With the excess of the festive season well and truly behind us, many of us are starting to think about how we can reign in our spending and turn our minds to savings goals and targets.
There are hundreds of lists and guides out there with tips on how to save money, so we thought we would come up with some unique ways you may not have thought of yet to help you keep your hands on your hard earned cash.
Whether you are saving for a much needed holiday, a house deposit or simply being more mindful about how you spend, here are some tips and tricks to help you on your way.
1. Micro Investing
Gone are the days of needing to have $500 saved to invest in shares, the rise of micro investing apps means can get in to the investing game with as little as $5. A number of us in the ele office use apps such as Raiz and CommSec Pocket to make small, regular investments. Some of the apps will round up your purchases for you, for example if you buy lunch for $9.50 using your card, the app will round up the additional 50 cents and invest that in to shares for you, with others you can choose to invest a small amount when you want to. With cash savings rates so low, investing in shares and EFTs can be an excellent way to get a better return on your money. As always, we recommend that you do your own research and find a product that works best for you and your circumstances.
2. Share Streaming Plans
With so many of us subscribing to Netflix, Spotify, Stan, Amazon Prime (the list goes on!) streaming entertainment can get costly, however since most of these steaming services allow you to have more than one device attached to the account, think about sharing your plans with family members or friends or even trusted work colleagues to cut down on your monthly costs. It might only seem like a small amount that you save but the great thing about savings is that, if invested wisely, you can make every single dollar count.
3. Sharing Beauty Products
Hear us out. This may seem a little strange however if you take a good look at your beauty cabinet you will most likely see a lot of half used pots of creams and lotions. Try splitting the cost of expensive beauty products like moisturiser and serums with a friend, that way you both get to try out those high cost luxury beauty products that you can’t really afford to buy yourself, without the risk of forking out hundreds of dollars. The hardest decision? Who gets to keep the pretty bottles.
4. Save Money You Were Going To Spend
We love this idea, you simply make conscious decisions each day to either not spend or buy a cheaper version of an item and save the difference. It works like this; just say you planned to buy a bar of chocolate and a juice at the supermarket, you make a conscious decision to forgo the juice and add that small amount to your savings account (don’t worry we would never suggest you forgo the chocolate!). Or instead of buying a book, you borrow one from the library, and save the $20 you would have spent. These small daily conscious decisions can really add up. Have a fee-free savings bank account and transfer the money to that account each time you make a conscious decision that saves you money. The trick to this method is to actually set that money aside so that you aren’t tempted to spend it on something else.
5. No Shop Mondays
Meat-free Mondays are a thing for many of us already so why not make Mondays ‘No Shop Mondays’ too. That means not spending a cent on anything, all day. Having one day a week where you actively decide not to spend and instead make use up the food you have in the fridge, make your coffee to take to work etc can really add up. Obviously you don’t want to compensate by doubling up on spending on Tuesdays!
6. Trade Goods & Services
This is by no means a new concept, however focusing a bit more effort in to where you can trade or swap a service or product rather than buying it can add up up a lot of savings. You really can sway or trade anything, from lawn mowing to gardening, logo design, website building, cooking, house or pet sitting and everything in between, it’s more than likely that a friend, colleague, neighbour or acquaintance has a service you could exchange with them making it a win win for everyone.
Whatever methods you choose to try and save money the trick, like many things in life, is consistency and discipline, a little patience and time and you will really notice a boost to your bank account balance.
Want more Career, Business & Money? Click here for our article on the Financial Independence, Retire Early Movement and here for Five of The Worst Personality Types In The Office (And How To Deal With Them).
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