Getting started with saving can be difficult, to say the least. But once you fall into good habits and routines you may even start to enjoy it. The key to good money and saving habits is making them relevant to your sense of direction, ambition and purpose in life. A few handy tips and tricks can go a long way too – see some of these below.

Keep track of your savings balance

If you want to remain accountable for your saving efforts then you’ll need to keep track of your progress. A good way to do this is to open an easy-access savings account and make the account balance easily viewable on your phone or create a chart to stick somewhere in your home. 

Seeing the balance increase will be a positive motivator and should reinforce good habits, whilst not seeing the balance creep up should be a negative motivator that should drive you to take saving more seriously.

Set goals

Goal setting is powerful in every aspect of life but it’s crucial when it comes to saving. Outline your savings target and a certain date and work back from there to identify how much you need to save per month to hit your target. If the goal is tied to an important milestone such as putting down a house deposit or booking your wedding then you should be much more committed to the process.

Save on payday

It’s preached by every seasoned saver, but saving on payday or before you start spending all your money is the most effective way to put a nice chunk of cash aside every month. 

You should be budgeting your money, including all your income and outgoings, to predict how much you can realistically save without putting yourself in financial jeopardy or relying on credit throughout the month. If you leave it until the end of the month to save, you’re more than likely going to have spent most of your salary or wage already.

Find ways to reduce your biggest costs

If you’re finding it difficult to save, it could be because your expenses are too high leaving you with little to no disposable income. Budget your money and see if this is the case. If it is, look to reduce your biggest expenses such as rent, utility bills or luxury spending like eating out and shopping. The money you save here can be put straight into savings and you won’t notice that much of a difference in your day-to-day life. 

If you’re weighed down by debt repayments, focus on paying these off as soon as possible to save yourself money in the long term and then save the money that you would have used for repayments instead.