Saving money can be tough to get into, there are so many ways to do it that it can be hard to know where to start. Saving money comes down to preparation and hard work which some people are just not able to commit to, but if you know how to do it and what can help you save then it becomes much easier. It doesn’t matter what you are saving for whether it is a new car or just a nest egg for a rainy day. Saving is really important to make sure you can be financially secure and also make sure you are set should anything bad happen in your life.

If you are looking to save up some money no matter what it is for and you are unsure how to get started or stuck for ideas then hopefully, these few tips will help you understand what you can do to start saving and help you get underway.

Source: Pexels

Set yourself goals

A good place to start is to set yourself goals for saving this way you are going to have motivation to help you keep savings and stop you falling short each time. You need to set yourself short, medium and long term goals and you should set what the goal is and how long you are going to give yourself to complete them, that way you can keep track and have something to work towards instead of just saving and hoping for the best.

Workout your expenditure

You need to sit down and work out exactly what you are spending each month, this means everything, bills, food, petrol, dinner out, drinks, going out for coffee, etc. Once you have calculated your expenditure you will be able to see everything you are spending money on, this way you can start to look at reducing your outgoings if you can. You could try consolidating some loans which will help to make it one payment and reduce interest you accrue on your debt. Also if you have any loans you can look into whether you may be open to a refund like Loans 2 go refunds they will check that for you and make sure you should have been given that loan in the first place.

Workout how much you can save

Now you have worked out how much you spend each month and reduced it where you can. You need to then deduct that from your income, this will then give you how much you have left over after you pay everything you need for that month. With that you will be able to know exactly how much you can put away each month without it affecting your monthly outgoings. Once you know this you may need to adapt your goals and amend how you are going to go about saving depending on if you have enough left over to meet your goals, you can also decide to try and budget more and cut back on what you are spending further.

Set up a savings account

Once you know what to put away each month it is best to set up a savings account so you can save the money a lot easier. There are a few different accounts you can open to help you save money depending on how good you are at not spending it. If you are looking to just save up a rainy day or emergency fund then just a standard account will be fine because you are going to want to access the account whenever you want in case of emergency, so you can pay into the account and withdraw it when you want. Now if you are looking to save up a certain amount for something and you do not want to spend any or you think you cannot be trusted to not spend it then you are going to want to look at a timed account. This is an account where you can set a specific time frame you have to wait before you can access the account and withdraw the funds, so you can put money in but say you put a year lock on it you will have to wait to withdraw your savings. This is great should you need to save up large amounts of money or you are looking to set up a nest egg for your children that they cannot access till a certain age.

If you are looking to get better at saving money and you are unsure where to start or struggling with ideas to help you then these few tips should help you to understand what you can do to start saving.