Our next holiday is coming up at the end of July and this time we’re off to the Isle of Wight which is somewhere that we’ve never been before. Like all of our trips away this year, it’s nothing flash but we are excited and we can’t wait to go.
We booked it last year and paid a super low deposit of just £25 which was great for us at the time as it was right before Christmas and we’ve been paying a little bit off each month since then. Now it’s paid off in full we’re starting to think about our spending money so I thought I’d resurrect and update a post that I first shared in 2012.
It’s not a particularly exciting post and the ideas aren’t exactly revolutionary but it helps me to remind myself of the three easiest ways to save money that I know of so I thought it might help you too….
1. The obvious one – save your loose change!
Empty your purse or wallet out at the end of every day and transfer your change into a savings jar. Depending on how tight your finances are you might choose to save just copper or copper and 5p coins or you might feel like you can afford to save everything from a 50p coin down if you don’t think you’ll miss that little bit more. You might even decide to save £1 or £2 coins although I’ve found in the past when I’ve saved the larger amounts that I’ve been more tempted to dip into them.
The pound shop has some great jars that you can’t get into without a tin opener or if you have more willpower than that then you could just make your own like we did.
2. Skim (not scam) your bank balance
I first shared this tip on here way back in 2012 and to this day, despite all I’ve learned about saving money, it’s still my go-to tip when anyone asks me for advice about how to save up for something. If you have internet banking then every time you log in, transfer the odd number of pence to your savings account. For example, if your balance is £668.76, transfer the 76p to your savings account. If, like many people, you check your balance daily then your skimming will soon add up.
You could set yourself a target of rounding down to the nearest £5 or £10 but you might find that you miss that amount more when you do it on a regular basis so even though rounding down to the nearest pound will be slower at building a balance at least you know you’ll always be able to do it without missing the money. It’s your money though so you know what you can afford to put away – maybe change it up depending on how much money is in your bank and where you are with your bills etc.
3. Save your Savings
If you manage to spend less than your weekly shopping budget or you manage to get a bargain on something you were planning to buy anyway, transfer the amount you saved in to your savings account. You’ll see the savings add up quite quickly if you do this and hopefully, it’ll encourage you to try and make some even bigger savings.
Wish me luck with my savings! I’ve set myself quite a high target so I need to be super good to reach it!
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