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Saving Money In The Most Practical Ways

Do you think you’re good at saving money? Maybe you put away about a quarter of your paycheck each week and you’re doing well as a result? Maybe your savings are the last thing on your mind right now, because you’ve got so many other things to pay for? And whether or not you’re one or the other here (or somewhere in between!), there’s a little more you can do to save your pennies. 

One day, you’re going to need the cash in your savings account for a very good reason. And because of that, we need to make saving easier on you. And sure, there are plenty of ways to save out there, but we want to focus on the most practical ways to keep your cash in the bank! Because it’s these methods that’ll save you a lot in the long run, mostly because they build habits, and you don’t have to put much effort into them either. 

You don’t deserve to struggle with your money – no one does! So let’s do something actionable about your chances of earning some bank interest this year. And with that, let’s go through a few of the most practical ways to save your money below. 

Skim For Savings

The most immediate thing you can do, as in right now if you have internet banking enabled, is to start skimming from your bank account. Now, this doesn’t sound like something that’s going to go well, and if someone else had access to your account, it certainly wouldn’t! But seeing as you’re in control, taking a bit of money from your main account to transfer to your savings, on a daily basis, could mean you save hundreds more per year. 

Treat your main account as a place where only round numbers are allowed. Say you have $2167 in there right now – take $17 away to round that down to $2150, and put what you’ve just skimmed into your savings account. And every time you notice the numbers go wild like that again, just skim a little bit off the top until you see 1s and 0s only. 

And it doesn’t have to be $17 either, if you can’t afford that – you could simply take it down to $2160, and put the $7 away. All in all, skimming is a very easy way to keep your savings account building, and the interest on it going up, and it won’t take more than a couple minutes to do every time you spend and affect the numbers. 

Shop in the Reduced Section

There’s a reduced section in every single supermarket in the world, and getting there at the right time is critical to finding food items that are going to be marked off by a serious amount. There’s a real skill to shopping in the reduced section, and depending on your local supermarket (a.k.a., which one you prefer the most), the timing of reduced stock is going to differ. 

But as a general rule, the evening time is the best time to go grocery shopping. Most stores put out their reduced food items between 5pm and 7pm, but some stores can put out reduced stock as early as 8am in the morning. So, just make sure you shop at these times throughout the next week, just to test when you see the best selection of reduced items on the shelf. 

And while you’re here, we have a few more tips surrounding shopping for cheaper. Buy off brand items, usually stocked on the shelves below your eye line, to save some serious money every single time you’re needing to put staples like cereals, breads, and rice and pasta in the basket. 

Search the Web

Then you’re going to want to hit the web, and get to searching for ways to save money – namely, finding vouchers and coupons that are going to save you a bit of money here and there on those much needed purchases for your day to day life. And the internet is an endless source of these things, so why not dedicate a portion of your weekend to finding codes for the week ahead? 

But where should you start with a quest like this? Well, even just looking up ‘discount vouchers’ in your search engine will ping you back a lot of viable and usable results, such as Netvouchercodes.co.uk. Plus, if you know what you need to buy, ahead of time, which will certainly be helped by writing shopping lists whenever you need to get groceries or new furniture for the bedroom, you’ll have a lot more success here. After all, you’ll know what you’re looking for. 

You could also install some browser extensions that regularly update what sales are on, as well as collect thousands of discount codes for multiple websites. And that means all you need to do is press a couple of buttons to install the extension, and then visit the website you want to buy through, where the codes will come up automatically. 

Be Careful About What Memberships You Pay For

Next up is knowing what’s good to pay for, what’s worth the money, and what you need to forget about completely. Namely, if you’re someone who likes to subscribe to services, or take out paid memberships, it might be time to cancel a few of them! 

For example, the infamous gym membership. If you’re someone who takes one out as part of your new year’s resolution, and then never keep up with the routine after the first two weeks, make sure you don’t make the same mistake over and over again. Don’t pay for another month of it, don’t take it out again because you’re sure you’ll manage it this time, etc., just cancel it outright and save yourself some money. 

You could always workout at home, or go running or swimming every now and then, both of which can be done for free. Or, simply join a local club that has a one time fee. It’s a lot more fun to complete an activity with other like minded people, and you’re much more likely to keep up with your healthy routine. All in all, just don’t pay for that gym membership, no matter how much you want to! 

Track Prices of the Items You Want the Most

Then, while you’ve still got your laptop open and the browser up, make sure you learn about price tracking websites. There are quite a few out there, but special mention goes to camelcamelcamel.com here, simply because it’s the most popular one to use, and it monitors one of the biggest marketplaces on the net – Amazon. 

Price tracking websites work on a very simple principle; they help you save money by tracking the price of an item you’re desperate to buy, and seeing how it fluctuates over a certain time period. 

So, let’s say you want a new laptop, and you’ve got your heart set on one that’s priced at $750. A price tracker will let you know if that is its optimum price by checking to see if it’s dropped below this before, and whether or not it was originally priced at something else. And when you’re secure in the knowledge you’re getting a good deal, go ahead and buy your new laptop! 

If you’re looking to save some money, make sure you’re doing so practically. You need direct action here, and that means using realistic methods that work bit by bit.