Saving money is one of those tasks that’s so much easier said than done. There’s more to it than spending less money (although that part alone can be challenging). How much money will you save, where will you put it, and how can you make sure it stays there? Here’s how to set realistic goals, keep your spending in check, and get the most for your money.

Tip 1:

Kill your debt first. Simply calculating how much you spend each month on your debts will illustrate that eliminating debt is the fastest way to free up money. Once the money is freed from debt payment, it can easily be re-purposed to savings. Plus, the sooner you pay off debt, the less interest you’ll pay, and that money can be saved instead.

If you choose to start saving before you completely pay off your debt, however, look into consolidating your debts so that you’re not paying as much interest.
The only money-saving that should take precedence over getting out of debt is to create an emergency fund (setting aside enough money so that if you lose your job you can survive for 3-6 months, or if your car suddenly goes to the big scrappy in the sky).

Tip 2:

Set savings goals. For short-term goals, this is easy. If you want to buy the latest computer games console, or game, then find out how much it costs; if you want to buy a house, determine how much of a deposit you’ll need. For long-term goals, such as retirement, you’ll need to do a lot more planning (figuring out how much money you’ll need to live comfortably for 20 or 30 years after you stop working), and you’ll also need to figure out how investments will help you achieve your goals.

Once you know how much you need to save, you can then work out how much you need to put away regularly.

Tip 3:

Keep a record of your expenses. What you save falls between two activities and their difference: how much you make and how much you spend. Since you have more control over how much you spend, it’s wise to take a critical look at your expenses. Write down everything you spend your money on for a month. Be as detailed as possible, and try not to leave out small purchases. Assign each purchase or expenditure a category such as: Rent, Car insurance, Car payments, Phone Bill, Utilities, Gas, Food, Entertainment, etc.

Try and keep a small notebook with you at all times. Get in the habit of recording every expense and saving the receipts.
Sit down once a week with your small notebook and receipts. Record your expenses in a larger notebook or a spreadsheet.
There are also many apps you can download to your phone that will help you keep track of your expenses – especially if you are lucky enough to have a nice iPhone

Tip 4:

Trim your expenses. Take a good, hard look at your spending records after a month or two have passed. You’ll probably be surprised when you look back at your record of expenses: £30 on cinema tickets, £10 on cups of tea at work? You’ll likely see some obvious cuts you can make. Depending on how much you need to save, however, you may need to make some difficult decisions. Think about your priorities, and make cuts you can live with. Calculate how much those cuts will save you per year, and you’ll be much more motivated to pinch pennies.

• Can you move to a less expensive house? Can you refinance your mortgage?

• Can you save money on petrol, or give up a car altogether? I got rid of my car 4 months ago, and now save so much but using my partners.

• Can you get a better price on insurance? Call around and make sure you are getting the best price you can.

• When shopping for clothes, check online sales, or clearance racks in store. Buy supermarket branded clothes which are good quality, but cheaper than high street brands.

• Can you drop a land line and either only use your mobile phone or save money by calling over the internet for free with services such as Skype? If you have a mobile on contract, are you getting the most out of it? If not, would a Pay As You Go Phone suffice?

• Can you live without cable or satellite TV? You can get plenty of channels with a Freeview box now.

• Can you cut down on your utility bills? Use a price comparison site, or simply turn off lights after you, have shorter showers, only put the heating on when it starts to get cold.

• Can you restrict eating out? Avoid take-aways. We saved about £30 a week by not eating at the staff canteen daily. This amounts to £120 a month, or £1000 a year between two of us!!!!  Make up a batch of chilli/Spag Bol/Lasagne and heat it in the work microwave. Also take in your own tea bags etc, instead of paying 80p for a cuppa!

Tip 5:

Stop using credit cards and bank cards. Pay for everything with cash. Don’t even use cheques (not that they are widely used anymore). It’s easier to overspend when you’re pulling from a bank or credit account because you don’t know exactly how much is in there. If you have cash, you can see your supply running low. Once you have sat down and budgeted that about you need for the month you can bundle up the cash allocated for each expense with a label or keep separate jars for each one (e.g. a bundle/jar for coffee, another for petrol, another for drinking(!), another for food shopping). As you take money from a jar for that particular expense, you’ll see how much remains and you’ll also be reminded of your limit.

