At Super-Advice we are about all things financial, but more importantly, helping people understand so they can get ahead financially.
In today’s blog post we are going through the best ways to save money, our tips, and helpful hints.
Understand the movement of money
The first thing that we suggest is that you need to understand the movement of money in your household.
If it’s just you, you need to understand it. If it’s a family, a couple, you need to understand it.
Where is your money really being spent?
Make a plan
Create a budget, now I know budget is a horrible word, so let’s call it a plan.
You can use an Excel spreadsheet to do it and keep it simple.
Things to put in your plan
- Assets, what you own.
- Liabilities, what you owe.
- Income
- Expenses
Review your expenses
The single biggest contributing factor to free up extra money is to review your expenses.
They are easier to adjust than your income.
When you line them all up on a spreadsheet, budget, or plan, you can easily identify where the money’s going and you could perhaps make some changes and shuffle items around.
Shop Smarter
The single biggest adjustable expense is probably groceries. If you shop smarter using a meal plan right down to the detail, you can really get a handle on where your money’s going.
Shopping online is also a really easy way to manage what you are buying but also where you are spending.
Use cash
Another tip that we suggest is to use cash.
Now it’s been proven that when Eftpos cards and credit cards came out, it changed the dynamic of purchasing something.
Generally, we would hand over the cash ($10.00), get the item that was worth $10 and nothing else back.
So you’ve given something away to obtain your item.
These days, you grab your item, pull your card out but you’ve still got it.
So it’s changed the dynamic of a transaction. You don’t feel like you’ve spent any money. Therefore you will keep doing it.
Reduce Excess spending
Remove any unused services like gym memberships, subscriptions, or services that you just aren’t using as much as you need.
Be Disciplined
At the end of the day, it’s your money, your choice and the buck stops with you. So be disciplined and take control of your budget.
That’s a wrap
The key is to have a plan, and understand where your money is moving.
Review your expenses, be smarter with your grocery purchases, and remove any actual spending in there that you might not use like gym memberships that you don’t use.
Use cash and try really hard to be disciplined because it starts and finishes with yourself.
If you need any financial help or advice please get in touch with us at Super-Advice.