If you have a vacation coming up or you are trying to save money for a business idea then you will know only too well how difficult this can be, especially if most of your paycheck goes out each month. Beyond looking for other ways of earning, you have to begin to look at extreme ways to save some money. My colleague Bogoljub Karic and I went through this a couple of years ago when we were saving up for our very own business and from that experience I have some tips which I want to share with you.
Only Planned Spending
If you are serious about this then you need to massively restrict your spending, down to almost zero. Every month you need to have a budget, remove the rent and energy bills, or anything which cannot be avoided, and then take a look at what is left. The goal here is to not spend anything on any other item beyond food shopping or domestic necessities for the home. This means you should spend no money day-to-day, prepare food at home, shun events and essentially only spend money on the absolute essentials.
Grocery Shopping
When you go grocery shopping you have to give yourself a tight budget and make it work, this is going to be hard given the temptation in the store, but if you really want to save well then you have to do it. I cut my grocery spend down to around $60 per month and it was painful to say the least, eating the same things over and over just to save money, but it was absolutely worth it in the end. Don’t forget to find every way that you can to save money such as money-off coupons.
Tell Everyone
In order to make this work you have to avoid going out to the cinema, to restaurants and on nights out, not an easy feat. To help you ensure that you stick to your plan I’d advise you to tell your friends and your family what you are doing in terms of your savings plan, in order to stop them from asking you to go out with them.
Shutting it Down
I knew that I couldn’t save money on rent so I became massively committed to saving money on the energy bills at home. I would sit in the dark on an evening, I stopped watching television, I would charge my devices and phone at work and I would often switch the heating off in favor of layers of clothing to keep me warm. This is what extreme saving looks like and if you do so then you will see your bills come down, giving you more cash to save each month.
Penny Jar
I saved up over $100 in the space of 3 months from picking up cents and dimes on the street and putting them in a penny jar. This may sound extreme but $100 is still $100, especially when it is completely free. If you are really serious then these are the lengths that you have to go to.
