Trying to save money for something that feels so beyond your current means can feel hopeless. Even if you do change your current lifestyle enough to start saving more money, surely the changes will be so incremental that it still takes you years to get to that point, right? Not necessarily and opening yourself up to a wide variety of options that you have when it comes to saving could help you to apply a myriad of techniques at once to get there quicker.
So, whether it’s a holiday, a new console or car, or maybe even a plan to move somewhere else entirely, it always helps to know what you can do to get there.
Extra Work
It’s never the option that you necessarily want to hear but working a bit more in the short-term might be the answer that allows you to start seeing an influx of necessary money. Saving techniques are all well-and-good and can make a huge impact on how much you find in your savings account, but they likely won’t help as much as having more money in the first place. This is something you might know, but it’s all about finding the work that suits your personality and lifestyle.
For example, if you’re interested in shipping work, you’ll find that there are hundreds of jobs available through sites like Shiply. Additionally, having an option where you retain a high degree of control over the work that you do can help you to feel more positively about the situation.
A Realistic Budget
Budgeting is often a very early step of the saving process, but one of the most vital aspects to bear in mind whenever you get around to making a budget is that it has to be realistic. It’s not going to do you any good if you’re finding that you have to constantly go back and tweak the budget because you were unrealistic in your initial estimations of how much money would go where. Of course, some level of tweaking is to be expected as you aren’t sure if the amounts will be completely feasible to begin with, but being honest with yourself, and remembering to set enough money aside to have fun can produce more effective results, even if they aren’t as fast as you’re hoping.
Saver Weekends
Whenever the weekend rolls around, it’s understandable that you’d want to do something fun with it, this is your time to relax and be sociable, after all. However, you might find that if your regular activities involve going out with your friends and buying regular amounts of food and drink, the bills add up. In this case, it might be worth turning your attention to more budget weekend ideas.
One example is to take that same group setting and move it inside your home. You could still add food and drink, but having it in instead of buying it out might drastically reduce the cost, and you could frame the new night under the lens of a movie night, or a minor house party, or whatever best suits your preferences.