you are out shopping – but whatever you spend on yourself, you must put an equal amount of money in your savings account. So, if you buy yourself lunch and spend $5 or $10 for that, you will need to add $5 or $10 to your savings account.
12. Think About How Many Hours, it Took You to Work to Buy the Item Instead of the Dollar Amount – if you think that it took you ten hours to buy that shirt or jeans instead of $150 it might make you pause and put that item back down. If you are reasonable, you will see that the item is not worth the number of hours that you put into making that money. You can still buy a shirt and jeans, just choose a more reasonably priced item.
*This is a collaborative post.
