“The money that you earn does not bring wealth, but those that you save” said Bodo Shafer, finance consultant, businessman, writer and billionaire, who could live only on interest from his investments at the age of thirty, and not work.
Nowadays more people want to save their money because of economic instability. Even a small purchase can undermine your budget. If you cannot say how much money you spent last month, you should start to track your expenses. These simple actions allow you to save up to 20% of your escalating costs. There are some tips and life hacks on how you can act in order to track expenses and keep them low.
You are your own accountant
Many people think: “Who can track my expenses?” The answer is – you are. Take a pen, a notebook, think for a while and start composing your list. Spot your main spending like food, rent, traffic, eating out or even sweets. Divide your sheet into three or five columns and at the top of each column write down the names of budget categories. This provides you with an understanding of where your money goes and you can optimize your consumption.
Do not forget to track income and expenses. Compare the amount of money you earn and spend for each budget category and decide what expenses you need to reduce.
Remember the golden rule – spend less than you earn.
The easiest way – use your mobile phone
There are different gadgets created to make your life easier: mobile phones, laptops, smart watches and smart appliances. You can find dozens of cheap and free apps designed to track expenses for you. The apps provide you with an illustration of your finances with graphs, charts and diagrams to track your spending. Use your mobile phone every time you go shopping, just make notes about your purchases in the app. It is very convenient to track spending wherever you want.
Let’s just learn easy and useful life hacks that can help us in achieving our goals:
– Turn of the lights and water when you do not use them, replace bulbs with energy saving ones;
– Say no to takeaway coffee, make your own morning coffee, or bring it from home in a flask;
– Take your own lunch to work, save money and time by not going to cafes or fast food restaurants; It will be also an advantage to your health 🙂
– Walk or cycle to work, your heart will be thankful for this;
– Buy unbranded products, you do not have to overpay for advertisement;
– Share car journeys and cut your costs on petrol, find new friends;
– Create lists of products that you need to buy before going shopping. Keep your plan and you won’t spend more.
Finally, you can just set a certain amount of money to save every month and in the end of the year, you will have a good reward for yourself. Choose the best way to track expenses and it will bring wealth into your life. Let’s start?
