Ways to Make Saving Fun!

Well it’s that time, New Year’s Resolution time. I know, I know… everyone dreads the typical resolution. I do know from conversations with people that one of the top things that people resolve to do, is tackle their finances in the New Year. Well I have some ideas to help you get into a better financial situation by the end of 2012. Don’t worry… we’ll even try to make it fun.

1. Start-out by monitoring your expenses. I know for most people budgeting is the same as watching grass grow. I fully understand, it’s not that much fun, but hear me out. If you use a piece of online software like Mint.com not only is this service free, but it will automatically go through your expenditures (once you set it up to automatically gather your financial information from your bank and investment companies) and suggest places that you are spending more than the average person. Pretty nice for an automated piece of software. To make this fun, if you and your significant other have separate accounts make it a competition to see who can cut their “spending” down by the biggest percentage… and offer a reward for it – but make sure you are creative with your reward to make it worthwhile.
2. Pay yourself each time you partake in your “vice.” We all have a vice. It could be smoking, chocolate, lattes, or even cursing. Whatever your vice is resolve with yourself that you are going to put money into a jar each time you do it. You can use it to place a value on your behaviours and make you think twice about these habits. This could be as little as paying yourself a dollar for each cigarette (which could help with future medical expenses), or $50 each time you watch “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
3. Save your left over change. One great way that you can limit your spending is budgeting through the use of cash. Give yourself an amount each week that you are going to spend, pull it out of your bank account on Monday and spend no more than that amount throughout the week (that means put away the debit and credit cards). Then, each and every day you get home, throw the change in your pocket into a jar and don’t touch it. In Canada with all our coins I bet it will add up pretty quick!
4. Cut back on your everyday expenditures. Ok, admittedly this one probably isn’t as fun as some of the others but it’s the easiest way to make a big impact. Once you’ve setup your expenditure monitoring, I bet there is some category that jumps out at you where you are over spending (or maybe Mint.com brought it to your attention). Most commonly I find there are 2… eating out, and the latte factor. Now it’s never fun to give anything you enjoy up completely, I understand that. What I would ask is that you make a conscious effort to limit them to a set amount (maybe half of what they are today). Some other ideas to cut down on the regular expenses: take transit instead of driving twice per week, pack a lunch each day for work instead of eating out, or have a regular dinner party with friends and alternate houses instead of meeting up with them at a restaurant.
5. Reward yourself for saving money. Personally, I know coupon clipping is tedious and I’m not suggesting it. There are ways of saving money though, such as purchasing items on sale, or picking the no-name brand instead of the name brand. The secret here though is to take the difference between the sale price and the regular price and put that towards your savings. Think about how fast that could add up!
6. Pay yourself FIRST! We’ve all heard this one before. It’s the easiest and most “out of sight” method ever thought up. It’s so simple most people overlook it. All you do is look at when you get paid, and setup an automatic transfer of funds from your chequing account into your savings account on that same day. Always make sure the amount is enough to add up, but even $50 every two weeks is better than nothing. You’ll find out that you usually don’t even miss the money!

If you think this could benefit you or someone you know (friend, relative) please share with them using the share buttons provided on this email, or contact Travis Strain at 604-308-6030, or mail@travisstrain.ca and I can contact them directly.

Travis