Living on a tight budget sometimes may seem to be challenging but you must not feel like you are eliminating every happiness and fun from your life.
After all your money saving is worthless if you can’t fulfill your dreams and can’t enjoy the savings. If you are focusing to save money by eliminating unnecessary expenses then you must remember that you are living your life aiming to secure your future.
So, if you are looking for ways to save money on a tight budget then you are on the right path. Here, we are going to wrap up 7 effective ways to save money on a tight budget in the UK. If your budget is a little bit more strained then you don’t get stressed.
As in the last few months, people are struggling more to save their money. Behind the picture, there are a few factors playing including inflation, lagging wage growth, and looming recession.
Still, there are a few ways that you need to follow to set aside money to build a savings account. Here are 7 tips that you need to follow-
Ways to save money on a tight budget:
#1. Automate your savings:
Automating your savings is an effective way that leads to saving money. You can set up an automatic transfer from your current account to a savings account.
Also, you can set a day each week to transfer the fund to a separate savings account. This method is very easier that you only require a bit of a moment to follow.
It is natural to forget to save. So, automating your saving is a great way to move towards saving. There are various mobile banking apps that come with automatic savings features, and also you can download a third-party automatic saving app on your mobile.
#2. Focus on small changes in different budget categories:
If you are on a tight budget, it means every small purchase will add up, but you can save money by initiating small changes.
For example, you can easily add some money to your savings account by making lunch instead of buying carryout. This will also be applicable to brewing your own coffee rather than looking for a cafe or coffee shop.
Here we are providing some other small changes that you can look for:
- Turn the lights off when you are not using them.
- keep aside yourself from unnecessary purchases. You can divide your wants into two categories by writing them down on paper. One part must contain your essentials and another must contain your desires. So, after completing it, you can check the desired part. You can easily cut some expenses from this part. You can also think again if you still want them.
- You can cut the chord of cable, instead, you can opt for cheaper streaming services. steaming services offer cheaper family plans. So, you can easily split the service among some people to low the cost further.
#3. Use a budgeting app:
An effective budgeting app helps you to manage your budget and maximize your savings. It will also automatically examine your account and move money to your savings account to help to save. there are various budgeting apps in the market that also makes it easier to save the spare charge.
budgeting apps commonly work through tracking your expenditure, and surprisingly also predict your future spending. These apps save the time that you require to put into estimating budget line items.
Through this budgeting app, you can easily track your expenses for the past few months and realize where you are making more purchases. Thus, you can eliminate your expenditure and can take the initiative to save more money.
#4. Take advantage of coups and deals:
nowadays, almost every business offers coupons and deals. you just need to make some strategies to implement in your life. Here, we are providing some effective tips that you can follow:
- You can start with newspapers, there are various shopping malls including grocery shops out in the market that offers coupons. You can only use these coupons only in that stores.
- You can search for coupons on various online platforms such as Cobone. You can search by product type or brand name in this type of platform to find something relevant.
- If you are a regular buyer of some specific store then you should keep an eye on the deals that they are providing. You must look for if any store is providing any offer or discount at your nearby place. You can also check for any coupon code provided by Amazon.
#5. Follow the 50-20-30 budget rule:
If you want to save more money from your salary then you can follow the 50-20-30 budget rule. This rule is very effective as it split up your monthly salary into different necessities. The rule defines itself as follows:
- 50% of your monthly income must go towards your necessities, and that includes housing, food, medicines, and utilities,
- 20% of your monthly salary must go towards fulfilling your wants such as going out for a movie or eating out with family.
- 30% of your monthly salary must go towards savings, which includes your emergency fund, retirement, etc.
If you can follow this budgeting rule then you can allocate your money in a sustainable and responsible manner, also you are allocating some space for having fun or saving for the future.
#6. Take a No-Spend Challenge:
If you want to take a no-spend challenge then you need to put aside a certain period of time, maybe it is one month. In this period, you must not spend any money.
But, if certain goods are truly essential then you can spend money too. If you require to buy some medicine, or your car breaks down, or something like that. But, apart from these cases, don’t spend money.
There are various benefits of this approach, it helps you to think twice when you need to start spending again, and you can save an amount of money. In this period, you only buy things that actually matter to you. You will make yourself rigid from spending a penny.
By following this strategy, you will actually think twice whether the thing is really essential to you or not. Thus, you can keep yourself away from buying the things that you don’t really need.
#7. Take stock of food spending:
If you aiming to cut some portion of your expenditure, food is the place from where you can start. People generally spend plenty of their money on purchasing food. So, you can save a lot of money here. You can follow these below tips to save money on food expenditure:
- You can buy generic products rather than opting for a name-based brand. Generic brands are sometimes as good as name-based products. also, these generic products cost less than name-based products as they don’t have any advertising costs associated with the brands. You can just try two similar products and compare the taste of these two brands. If the taste of one brand is better than another then you can go forward with this brand.
- You can prepare your dinner on your own instead of eating out all the time. You can also avoid ordering food online. This trick will save more money and time.
- You can buy groceries in bulk, You can check that buying larger packages of chicken or beef can cost lower than purchasing smaller packages. The formula is that you only plan ahead and buy only what you require.
FAQ:
What are the effective ways of saving money?
Ans: You can put a glance at these effective money-saving tricks. These will help you to save more money in your day-to-day life. These tricks include:
- You must eliminate your debt first
- You need to set your savings goal
- pack your lunch from your home
- Track your spending
- keep your energy bills down
What is the best savings rule?
Ans: The best savings rule is the 50/20/30 rule where you can split your monthly income into three main categories. There are 5-% of your income to needs, 20% of your income to your wants, and 30% of your income to savings, and entertainment.
How do I stop wasting money?
Ans: Here are some tips that you can follow to stop yourself from wasting money. These are:
- You need to create an effective budget
- You need to visualize your savings goal
- Always shop with a list
- Consider cash for shopping instead of a credit card
- Eliminate debt from your life
- Always think twice before making any buying decision
Conclusion:
If you are on a tight budget still there are some expenses that are impossible to eliminate. But, there is also some space to reduce these essential expenditures. In fact, lowering your recurring expenses will be helpful because it will provide you with savings each month.
Besides, you must remember that saving money is a long-term achievement. So, you don’t take shortsighted decisions such as eliminating fun-filled life, skipping eating out entirely, or forgoing insurance coverage. Also, you must keep an eye on every little expenditure as it can make a huge impact to fulfil your long-term savings goals.
