Hard times can affect your savings and spending. But the important things are how you react to circumstances and how you prevent personal financial crises. Find more about spending money right.
We are living in quite difficult times, the prices are getting higher because of the inflation, and we don’t know what the economic future will look like. But we don’t have to panic, instead, we must get intentional over the things we can control.
Your financial behavior is one of the things you must work on to get control and peace over your finances. We know it’s hard to not buy something you see several times and on different channels. Yet, beyond that impulsive desire are your long-term goals that bring greater joy and confidence when acquired.
Well, let’s find out more about spending money right.
1. Save more money
But how can we save more when we spend our savings? After all, we are in the middle of an economic crisis.
And you’re right. Besides the fact that 27% of Europeans used their savings during 2020, according to Statista. On the other hand, people started to save more during the same period, up to 30% of them increased their savings. Just because the circumstances are not favorable doesn’t mean you can’t save at all. You can cut the monthly saving amount and adjust the budget, but don’t stop the process.
Recently I discovered the Revolut Vaults. I needed a deposit account for my savings and the bank I use more could offer me that with several conditions. I couldn’t afford what they asked, and I “mistakenly” found this awesome feature of the app! Revolut Savings Vaults is affordable (no minimum duration or deposit amount), flexible (you can withdraw money at any time, you can choose the currency of your savings), the interest is not bad (especially if you keep your money in another currency, 0.40% interest on GBP and up to 0.65% on USD), and you can even start a group Vaults for common financial goals.
2. Live on a budget
Great, you might say. Unfortunately, budgeting and saving are tied and can’t be separated. You’ll be able to save money only by knowing your expenses and spendings. Many great apps help you budget but the most important thing about it is simply to start doing it. It doesn’t matter if it’s on paper, on an excel sheet (I do that), or through a phone app. Planning your expenses and tracking them can keep your saving account secure(because you’ll manage to live without touching it).
Budgeting your money comes up to two things: knowing your expenses and tracking them. The difficult part is to follow up and to be persistent. Goodbudget is a free, friendly app for budgeting beginners that helps you prioritize your finances and goals and to track them. You can categorize your expenses, put them in the app and they notify you if you exceed the spending limit on a category. Goodbudget app is like keeping your money on virtual envelopes. The advantage of this app is that you learn how to live on a budget, and it’s very accessible if you don’t have many expenses categories.
3. Spend better, save more
We are always looking for promotions and many times we buy products only because they have a discount (or it seems like that). But more than good promotions we should apply other ways to better allocate our amounts of money. After paying the rent and debts the category that is usually used most of my money is food. Don’t know if your case is the same but some good ways to spend less on food are a weekly meal plan, shopping lists, finally don’t go shopping if you’ve not eaten.
Thanks to online payments and logistics we now have many options for qualitative products at a lower price. Toogoodtogo is an app that aims to end food waste by selling unsold food from local businesses. People benefit from buying cheaper and qualitative food and restaurants benefit from selling their surplus that remains unsold. Many other websites and apps help you find good offers or give you money for used clothes and other goods.
Before you leave
Uncertain times shouldn’t scare us in terms of money. In times like this, we must try to save more money, start to use a budget, and try to find new ways of gaining more. Also, we should comfort with the fact that crises are temporary and better days are coming.
