Save Money With These Simple Steps

To save money may sound simple at first, but it takes discipline and integration into our lifestyle to really benefit from it. In this article, you will find some ideas on how to save your money.

Every person has certain living expenses that they have to pay. To save money successfully we need to minimize these costs, but again afford the things that really make us happy and that we need in life.

It takes a little more effort to save money in the beginning, but after a while, we get into the habit and start saving automatically. Consequently, we don’t need to spend so much effort and energy anymore, and money will accumulate every day, doesn’t that sound good?

Follow this simple steps to save money:

1) Record Your Expenses To Save Money

We need to know where our money is going first. If you don’t track the spending of your money through some sort of spreadsheet, you’ll likely be surprised at how much you spend. Especially on some categories of products and services. The easiest way to do track your spending is to pay for everything by credit card. Depending on the bank’s option you can draw all the expenses sorted by categories at the end of the month. Also, there are alternative ways to install one of the many mobile applications through which you can track expenses. You can download a free excel template here.

2) Monthly Cost Analysis

After successfully tracking your expenses for at least 3 months (for a quality analysis I would recommend from 6 to 12 months), it is necessary to make an analysis of your monthly expenses and see what percentage do you spend on individual categories. You can look at how much an average European spends and compare it with your categories. It is important to review each item and ask yourself whether such a cost is really necessary or can it be less? Once we determine which costs are worth to us, we can move on to the next step.

3) Creating a Cost Budget To Save Money

The purpose of compiling a budget is to make a cost plan that we will stick to in the coming period. I would recommend that you work your budget at the end of the year for next year every month. We create a budget by looking from our monthly analyzes at the costs that are acceptable and necessary to us and anticipating any possible future costs that may arise. We do this each month.

Some useful tips if you own a house or a car. If we use the one percent rule to evaluate house costs, you should set aside at least one percent of your home’s value every year for home maintenance. Also, if you own a car you should set aside at least $ 100 a month for car repairs.

To create a budget you can use templates available on the Internet or create your own. Here are free budget templates in excel.

4) Budget Evaluation

The main questions we need to ask ourselves when making a budget evaluation are as follows:

• Whether our planned budget is equal to actual
• What are the reasons for not sticking to the plan (if it not the same as the actual)
• Can we make some extra savings in the following years

Summary

It takes a little more effort at first to turn the saving wheel. However, once you release it, you need to gently push it here and there to keep it from stopping. 

It is best to use automation systems to start tracking savings. Find the system through which it is easiest for you to track costs. This can be your bank, Revolut, or some other card, mobile application, or excel spreadsheet – decide for yourself. Track your spending for at least 3 months. After that, do analysis and avoid the expenses you can. Try to reduce the remaining costs and create a cost budget. Do an evaluation every 12 months.