Christmas has been over for a few weeks now and the new year is slowly taking off. Nobody thinks of Christmas anymore. But you should, as you will again have to buy maaaaaany presents for kids and family! And then there is your next vacation. Whether it’s a short trip or a along distance flight, you will need some money in any case. But with a few tricks and some discipline, everyone can manage to save a few bucks by the target date.
I have already told you in detail how you burn your money at the supermarket and at home.
First steps
I recommend to write a wish list. Put everythin on it you would like to buy, but for which you did not have any money or just did not want to spend any yet. It does not matter if you put designer shoes, a luxury holiday or just new furniture for the living room on your list. But your goal should be a realistic one. As a motivation you could write down every month how much money you have already saved up to fulfill your wish(es).
Set a realistic time goal of 3, 6, 12 or even more months. Pobably you will not get the brand new car paid off in just a year. But it is not impossible either.
Saving money always means letting go of something or giving up something (like the morning latte at Starbucks). But once you have started and achieved the first successes, the urge to feed the piggy bank is getting bigger.
Clean up your closet
Selling is a good way to make some money. Solet’s start with what you already have at home, but don’t need. It’s time you clear out your wardrobe. Everything you didn’t wear last year should be gone by the end of the day. You can sell good pieces on ebay or or other online shops. Clothing that is still good but not worth a lopt of money (e.g. because it is from a cheap brand), you can give it to charity.
Cleaning up the wardrobe has two advantages:
First, the money you receive for your unworn pieces will feed your piggy bank. Just a tip: The clothing always sells according to the season. A wool coat will not be sold in summer but can bring some money in autumn/winter. The second advantage is, you fill find some forgotten masterpieces in your wardrobe. So you don’t need to buy new clothes all the time.
Basement, garage and attic clean up
Just like in your wardrobe, treasures which you could sell online or on flea markets can be found in almost all places in the house, . The old drawer from Grandma’s apartment, the art print by Aunt Hilde, the third mixer or even just the candlesticks. AThere are things that are too goodto throw away but actually only take away space everywhere. Maybe you can join two or three people and join the flea market. Then you can share the stand rent and it’s more fun too. By the way, you can also find buyers for your sorted clothes on flea markets.
Alternatively, you can also offer your household items on ebay, ebay classifieds or in various junk Mark Tapps. The money you took here, you’re also going to be in your piggy-pig. Because there is a lot more to come with this time.
Collect coins or notes
Another great trick is collecting certain coins or seem. Here it is natural to collect €1 or €2 coins or €5 bills. They usually don’t hurt so much. Every evening you check your wallet to see if the corresponding coins or notes are in it and feed your piggy-pig as well. You will be surprised how much this can save by the end of the year!
Check Contracts
No matter if mobile, internet, electricity, gas, insurance, you should regularly check your contracts. We are convinced of Check24 and regularly change our electricity supplier. We have also completed the internet via Check24. Since everything has always worked smoothly and we can save quite a bit of money so far. The money you save in comparison to your envisaged now also puts you in the money. For example, the mobile phone can already be 2-5 € or more per month.
Check Insurance
Also consider which insurances you really need and announces the rest. Everyone should have liability, household and disability insurance. But do you really need a cell phone, glasses or dog health insurance? This has to be weighed up in individual cases. A first enquiry, for example, results in Check24 that a dog health insurance including OP for a 7 year old big mongrel from €40 a month costs. That’s almost €500 a year. You may be better off if you set aside the money yourself. Because if your dog doesn’t get sick, all the money is gone. Depending on the insurance, this time the saved money will be in your piggy In an extra piggy to pay the vet.
Especially at the end of the year from October the price comparison with the car insurers is worthwhile. Even though I am convinced by Check24, I have to point out that especially in the case of car insurance some major insurers do not cooperate with CHECK24. It is definitely worthwhile to ask them again.
Income-expense list lead
It is a lot of work, but in order to keep track of its revenue and expenditure, it is essential to track expenditure. I have created an Excel list in which I assign all the expenses and revenue entries and they are assigned to certain categories. In addition, the list should include all your expenses that occur only at intervals, such as insurance. So you know what you have to do every month to pay insurance at the beginning of the year.
I have created an income and expense calculator for you as an Excel file: Income expense Calculator
The calculator already contains fictitious values in which you can orient yourself. In the first sheet you will find your monthly expenses and in the second you can convert how much you have to put aside each month for your quarterly or (half) annual expenses. You can graph your monthly expenses and see which expenses make up the largest share and where potential savings are possible.
Create a meal plan and write a shopping list
The trick is old and yet we almost never stick to it. With a shopping list we buy more targeted and less unneeded stuff. To sit down at home and write down what you want to buy is forcing you to really think about what we need to purchase. The whole thing becomes easier if we think ahead about what we want to cook in the next few days.
By the way, I can recommend two great apps that you can use to easily write and manage your shopping lists: OneNote and Evernote. We even use OneNote at work. The possibilities you have with notebooks are madness. Unfortunately, the use on my Windowsphone is only possible limited. But you could, for example, create recipe books and then simply copy the missing ingredients to a list. Since you can use OneNote on your PC as well as on your phone and sync all your devices, this is really a fine thing. I haven’t been busy with Evernote yet, but the principle is the same. However, Evernote costs money every month. I have OneNote right there with my office.
Equipped with your analogue or digital shopping list you will buy much less in the future and throw away even less. This also saves a lot of money.
Regular cleaning of storage cupboard and refrigerator
Do you know that too? You buy something, place it in the closet, then you place something in front of it and no 5 minutes later have you forgotten that you have ever bought the product? And then comes the day you might need it and think you don’t have it and buy it again? Unfortunately, it happened to me far too often. Until I started to completely clean up my storage cupboard and sort everything. The next few weeks I have to buy except fresh really nothing. A trick to keep track of IS, for example, to create a list and always check it out when you take something out of the closet. Then you always know if there are enough noodles or if you may have the yeast out. So you avoid that you have to buy too much and at the end you have to throw something away.
The same goes for the fridge. Properly acknowledged and correctly sorted you don’t see so much and you have to throw away less.
Used instead of new
Clothing, furniture, camera accessories, Playstationspiele, so much can be bought super also used and thus save a lot of money. You can also find clothes that are often great used. Above I have given you tips on where you can sell your things. You can also find things that you need and which are not necessarily unused. Often, things are even given away to self-collectors. And then you look more like a little Mack than when you buy it again.
Use free resources or borrow things
There are free trial for magazines, e-books, streaming, creative accessories and much more. Partly there are free accesses with limited services. You have to see if you don’t even get along with it. By the way you get a lot of fonts and pictures for free and legal on the net, for example at Creativemarket:
Powered by Creative Market
The pictures in this ´ post I made from the stock photo packs from the really great page ivory mix. You can use the offered images free of charge for free content and do not even have to call a source!
For reading rats, there are now book exchange corners in many cities and municipalities. Old telephone booths, showcases or the like are refunctioned in such a way that you can put books in and get them out. You bring a read book with you and take another one. And even if libraries die out, they still exist.
For everything else, you can set up Exchange and sub-groups with your neighbors and borrow the neighbor’s monthly ticket to drive to the city on Saturday. Borrow tool instead of buying it from neighbors (by the way also in the supermarket). But be so fair and offer something in return.
There are certainly many more ideas for how you can save money in the future. It is important, however, that you bring some discipline here. Maybe you’ll tell me what you’re doing to save money? Just leave me a comment!
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