Tip 6:

Savings should be your priority, so don’t just say that you’ll save whatever is left over at the end of the month. Deposit savings into an account (or your piggy-bank) as soon as you get paid. An easy, effective way to start saving is to simply deposit 10% of every pay packet in to a savings account. If you get paid £790, move the decimal point one place to the left and deposit that amount: £79. This works well and requires little thought; over several years, you’ve a tidy sum in savings. Over decades, you’ll be a millionaire (well not quite, but would be a lovely objective to achieve!). Follow this link to find out exactly when you will reach millionaire status! http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/millionaire-calculator
If you decide to set up a savings account to put the money in, then you can set up a standing order from your current account to your savings account – this way you can’t forget to save!

Tip 7:

Although in Tip 5 I’ve said not to use one, I am now going to contradict myself and say that credit cards are not inherently evil; it’s all about your self control. If you use them responsibly (i.e. completely pay them off every month), you can benefit from them. It allows you to keep your money in your bank collecting interest for a bit longer, and also helps you to build your credit rating.

But the reason most credit card companies make money, however, is because people end up spending money that they don’t have, and then don’t pay it back for ages – thus collecting interest. So, unless you are one of the people who can religiously pay off the balance in full every month, you’re better off foregoing the promotions that credit card companies use to lure you in (cash back, introductory APR, airline miles, and so on).

Tip 8:

Reassess your savings goals every so often. Subtract your expenses (the ones you can’t live without) from your take-home income (i.e. after taxes have been taken out). What is the difference? And does it match up with your savings goals? Let’s say you’ve decided you can definitely get by on £700 per month, and your paychecks amount to £1300 per month. That leaves you with £600 to save. If there’s absolutely no way you can fit all your savings goals into your budget, take a look at what you’re saving for and cut the less important things or adjust the time-frame. Maybe you need to put off buying a new car for another year, or maybe you don’t really need a big-screen TV that badly.

Tip 9:

Before you go to do your weekly food shop, sit down and plan the meals for the week. Work out what you need to make those meals, and then create a list……..we will call this a “Shopping List” – no one has ever thought of it before, so I will get around to copyrighting it at some point.

• Cut out rubbish, like huge choccy bars, buy smaller ones and if you feel your sweet tooth taking control, then have a small one to tide you over. I started doing this, and as well as saving money I’ve also lost half a stone in 5 weeks! Win, Win!!!

• If you can, switch to the supermarket’s own brand products. I find that Asda value mince is as nice as branded stuff!

• Keep your eye out for BOGOF’s and other deals – but only get them if they are foods that are on your “Shopping List”! Don’t be getting them just because they are on offer!

• Sign up for your local supermarket’s points card. As well as earning points to get money off vouchers, you also get send deals in the post, such as buy £1 worth of bread and get 20p off.

• Search online for money off vouchers – there are sites that offer these.

• Don’t take the kids! Apart from whining, running off, or having tantrums, they also want! Or they do the typical thing of putting items in the trolley when you aren’t looking, and then you get to the till and feel you have to buy them.

• Consider doing your food shopping online and having it delivered, it’s a great way of ordering what you actually need to maintain your weekly budget, and you are less likely to spot something you fancy at the time, and add it to your trolley!

• Don’t go shopping when you are hungry!

Tip 10 – Budget!:

Tip 10 has been kindly written by Ruel Hinacot.

How to create a family budget

For singles, the creation of a budget is relatively easy. They tend to have a good handle on the amount of money coming, and when the costs of monitoring, who have only their own thinking. However, creating a family budget is a new game.

Most families have multiple sources of income. And when you have been multiple money spender, which makes things much more confusing. This is one of the main reasons that families do not have a formal budget. However, having a budget and stick to it can greatly improve the financial outlook of the family.

Make a family budget can be tricky, but it can be done. Here’s how.

