How To Achieve Your Savings Goals

Everyone would love to have a pot of cash for a rainy day, but sometimes saving is easier said than done. Social lives and unexpected payments can make setting aside that all important safety net can be surprisingly difficult. It can be particularly frustrating if you’re looking to put cash away for a special event, house, or even a holiday. If you’re struggling to put money away, then consider these tips to help make your emergency fun look a little healthier.

Change tariffs

One of the easiest ways to spend less money is to take a quick look at your current suppliers. By not changing energy tariffs every year after your contract has ended, you could be missing out on much better new customer deals. Hunting around the market for not only your gas and electric, but also your cell phone and internet provider could save you a surprising amount of money.

Try and avoid dipping into savings

If you already have a savings pot somewhere, try not to dip into it. If your friends are hinting at a group holiday in the future, or if you know you’ll have a large payment due soon, try and factor this into your debit account rather than depleting the savings you already have. Using something like a payday UK loan alternative or other temporary credit options will cover short-term purchases without eating away at your savings.

Do some finance analysis

It’s one thing to know how much you earn each month. However, it’s another to know exactly where it’s going. Printing out your transactions to figure out just how much is going on bills, groceries and added luxuries will give you a real sense of what you’re left over with at the end of each month. This amount can then be factored into how much you should be putting away into savings. If you can think of a few items to sacrifice off your budget every month, then this will also add to your savings potential.

Wait

If you’re particularly bad for impulse-buying and getting home with a purchase you realize you didn’t necessarily need, then putting a mandatory waiting period on yourself is a great way of learning how to practice patience. The advice is to increase the waiting period if the item is more expensive – ensuring that an impulse-purchase doesn’t do a hefty amount of damage to your checking account. If you see something you like, check the price tag, and decide how long you should wait before purchasing. Within this time the urge to splash out may have died away, meaning you have just that little bit more to put away into your savings account.

Modern supermarkets and shopping malls make it incredibly difficult to show restraint when it comes to preserving our money. Temptation is all around that not only means we might be tempted to spend money in our checking account, but also maybe take out savings to spend money on something we didn’t need.