H-Dot 101: 5 Really Obvious Ways to Save Money Better That You Ever Did
If you have ever earned money, chances are that you have also thought about saving it. And if you have practically tried it, you know that it can become an exhausting chore.
You try so hard to save every nickel-and-dime, but at some point you start to burn out. You start looking at it as an eternal climb, so you stop doing it altogether.
When it comes to saving money, the trick is not to do it like a chore. Here are five ways you can use to save a good sum without necessarily burning yourself out.
1) Recruit technology to do it for you
When technology offers you convenience, you might as well go for it, right? Well, it is an undoubted fact that technology has made – and continues to make – everything easier for us. It has saved countless hours and bucks in unimaginable ways. Today, thanks to new technologies, many applications can help you manage your finances directly from your smartphone. You have all your bank accounts and transactions at your fingertips and can pay your bills with a single click without any extra charges.
But there’s more!
Sure, you can manage and monitor your finances using technology to optimize your budget. You can also keep track of your income and spending, but there’s much more you can do to save better! Shopping from the ease of your home is a game-changer. You can not only save time but also save your hard-earned money if you get your grocery delivered to your doorstep. Shopping from local online stores is almost always more economical. And let’s not forget about all the promotions and discounts that we get when shopping online. Why get out of bed anyway?
2) Clear your banking information
Although online shopping is really convenient, we fail to realize that it is convenient for a reason! Companies try their best to make it easier for you to shop with their flawless websites, friendly interfaces and endless discounts. But they go through all this trouble just to make sure that you SHOP A LOT.
This is where you should be mindful of the downside of technology and try to resist its triggering effects on your unhealthy consumer impulses.
One of the fastest ways to spend money on impulsive buying today is saving your credit card information on your favorite shopping sites. All you want is a quick little peek into their new promotion and the next thing you know – YOUR SHIPMENT IS ON ITS WAY!
3) Green is Sustainable
Humans have made mistakes but we have also learned from them. It’s about time we start thinking and acting eco-friendly. The only future imagined to be good is a sustainable future, and going green is one of the many roads leading towards that.
Going green might require an initial investment, but buying more responsibly is often beneficial in the long run. The market is already dominated by energy-efficient smart electrical appliances that might cost you a little more upfront but can save you a fortune in the long run. People are buying more and more eco-friendly, hybrid and electric cars saving a lot of money… and the climate!
You can also invest in renovating your house to make it more eco-friendly and sustainable. This will not only save you hundreds of dollars every year but will also rocket the value of your property.
4) Automated transactions help
One of the mistakes people make regarding having a savings account is that they wait to put money into it until after they have paid all their bills and spent most of their salary. Once they have paid for all of their expenses (including some unplanned and unnecessary ones), they aren’t left with enough money to deposit into savings account or they simply don’t do it at all.
A better way would be to save your money before you start spending it. You can do that by setting up automatic transfers from your checking account into your savings account at the start of the month (or whenever suits you best). By transferring money to a savings account directly, it will be much more difficult for you to spend it. Just make sure to schedule your transfers when you know you will have enough money in your checking account.
5) Buying used never hurts
There is nothing wrong with wanting a reliable item in good condition, but that does not mean you have to limit your search to brand-new! Many purchases are much more profitable, rational, and interesting buying second-hand rather than new. Moreover, there are certain things that don’t give you extra reliability even when bought new. Go out to buy second-hand furniture, sports equipment, hand tools and kitchen items, books, clothes, jewelry, and sometimes even bikes and cars – and you can judge from only a single look that most of them are just as good as new! (Although sometimes, you may need a couple of tweaks here and there but you get my point, right?) Especially when they can be thousands of dollars cheaper than their brand-new counterparts? It’s really worth giving a thought!