1. Take an inventory of all revenue. If a secure source of income fluctuates from month to month, use the lowest amount or average out.
2. Keep track of all expenses for a month or so. Keep all receipts, and call on all members of your family to turn to you every day.
3. Add up your monthly expenses. Be sure to include bills, debt payments, groceries, and everyday expenses such as money for lunch and transportation costs.
4. Get the family together and discuss ways you can cut the budget. Get input from family members will help you determine what expenditures are necessary and, which can be reduced or eliminated. Perhaps you or your spouse may start taking lunch to work instead of eating out, or perhaps the children can fall an extracurricular activity.
5. In addition to individual expenditures, discuss how you can reduce your electricity bill, food and other household expenses are necessary. Consider things such as carpooling or public transportation, buying more generic foods and adjust the thermostat.
6. Calculate how much you can save on recurring costs, and cut all unnecessary items from the budget. Then reconfigure and see what their situation.
7. If you end up with surplus, allocating a portion of it to savings. If you’re in the red, go back and redo the budget until more revenues than expenses.

Be realistic

One reason that family budgets are often not because they are simply unrealistic. It’s great to reduce spending, but sometimes we tend to go too far. For example, cutting entertainment from the full budget may look good on paper, but we all have a little fun from time to time.

Instead of cutting these things with full budget, consider looking for ways to reduce the cost. Returning to the example of entertainment, perhaps you went to dinner and a movie as a family twice a month. However, eating and hire a new version would be much cheaper, and would still have to spend quality time together.

Individual costs may also be complicated. This can be solved by allocating a specific amount for each member of the family to spend each week. If someone spends its entirety before the week is over, re-evaluate your expenses and adjust if necessary.

Creating a household budget can help keep spending under control, leaving more money to pay their debts and save for future goals. However, to succeed, close monitoring is essential. Their efforts will be rewarded. However, with less financial stress and more money in the long term.

Author Resource:-> Ruel has been writing articles for nearly 4 years. His newest interest is in cruise ship. So come visit his latest website that discuss about best cruise lines and cruise ships pictures.

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Tip 11:

Tip 11 is down to you……………..Comment below with your best money saving tip

Individual Voluntary Arrangement can help you get out of debt

If you have incurred debt and are looking for debt solution, you can take help of individual voluntary arrangement (IVA). There are many organizations that can help you with debt reduction and also help your finances stay steady. It’s completely a voluntary option and cannot be forced on you.

What is an IVA?

An IVA is a legal binding between you and your creditor and you agree to make single monthly payment for 5 years. Apart from the payments you can make, the rest of your debt amount is cancelled by the creditor. This is a legal contract and during the agreement, the creditor cannot add any more interest rate or any other charges.

In the IVA, you still have to make single monthly payments but you make the payments which you’ll be able to manage and not more than that. But you must make sure that you follow the rules of the IVA and not fall behind in your payments. If you fail to make regular payments, you may even have to face bankruptcy or may have to pay full outstanding balance as per the creditors.

What are the advantages of IVA?

It completely depends on you when you agree to an IVA. There are quite a number of advantages of paying your debt according to this agreement. Take a look at the advantages of IVA:

1.You get rid of debt after few years.
2.You pay the amount that you can pay and not more than that. The rest of your debt payment is cancelled by the creditor.
3.Singe monthly payment is required in an IVA.
4.Your house and other assets are protected in an IVA and your unsecured creditors cannot ask you to sell off your house.
5.The interest payments are stopped as per the law.
6.You’re not harassed by the creditors for the debt payment.

What are the disadvantages of IVA?

Apart from the advantages, there are also certain disadvantages of this agreement. Check out the disadvantages of getting into this agreement:

1.If you default in your debt payments, it may result in bankruptcy.
2.The equity of your house goes to your creditors. This can be done by extending your mortgage payments toward the end of the IVA. You can also extend your IVA payments for the next 12 months.
3.The creditors may not agree to this payment.
4.The credit rating suffers a lot and the credit score remains low for one year after the IVA.

If you want to go into this agreement to pay off your debt, you must consider all the options before you agree to this legal contract. You do pay off your debts but your credit score suffers and you also need to release your equity to the creditor. But according to the requirement of IVA, you may not be required to sell your house.

Author’s Bio: M.J. is a contributory writer associated with some financial communities and has written several articles for various financial websites. She holds her expertise in the debt industry and has made significant contribution through her various articles.