Today, with the country continually mounting up large amounts of debt. We are encouraged more and more to start putting money aside. Despite the economic prosperity of the recent decades, there could still come a time when you and your partner could find yourself out of work. To help offset this situation one should try to have 2-3 months reserve salary saved should this unfortunate event occur. However, do you ever wonder why, even though you and your partner seem to make good salaries, it is impossible to save any money? It seems to leave your account as quickly as it arrived. You want desperately to save money but you are finding it impossible.
Saving money isn’t as impossible as you might think. The first major hurdle that people face when trying to save money is to organize their finances. Chances are, your spending much more money than your realize and chances are you are completely oblivious to it.
One excellent money saving tip is to start tracking all of your spending. You will need a small notebook and something to write with. This must accompany you everywhere and everything that you by must be recorded down to the last penny. It doesn’t matter how small of a purchase it is, it must be listed.
You should aim to do this exercise for at least a 2 week period. This task can be quite painstaking but it is one of the most useful tools to help those wanting to break bad spending habits. Once your 2 week period has ended, you need to review all of your expenditures. You will quickly start to see where all of your money is going.
Many who complete this task are shocked to see how much money is spent on small items. 1 dollar on a newspaper, for example may seem quite insignificant but over the course of a year amounts to 365 dollars.
Once you see how much money is wasted on insignificant items such as these two things will likely happen. The first being, you’ll be quite angry at yourself. It isn’t uncommon for people to spend thousands of dollars in a year on objects such as newspapers, coffees and small treats. When confronted with this they tend to feel quite angry for allowing this to happen. The second being, you will implement a plan for change. You will quickly start to prioritize your spending and cut out many of those expenditures that you don’t really need.
If you want to start putting money aside, a great money saving tip is to first start tracking your finances. This will show you where your money is going and help you implement a plan for change.