Without a strong grasp on how you spend your money, you’ll give up an important part of yourself. It’s far too easy to succumb to our own wants and spend aimlessly. I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of moments when you’re terrified of checking your bank account; this is a poor way to handle responsibility.
An excellent way for someone to start appreciating their self-worth is to develop self-discipline.
Here is a brief list of money saving tips. I had to use these tips my self-living abroad in Spain for the past couple of months when my savings ran low. Follow these rules and you’ll feel strong because you chose to forgo your present desires for your future self.
Do Not Eat Out All Of The Time: This is something I still need to improve on. It’s tempting to stop by a fast food restaurant and look at all of your favorite meals on the glorified menu.
After eating out I always feel the same way. I feel stressed out because I realize how much time I wasted while I could’ve been reading or writing. I also know that I hurt my wallet. Eating out is not cheap. One meal to feel completely full at Chik Fil A or Chipotle may cost me at least 10 dollars.
Can you imagine how much value that is for someone cooking their own food? Go grocery shopping and compare it to how much you spend eating out to see the difference yourself. If you stop reading this money saving tips article right now with the knowledge that you should cook more, I’ve done my job in helping you take a huge step in reclaiming control of your finances.
Cooking Is The Way To Go: Not only is it healthier, but over time you’ll teach yourself how to master each recipe you want to serve up. Cooking is time efficient as well (if you do it right and quit messing around). It doesn’t take long to heat up a nice piece of chicken or steak for dinner on your own.
There’s Usually A Hidden Lower Price Somewhere: I’ll illustrate a simple example with buying College Textbooks. It may seem convenient and it’s tempting to buy your books at the local campus bookstore, but it’s a trap. Instead, you should do a simple Google search online for Amazon.com and your textbook.
It’s shocking to see how much money you can save by ordering your books online (used) versus on campus. You don’t even have to go online. There’s probably a cheaper bookstore down the street where you can buy Elements of Style or Plato’s Republic for class.
Your friend can even lend you a hand (if they’re cool enough) and lend you their Statistics book.
Plan Ahead: You can compare the upfront cost of a subway ticket, or you can look at the overall value for a monthly pass. It can be tricky to judge the weekly price for a commute. This is why it’s important to dedicate one week solely to tracking how much you spend each day. From there, you can set up your own budget based off of your needs. Use your iPhone notes whenever you buy something during the week. When you keep track of your expenses you can view if you’re going over your budget or not right away on the palm of your hand.
Time: As much as we all want to save using these money saving tips, it’s critical that we adopt a similar mindset for time.
For example, it’s silly to camp out in front of Best Buy the night before Black Friday to save some cash. Sure, you may score a nice deal, but you’re giving up your currency of time. Time is not something you can bring back again. If you lose money, there are opportunities out there to eventually bring it back, the loss of time is permanent.
Don’t go overboard with that price tag that’s a 2 and a half hour drive away…or the new video game system that you can pick up if you sleep outside in the cold (while fighting off an angry mob I might add).
Follow these money saving tips, but be frugal with your time. Its value is too much to carelessly give away.
J