After countless years of spending my hard earned money on things I didn’t really need, I have come to a simple conclusion. The best way to save money is to not spend it in the first place. This may sound pretty patronizing, but it really is an art form that takes a lot of practice to perfect. You need to get into the mindset of being tough with yourself, especially when you are at the shops. Before making a purchase, you make a conscious effort to decide whether you truly need this item or not.
I’ll give you an example. Say you are in an electronics store and you see a cordless mouse on sale for half price. If you’ve been living with a corded mouse up until now, that offer ma be hard to pass up, but if you are able to walk out of that shop without buying the mouse, you have saved yourself around $30. Now, here’s where the trick comes in. As a reward for not spending that money, you take half of it and buy yourself a treat. With the other half (in this case the $15) you put it into your savings account. You have just saved $15, given yourself a treat and just as well off as you would have been had you bought the mouse. Do this a few times and you will start to notice a significant increase in your savings account. It takes a little practice, but is well worth the effort.
Related posts: