11 super-effective tips to save more money every month!

Most of us work hard to earn our income. Yet, we pay only a little attention to save any of it. That’s the reason why many of us end up burning away our entire incomes in the first 2 to 3 weeks (or sometimes less!).

And that’s not our fault. While we are being taught infinite ways to scale our income, we are rarely taught anything related to savings or money-management. From school to our companies, it looks like that no one wants us to learn (and master) this super-crucial aspect of life.  

Start by tracking your monthly expenses 

The smartest way to save more money is to first start monitoring and analyzing your spending. This is crucial as each of us is unique with respect to our money behavior. Refer to this blog on best expense tracker apps or alternatively, just search with keywords like expense tracker”, “spending tracker”, “budget manager” on the Android/ iOS store and try a couple of apps to find the one that most suits your purpose.  

While analyzing your spending allows you to discover the money-leakage spots, listed below are 11 super-effective tips that sure would skyrocket your savings when followed consistently.   

1. Identify and correct your addictive behaviors.

Apparently, most of us have strong attachments to some or the other things. For some, that’s food, while for others, it can be shopping, or drugs. In many cases, these attachments can transform into addictions, when we just can’t stop doing them in spite of negative consequences. 

And when that happens, these behaviors begin to bleed our money and savings, even when it’s as simple as food addiction. So, it’s a no-brainer that addicts will be always on the losing front when it comes to savings.    

Identifying and acknowledging these addictive behaviors is the key to correcting them (and saving more money in both short-term and long-term!). Explore programs, and books designed to treat your specific addiction and seek external support whenever you feel so.        

2. Set up automatic savings from your monthly income.  

This is hands-down our favorite. Imagine having a feature to automatically transfer a percentage of your salary from a salary account to a savings account. Stop imagining because the feature exists.  

Almost all banks today offer automated transfers between your salary and savings accounts allowing you to choose when, how much and where to transfer money. Make sure to give your bank a call to know more about this.  

Why this works great for savings is because seeing less available balance makes us conscious and cautious about our spending.  

3. Adopt an attitude of contentment. 

This modern-culture of flaunting materialistic possessions and hard to escape extreme marketing always propels us to buy more and more. All of us have made guilty impulsive decisions of purchasing expensive or unnecessary items.  

Learn to separate world-fed expectations from needs. Realize that you can still prepare mouth-watering meals with the stuff you already have. Understand that you can still rock in the clothes you have. And try to recognize the hollowness of material obsessions. (Try learning about minimalism culture. You might love it!)   

A tip when buying non-essential stuff is to wait at least 24 hours before purchasing. You may end up cancelling the order plans. 

4. Set up short-term and long-term goals. 

The key is to start with a small sum and a short saving phase. As you can guess, saving just $10 a week over a 3-months span is much more attainable than setting a massive goal to save $500 a month for a year. Doing this becomes all the way easier when coupled with a short-term goal that’s either relevant or exciting to you (or both), like saving for a vacation, or building up an emergency fund.  

Those with already a strong saving habit can set up long-term saving goals like saving for their dream car, a dream home, marriage expenses, children’s education, or even for the post-retirement phase.  

5. Leverage coupons and discounts when shopping.  

Coupons are a big thing. That’s proven by the fact that a whopping 88% of consumers are using coupons for shopping in US (Statista, 2021).  

And while there are now numerous coupon players, only a few of them offer 100% authentic and working coupons. GrabOn leads the way in those players.  

So next time you shop, make sure you search for coupons before buying anything, be it a web hosting plan for your online ventures, or something as simple as a trimmer to save as much as up to 80%.   

6. Try generic stuff instead of exclusively going after big brands.

You must have observed that big popular brands sell at a higher price compared to generic brands across all the verticals from medicine to staple food items (like rice and beans). That’s not because they are always better, but because these companies spend a lot of money in marketing.  

So next time when you go to buy medicine, food items, cleaning supplies, or paper products, do some research and start trying some generic brands. You may discover that a lot of them work just well, besides costing far less than their brand-name friends.    

7. Monitor your food-spending habits.  

In this era of processed foods, food-delivery apps, and dine-out experiences, most people are spending way more on food than people ever did in the past. While it’s okay to experience all these once in a while, it’s important to develop food habits that provide you with optimal nutrition at the best price while blending well with your lifestyle.  

And that all begins with monitoring your food-spending habits. After that, figure out the cause driving the behavior and replace that with something effective. For example, you might be spending a lot on processed foods to replace boredom. Starting out with a side-hobby that keeps you occupied like gardening (or something else) might be an effective solution to the problem.   

8. Drive in the economy range.  

If you commute to your workplace with a personal vehicle, this tip is for you. It’s sad that many of us drive super-fast (and rash too!) to reach our offices, putting ours (and others’) precious life at risk in order to save a couple of minutes. This driving style sure puts a dent on our money too. We spend more on fuel in the short-term and in vehicle’s maintenance costs over long-term.  

A smart way to save more money (and drive risk-free) is to make a habit of driving in the economy range, as much as possible. It’s clearly marked as a speed range on the vehicle's speedometer

9.  Unsubscribe from tempting marketing emails. 

While we may not check our social media platforms every day, we do get notified of new emails every day. A lot of them try to tickle our impulse-buying behavior by highlighting a 24-hour exclusive sale or offering a 30% discount coupon, and that too for something we may not even need.  

So next time when you receive an email, think about the content you are receiving from them, the stuff that they are promoting, and if you really need that. In case you realize you don’t, just click the always-there unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email

10. Review automatic subscriptions and memberships. 

As the internet is now the new cable, most of us have taken at least a few subscriptions or memberships, with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Spotify ranking top in popularity. As most of these subscriptions are set on “auto renew”, they keep emptying our savings year by year, even when we may not need them.  

If you haven’t, just review your subscriptions and memberships today and turn off auto renew.

11. Learn from the best.  

Deny or accept, but there sure are some people who are much better at budgeting, saving, and building up wealth. Look around closely, and you may find a few of them in your family, friends, or company. If you find such talents, make sure to talk to them. Learn their core principles and adapt those to make them work for you.  

Explore top-selling books in the money niche. 3 of my favorites for a beginner are: 

• The Richest Man in Babylon 
• The Psychology of Money 
• The Intelligent Investor  

If you don’t have the time to read, start watching videos of popular Finance-based YouTube channels like Tim Vipond, Graham Stephen, Andrei Jikh, Nate O’Brien, etc.  

So, which tip appealed the most to you? When are you planning to put that into practice? Do let us know in the comments below. Also, don’t hesitate to share any other effective saving tip we might have skipped on.  

 About Author  

Rajat Kumar is a freelance content writer who loves writing on anything, and everything. A military brat’s son who enjoys cooking, loves doing pet’s photography, and watching all sorts of documentaries on various topics. 

 

 

-Brand Desk Content