9 Quick Tips: How to Spend Save and Make Money Without Trying

Simple equation. Income - Spendings = Savings. That’s all there is to it. Yet, many people forget the simple equation of savings, often wondering where all their cash and income has gone.

GradTips offers 9 tips that deal with savings and expenses, in order to optimise the much needed bandwith your wallet requires.

1. Withdraw more cash

Sounds weird, but you’d be surprise how well this works. If you withdraw more cash when you are at the ATM you are more likely to be a bit more frugal with your cash. Nobody likes breaking a $20 for a pack of gum, nor do people like breaking a $50 for simple burger or pasta meal at the local cafe. When you use EFTPOS to pay for transactions, you don’t physically see the money disappear, thus there is no emotional attachment to the money that you are exchanging for your wanted good or service. Pay as much as you can in cash - there are less financial fees as well! And if you are a student, ATM transactions should be free under your student plan.

2. Clarify and separate your needs and wants

A need is something that is required for you to live. Traditionally this would be water, air, food, shelter, and for many people, love. Wants on the other hand are goods or services that you can live without, but simply prefer to have or experience, due to various reasons.If you can draw the line between your needs and your your wants, you can effectively reduce the amount of money you spend on “must haves” than “nice to haves”. Is a widescreen TV needed? Is a V8 car really needed? If you can get by with a smaller screen, or an economical second hand car, do so! (At least until you have more disposable income…)

3. Utilise discounts, bulk buy and free rides

If you are a student (like I once was) you would know that a student card provides you with many discounts. Whether it be a train pass to the City, or a bus ticket or movie ticket, you save quite a fair bit as a student. However, this doesn’t give you the excuse to splurge the extra money that you save from the regular retail price - instead, you should deposit it as soon as you can! If you save $3 a day, you’ll have almost $100 by the end of the month.Likewise, take opportunity of group buy situations. For example, I recently bought a set of lights I needed for my house, which were being bought by 40 other people, reducing the price down by almost 20%. It is also a good idea to look into events or services which are absolutely free. Things such as a public park, museum, or art gallery are good options - for a list of things in Sydney that you can do on the cheap, read my article on cheap eats and dates in Sydney.

4. Simply put - Just work more.

While this option may be difficult for some to do due to various personal reasons, the best way to make money, is to get a job. While saving is a good idea in theory, it is based on the assumption that you have a steady source of income (inflow, if you will) in order to sustain yourself and build upon your savings. It’s currently the employees market (particularly in Australia) with more jobs than there are quality people to fill it. Take advantage of this situation and work for some cold hard earned cash.

5. Identify your recurring costs and cut them down

Things such as subscriptions to television, magazines, videos or game rentals should be kept to a strict minimum. This also includes internet access, and other two-part tariff programs, such as mobile phone deals and the like. Another tactic is to simply replace coffee with a bottle of (refillable) water, allowing you to save up to $3-4 dollars a day, working towards that $100 a month saving.

6. May the force be with your savings

Make your bank account automatically bank a sizable fraction of your income. The best kind of savings are those that you don’t see occurring - and this will also alter the way you perceive and perform purchases, when you have less income at your disposal.

7. Budget moderately - key word: moderately:

If you keep to a budget every second of your life, it will likely be too structured, boring and disinteresting. You don’t need to budget for all expenses and revenues. while you should set aside savings before contemplating any expense outlays, do leave room for some spontaneity or emergencies! It’s ok to have unexpected expenses, as long as you can control them using the other points mentioned previously. Just make sure to budget for the big things - holidays, cars, houses, and the like.

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