Energy saving to save money
Gradually replace all the light bulbs in your home with energy-efficient ones. Remember to turn off lights and appliances when you are not using them. It’s also good to know that a fully loaded washing machine consumes less water and electricity. You shouldn’t put hot food in the refrigerator, as this will increase its energy consumption.
SAVING NATURAL RESOURCES = SAVING MONEY SMART CONSUMPTION = SAVING MONEY PLANNING = SAVING MONEY
Water-saving
If you do not want money to flow down the pipe, be careful about water consumption. Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or soaping your hair, get a dishwasher (saving water by ten times), and do not abuse baths.
Reuse
Those who grew up in the hungry 90s will surely remember that our parents and grandmothers used plastic bags many times – they washed them, dried them, and reused them. At the moment, reusable items have become beautiful, and, most importantly, using them will help save money and join an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Limit one-time
We throw away many products immediately after use, which is wasteful and not environmentally friendly. This category includes ear sticks, cotton discs for the face, wet wipes, gloves, shoe covers, sanitary pads, tampons, etc. For all of them, there are reusable replacements, and a one-time purchase of them will save you from buying consumables for many months and even years.
Lifestyle and economy
Grab a snack from home
If you take food and water with you from home, you will save a lot on food and eat healthier food throughout the day. In addition, you will not be buying a lot of extra plastic packaging with your food.
Don’t buy coffee to go.
The cult of coffee is firmly entrenched in our society. Mobile street coffee shops do not leave a chance for coffee lovers to pass by. Although they seem insignificant, these are just those small expenses that you get hooked on. Take coffee with you from home; either get your eco cup (many coffee shops give a 5 to 10% discount for coffee in your cup) or completely abandon this not-so-healthy product.
Reduce your meat intake
Meat is an expensive product, and its excessive consumption is not suitable for health. Arrange yourself 1-2 times a week on meat-free days; on other days, doctors recommend limiting the portion of the finished meat dish to 100 grams.
Get rid of bad habits.
For example, quitting smoking will save you a lot of money. And in general, getting rid of such a bad habit will do you good. Also, you will not produce a considerable amount of unpleasant and unrecyclable garbage in the form of bulls.
Do your beauty treatments.
Many girls regularly visit several beauty masters – separately for nails, eyelashes, eyebrows, hair removal, cosmetic procedures, etc. I’m even surprised to imagine how much money and time is spent on these actions.
In my particular situation, I chose not to paint my nails at all (I only do hygienic manicures on my own), do my eyebrows, and use an electric epilator to remove hair.
What To Do With The Saved Money?
You may ask, why should I save? Can I spend everything? It is possible, but why? In this case, you will not have a financial cushion in an emergency.
Set aside the saved funds in 10-20% of the monthly salary separately. Make this money inviolable. You can put them on a deposit to avoid the temptation to withdraw everything and spend it on some “very necessary” thing.
If all of this looks overwhelming, don’t worry. Take a deep breath. Building up an emergency fund can take some time; you shouldn’t expect to have it immediately. The sooner you begin saving, the better prepared you will be for unexpected expenses.
How much money should be in your emergency fund (emergency fund, money for emergency)
Everything will depend on your essential expenses. Of course, it will depend on whether these expenses are stable.
If you work independently, receive a commission, are employed temporarily, or have a family member with a chronic illness, your emergency fund should be more significant.
Why? Analyze that you will receive your money inflows sporadically and that you have a family situation that requires your constant financial attention, so you must have an excellent anchor to lean on if, in addition, an unforeseen event happens to you.
In general, if your income situation is stable and you do not have to attend to recurring expenses such as a family member’s health situation, it is recommended to have a fund that covers your most essential costs within three and six months.
What are those essential expenses that your emergency fund should cover? For example:
Health: find out how much the family unit spends monthly on medicines and visits to the doctor.
Housing: do you rent or pay a loan? Is it a used property that requires constant repairs? Take all that into account.
Food: calculate how much the supermarket takes each month, but also add there the small last-minute purchases at the grocery store, the expenses for sweets, ice cream, and other whims that you pay on your outings.
Essential household services: account for the consumption of electricity, water, maintenance, telephone, cable, and other streaming services; if you have domestic help, include that too.
Personal expenses: Write down any other needs or pleasures you give yourself from time to time.
Transportation: put in this chapter the cost of gasoline or the public transport tickets you have each month.
