Category: Spend Less

Ways to Spend Less with Very Little EffortWays to Spend Less with Very Little Effort

There are many of us that find that we often spend more money than we want to. Perhaps we would like to have extra money to buy some more fun things for ourselves, we might want to use it to repay a debt or to put into a savings account. It can feel almost impossible though as the money may just seem to disappear. There are things that we can do though which will help us to be able to spend less and it can be very easy. 

Keep a Track of What you are Spending

It can be a good idea to keep track of what you a spending a bit more closely. Take a look at your bank statements and credit card statements etc and have a look at what sorts of things you are buying. Identify what each product is and think about whether you feel that these are things that you really do want. It can be possible that we are paying subscriptions for things, perhaps online services that we did not even realise we were paying for or had forgotten about. So, take stock of where your money is going. It can also be a good opportunity to start thinking about whether you really want to buy everything that you have been buying. This might seem hard but once you find a way to do it, perhaps a spreadsheet or notebook, then it is easy to keep up with it.

Compare Prices

It can really help to compare the prices of everything that you are buying so that you are sure that you are not overpaying. This is something that can be quite simple to do online using comparison websites. You will be able to find out whether you are paying a lot more than necessary for the things that you buy and therefore you can consider whether you want to swap to cheaper ones. This isn’t that difficult either as switching bank accounts, insurance, electricity, broadband, phones etc should all be dealt with by the suppliers for you and you will just need to make a phone call or complete an online form to get it sorted out. It will take less than an hour and you could save a significant amount of money, far more than you would earn in an hour of you were at work. If you do it with everything that you buy then those savings could really add up as well and you will find that you will soon be spending less money really easily. 

Consider if you Need the Items

When you are buying things, it is a good idea to think about whether you really need the items. Sometimes we buy things out of habit or because we think that they are useful to us but we might actually be fine without having them. It is a good idea to think about everything that you are buying and consider whether you really need them. This might feel like you will be denying yourself of treats, but actually you might just be able to reduce buying things that you do not like or enjoy that much. It is also good to think about what the alternative is to buying those things and to consider why do you want the money and would you rather have the money for that purpose rather than buying these items. This is not about making yourself feel guilty for what you buy but just to think about whether you get that much pleasure from what you are buying and whether it might be better to use that money for other purposes.