Save money on a tight budget
Spend less than you earn.
The best way to save money is by generally spending less than what you earn. Overspending is the single biggest reason why people aren’t able to live within their budgets. It really comes to down this simple thing: Don’t spend more than you earn.
You can’t have the cake and eat it too
Money saving starts with this simple realization that you can’t have the cake and eat it too. You have to make some sacrifices to stop overspending what you are making.
It is never easy. But time and again these sacrifices will ultimatley lead you to being happy and peaceful.
If you dedicate to getting paycheck after paycheck and look back at the struggles you made to save money you will begin to appreciate everythinga round you more.
Also, if you’re serious about getting out of your paycheck to paycheck cycle, you should have no problem sacrificing some things while you work your way up.
Determine your goal
When Alice was in Wonderland she asked which was the right way. The rabbit asked where did she want to go. She said she didn’t know. Then the rabbit said, it doesn’t matter which way you go. Financial prudence and sacrifices fizzle out if you have no sense of direction, if you don’t know where to go.
If you want to save money, you’re not doing that because the dollars look good in the bank. Perhaps you want to save up for a vacation, buy a new phone or something like that.
Write it down and look at it everyday, It doesn’t matter what the goal is. What’s important is to have a goal. Also set long term goals so that you can save big.
Budget
If you want to save money there needs to be a budget. Budget helps you optimize your finances. Not count every dollar but yes most of it.
Budget tells you how you’re going to use the money.
There are different budgets for different purposes however living on low income is the best way to use a budget.
It’s something I recommend everyone to try out first.
Pay your debts off with a plan
It’s going to be hard to pay off your debt if you don’t have a plan. It’s also going to block how you save. Debt should be gotten rid of as early as possible. You should simply pay it off.
To do this right the first thing to do is have a debt payment plan. Once you do that, you know the most effective way to pay off that debt. You also know how long it is going to take to pay this off.
. Cut Your Biggest Expenses
The next thing to do is cut off big expenses from your list of expenses. Rent, food expenses and travel are generally what cost people a lot of money.
One you reduce these expenses, that means you will be able to save a lot of your money through the year.
Rent
Rent happens to be something people to spend a lot of money on. They either take a big mortgage or they rent out a big property, Ideally you shouldn’t be spending more than 30 percent of your income on mortgage or rent.
To cut this expense, rent out the spare room or let it go and find something else, cheaper.
You can save more by living with your parents. This is true when paying off debt too.
TRANSPORTATION
To cut travel costs the first thing to do is properly maintain your car. This costs money from time to time but is still better than neglecting the upkeep of your car and then paying a lot more.
Get better insurance rates for the car as well.
Also instead of taking the car or the motorcycle walk or bike. This is better nad the wallter is better of with this step./
Also you might be able to carpool with other office goers with Uber or Lyft. They have options for carpooling and that saves a ton.
FOOD
Food is something you don’t want to be spending too much on. Food is a categoryof item you ideally don’t want to spend too much on. But that’s generally out of the question because those small visits to fast food, restaurants and others tend to quickly add up and make for a big tab.
To cut on these expenses is to cook at your home. Looks like a lot of work, But there’s always the thing of making a large quantity of food at one go and freezing it for weeks so that you can reheat tomorrow and down the week.
There’s also the $5 meal plan you can use. They budgetize meals for $5 and send an meal plan for each week. The $5 meal per person works out to be around $2.
Pay Yourself First
Paying yourself is considered an evergreen financial tip that a lot of experts swear by. It works. When you pay yourself you are prioritizing saving money. You are less inclined to overspend the said amount.
Paying yourself means that instead of saving what remains you are allocating a certain portion for your spending and saving a big another portion. That curbs the habit of overspending.
To do this the right set up automatic transfers to different accounts. One: a savings account and two an account where you pay yourself.
Determine what to spend on
It isn’t possible to live by not spending anything at all. The income would get spent one way or the other. But what you can do is add certain items to the priority list and determine where you want to spend and then do that.
So first, prioritizing spending. All that means is figuring out what’s really important to you. Do you love going to the gym? Seeing movies in theatres? Maybe you can’t live without your Netflix subscription.
There are things that you can afford not to spend on. For example you may not need the latest iPhone or if you don’t spend time at home either cable or Netflix. There are several things you are not using and that is the equivalent of wasting money.
Cut them out of your life. It’s time to take things moderately. Instead of going to Starbucks you could probably make your own coffee and rent out movies.
Find Free Money
There are at least a few dozen ways I can think of generating free money right now.
You could for instance sign up for banks that offer sign in and chekcing account bonuses. There are credit card offers and free buys that all offer free money.
5. Start Making More Money
When you are on a low income that means there’s potential for you to make more money. There are several ways to make money online.
Even its a few hundred dollars that can make a significant dent in your life.
Another way to make money is by starting a side hustle. It can be a blog or something that helps you use your spare time to generate a cash flow.
1. Track Your Spending
When you have set a budget the next step is to keep track of what you are spending on each and every month. You should be keeping track of those nifty little expenses should you wish to curb spending habit.
Tracking gives an idea regarding what you’re spending on and how much you’re spending on. This will help you moderate out your expenses too.
2. Learn to Negotiate
Being able to negotiate can help you save hundreds of dollars. Especially for second hand items. You can negotiate bargain and drive down the value of the car. That’s an easy peasy 1oo to 200 dollars in svings.
KNegotiate for better repayment terms, salaries an other things in life.
Get cash back
There are several apps that pay you cash back when you are shopping. Little by little they tend to add up to a lot.
Here are my favorites:
-
Rakuten (formerly Ebates) – The browser extension hunts for deals and alerts you
-
Swagbucks – The offers are better and there’s browser extenion. Plenty of other ways to earn money too.
-
iBotta – Upload grocery receipts and get cashback. Pletny of offers.