4 Ways to Boost Your Savings Now!

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Wouldn’t it be nice to build your savings to a level where you aren’t living week to week and you can buy the things you want and need without having to check your balance first?

Boosting your savings takes a little work on the front end but with a few small shifts you can see big results over time.

To jolt you out of the cycle of using debt and moving money all over the place think about trying the following 4 strategies to give your budget a boost and give you the momentum to start saving and building wealth today.

1. Save Big With a No Spend Challenge

In order to achieve big goals you need to make big changes.

You should seriously consider taking a no spend challenge.

By taking this challenge you learn to tell the difference between needs and wants.

Cutting back and only buying what you need can be difficult at first as going to the shops and buying things can actually be a sticky habit to change.

Buying things makes you feel good, and you deserve to have nice things after you’ve worked so hard all week!

However, you also deserve to sleep at night and to be free of worrying about meeting your credit card payment.

Try doing a spending detox and break the shopping habit now!

This can be anything you like, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Go a month without buying lunch or coffees (if you get lunch & coffee every day that’s $75+ a week saving!)
• No buying new clothes for a whole year
• Not spending money on anything that’s not essential to survival
• Cut your grocery bill to $400 a month

These changes are mainly good for the short term but are great for making you really think about how you are spending your money and taking control.

I think a month’s spending freeze on everything is a realistic timeframe to work with in the beginning. Achievable without being too long.

You’ll be able to save $300 by taking your lunch and if your grocery bill is around $250-300 per week then you can save up to $800.

In one month!

That’s your emergency money sorted as you’ll now have $1,100.

2. Cut Back on Groceries

Cutting your food spend is the easiest and quickest way to save money. Simplifying your cooking and taking your lunch really add up to significant savings.

I don’t know about you but it seems the more famous the author of the cookbook the more expensive and rare are the ingredients required to make anything!

Simple home style meals are not only cheap to make but still tasty too.

Meals like:

• Lasagne
• Shepherd’s Pie
• Fried Rice
• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Roasts
• Salmon Patties

Some tips for cutting your food spending are:

Meal Plan, Meal Plan & Meal Plan! Being organised saves money.

Write a shopping list, take it with you and stick to it. (Don’t leave it on the bench like I do, ugh!)

Incorporate what you already have in the cupboard and freezer where possible

Check laundry and bathroom supplies before purchasing

If you’re brave go to the ATM and take out the cash you’ve budgeted for and leave your cards in the car.

Try to buy less meat or buy cheaper cuts in bulk where possible. Cheap cuts cook really well in a slow cooker and taste amazing!

By no name brands where possible.

Canned tomatoes are canned tomatoes to me 🙂

3.  Save on Beauty & Clothing

Hair

Colour & cutting hair are another big expense.

Now I’m getting older these are now essential and no longer optional (sigh)

Try going for 8 weeks if you can stretch it, instead of 6. This saves you two haircuts a year and at around $200 a time that’s $400 saved right there.

Clothes

Ebay, oh what did I do before ebay? I am a champion bargain hunter on ebay if I do say so myself ha ha.

My best ever purchase was a $350 dress I won for $5! It still had the tags on too whooo!

I’m not too proud to wear other people’s gently worn clothes though.

In fact I see it as my environmental duty.

The trash fashion industry has a lot to answer for in my opinion.

Things that were popular must haves last season, end up on the rubbish tip less than a year later.

It’s scary how much wastage there is.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post which you can read here and use the dress as an example at my $25 per hour I’d have been at work for 14 HOURS to pay full price for that dress (instead with my win would’ve been 12 minutes lol). #justsayin

I use watch lists to stalk brands I love and scoop up listings ending at silly o’clock with my auto bids.

Because no one else is up at that time I’m usually the winner!

If you can’t stand the thought of wearing second hand clothes then try to be more thoughtful about what you do purchase.

Buy less clothes but select a higher quality. This way you’ll find that they’ll last longer because the materials wash and wear better.

Try to choose classic styles that don’t date as well.

4. Free Fun

There are loads of things you can do to have fun that require no or minimal cost.

• Geocaching
• Swimming at the pool
• Bike riding
• Go to the museum
• Rent a movie / music / book from the library
• Learn how to dance on YouTube
• Hiking
• Coffee at a friend’s house
• Read a book
• Take a picnic to the park
• Bake a cake
• Take a free tram ride around the city

Get creative! In the spirit of the spending freeze see how long you can go without spending money on activities.

Then see your savings take off like a rocket!

To recap:

• Take your lunch and skip the takeaway coffee (save $75+ per week!)
• Get laser focused on grocery shopping and cut your spend to $400 per month (save $800)
• Try free / low cost leisure activities and save big!

Change is hard but I know you can do it! Good luck and let me know how you go.

Ps What’s been your biggest online shopping win? I’d love to hear about it. Pop a comment below.