Keeping track of your finances is annoying and anxiety inducing. The easiest ways of accounting for your money is to write down every expense and add it up on a regular basis, knowing where your paycheck went at the end of each month, which sounds efficient but completely awful.
A better way of keeping track of your finances is to have fun with it and to be organized without going overboard. Having a goal or an endgame in mind also helps, giving you the chance to focus on what you’ll achieve once you save money instead of making you think of all the things you’re missing out on because you’ve been too busy saving up.
Popular Science compiled a list of tips that’ll help you save up in an efficient and simple way. Check out some of our favorites:
Avoid impulse purchases
Take 10 minutes to think about your purchase and try to resist if the price of the item is high or if you don’t have a use for it.
Amazon Contemplate is a Chrome browser extension that helps with online purchases, forcing you to wait 30 seconds before you make your purchase. If you have a more serious problem with impulse purchases, you can delete your credit card information from websites and add it in every time you need to buy something.
Set up a goal-oriented savings plan
By creating a goal, such as saving up for a trip or for a course, you can motivate yourself to save money and avoid wasting it on things you don’t need. It doesn’t matter how much you save, the important thing is to do it.
Apps such as Mint are also very useful on these instances, giving you the chance to see where your money goes while also creating different budget plans for your needs.
Impassable spending limits
If you need to get a little extreme in order to save some money, prevent yourself from spending by limiting your expenses. The Envelope System works really well for these situations, forcing you to take out cash for groceries, shopping, and all sorts of activities and limit yourself to a fixed amount of each.
Take it easy on yourself
It’s okay to fail sometimes and spend more money than you planned. If you indulge every once in a while it’s easier to control your impulses and avoid going crazy on a a pricey shopping spree.
