Please note that I am not a financial advisor and this post contains my views only. I do not know your financial situation and you should always perform your own research and make up your own mind when it comes to your finances.
Savings, savings, savings. Not a particularly exciting topic, but an important one! This is why I have compiled 5 super simple saving hacks for you.
By saving money and putting it away for something important, or by putting your saved money toward reducing your mortgage balance, you can reap the benefits of this action in the long term.
You’re doing yourself a favour for the long-term and building on your financial future.
That said, saving can be tedious – especially after the novelty wears off. So here are some simple hacks that are easy to implement into your life and will keep you on the savings path.
- Round up transactions
- Have an online shopping free month
- Only subscribe to one streaming service at a time
- Wait before buying
- Buy a coffee machine
Round up transactions
Rounding up transactions is a no-hassle way to start saving, and you barely notice it’s happening.
Many banks offer a round-up feature where they will round up to the nearest whole number. So if you buy something for 1.59, the bank will automatically put .41 into a savings account.
It’s surprising how quickly this can add up, but if you want to see more progress then banks such as Revolut will allow you to boost the roundup.
For example, if you choose to 10x the round-up then that .41 would turn into 4.10 put directly into your savings account.
Have an online shopping free month
Another great saving hack is to set aside a month where you will not purchase anything online.
Once we take away the ease of online shopping it is amazing how much we can save. It can be eye-opening to see how much you’re spending online each month.
An added bonus to not shopping online is that you might just find good deals in the local area and at physical stores near you — potentially saving you money and supporting the local community.
Only subscribe to one streaming service at a time
It’s nice to have a choice of what to watch, but if we are honest with ourselves, then one streaming service is probably more than enough.
Individually, the cost of each streaming service feels cheap, but when you add them all together the price starts to add up.
If you think about it, there is probably one main service that you watch a whole lot more than the others.
Subscribing to one streaming service doesn’t mean that we will miss out completely on what the other services have to offer – most, if not all, of the services offer rolling monthly contracts so you can chop and change which service you have each month if you want to.
For example, use Netflix this month, then cancel and take out Disney Plus next month.
An added bonus is that by limiting the amount of consumable content, you may just watch a gem that you would otherwise have missed out on. All while saving money.
Wait before buying
By waiting to buy, we are reducing the risk of impulse buys.
This strategy involves giving yourself a cooling-off period between the time you first feel the desire to buy something, and when you actually purchase it.
For example, if you see something you want and you think that you must have it — you then have to wait the pre-determined number of days before you buy it (try to make this at least a week).
This technique can help save money because it allows you to reconsider a purchase after the cooling-off period when you’re less likely to be impulsive.
Buy a coffee machine
So this one is for the long-term savers and the caffeine lovers.
Buy a coffee machine. Not only will this save you money in the long run, but it also gives you complete control over what’s in your cup.
Buying cups of joe from coffee chains can add up to hundreds of dollars each year – but if you’re willing to put in the extra time, making your own can save you buckets.
Try this quick calculation to see how long it will take to pay off your coffee machine:
- Work out how much you save per cup by subtracting the cost to make your own coffee from that of your usual takeout coffee.
- Times this by the number of coffees you buy in a day
- Divide the price of your new coffee machine by this number
You now have the number of days it will take before what you have saved has added up to the cost of the coffee machine.
You are now saving money on each cup you make. To double down, you could put the difference into a savings account or directly towards your mortgage.
Conclusion
I hope that these simple saving hacks will help you save some money and improve your financial situation.
There are obviously hundreds of tips to save money, but these five hacks are a great place to start as they are super easy to implement and the benefits are quickly apparent.
Thanks for reading
Iain McClafferty — The Five Year Mortgage