When you have the sum of these expenses, average better upwards than downwards.
Not everyone saves in good times, and money can be beneficial when things go wrong.
Periods of economic prosperity often have a common characteristic: many people forget the need to save part of their money and prefer to concentrate on spending. When the panorama changes and the economic situation, many miss having a savings mattress to face emergencies.
In a context like the current one, in which the labor market is suffering severely and the threat of an economic recession is here to stay, the need to have an emergency fund is more essential than ever.
But, what amount should that fund have to give us security in times of uncertainty? This is one of the most frequently asked questions among savers. However, it should be known that there is no exact figure and that it usually depends on each profile and economic situation.
How to calculate the amount we need?
Before calculating the amount needed, it will be essential to define the objective of that saving. And it is necessary to differentiate between the savings that are saved with a specific goal, that is, to buy a car or a house in the future, and the emergency fund, whose purpose is to serve only for an emergency.
To calculate the amount of the latter, it will be necessary to consider the objectives, the standard of living, and the needs of each person. Thus, it is generally recommended to maintain an amount covering between six and 12 months of fixed monthly expenses. This includes food, mortgage, housing, or transportation expenses.
If these costs amount to, for example, $750, the emergency fund should contain between 4,500 and 9,000 $ approximately. Since money has to be used to deal with contingencies, the best option will be to keep it in a checking account. However, suppose you want to make a minimal return. In that case, remunerated accounts can be a good option since it is possible to achieve an inevitable return with some of them if certain conditions are met. Another alternative could be to deposit the money in a savings account or even a time deposit. However, with the latter, it is always advisable to analyze the small print since, in many cases, these products apply a penalty if the money is withdrawn before time.
Different situations can occur when calculating the amount needed for the emergency fund. In some cases, some already start with money saved and need to know how much to allocate to the fund and how much they can continue saving to meet other needs and objectives. One of these objectives may be investment, since if all the money is left in the checking account, it may lose value due to inflation, that is, due to the generalized and sustained increase in prices.
In this case, if you have, for example, a total of 15,000 $ that you want to invest to obtain a particular return and the amount of the monthly expense, as before, to 750 $ per month, the emergency fund could be calculated as follows: follows: if those 15,000 $ are divided by the 750 $ of monthly expenses, this person would have 20 months with which to deal with unforeseen events. If he wants to maintain an emergency fund for an entire year, he will need $9,000 to use $6,000 to invest in the markets.
And where to deposit that money to obtain profitability?
The possibilities are endless, although it depends on each person’s profile, goals, and risk. Some of the most straightforward options are to consult directly with a financial advisor, who will be able to recommend the best options adapted to each person; go to the investment fund market, which is managed by professionals who invest collectively with the money of the participants in different financial assets, or resort to automated managers or Robo-advisors, which allow you to invest simply in a portfolio of index funds (that follow the behavior of an index) in an economical way.
Here are tips that can help you in the process:
Determine an amount for your fund: either fortnightly or monthly, with 5% or 10% of your income; the important thing is to start. Along the way, as time goes by, you can increase it.
Get organized: The easiest way to save today is to schedule an automatic debit from your savings account or your payroll account because that way, you will not be tempted to spend that money, which will go directly to a statement that you do not have easy access (it is the most recommended).
Reduce your expenses: avoid buying compulsively, even if you see items on sale in the supermarket. Have your goals clear, and don’t get carried away; focus on your purpose. You need support! Don’t buy what you don’t need!
The extra money you receive also counts: if, outside of your salary, you receive an incentive that you had not planned, save it! Realize that you were not expecting that; close your eyes and save that money in your emergency fund.
Lean on the right save money services: Find out which banking products are designed to help you build your emergency savings. Ideally, they should be free of low balance and withdrawal fees; They must be accounts that allow you to fully access your funds
immediately and quickly in case of need; it has to pay you reasonable interest. In particular, you need it to be a product that receives scheduled transfers to save automatically on collection days.
An example of the above is the Emergency Fund Account, which you can open with just $1,000.
Now is the time to put it into practice and create your emergency fund with all this information.
When you start it, from time to time, make a stop and check how you are doing: analyze if you have managed to have a fund that will cover emergencies that could arise without knocking on the door. From the answer, adjust your saving effort.
Carrying out this exercise will motivate you to save money because you will see the results.
And remember that your best investment will always be your savings. Popular wisdom recommends that we save the bread for May and flour for April.
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