12 September 2012

The Top Seven Money-Saving Mistakes - Part 1

Is it possible to make mistakes in saving money? Unfortunately yes, it is. The good news is we can learn from the mistakes of others and apply them to our own situations. Over the next few weeks the Finance Tip of the Day will cover one of the seven money saving mistakes.

Money Saving Mistake No. 1:  Not Budgeting for Savings

Too many people make the mistake of saving if the opportunity presents itself, or if money is just sort of left over. Big hint: money rarely just presents itself! Saving money needs to be a deliberate, thoughtful process and including a certain amount in your Spending Plan to save each month is a wise approach. Include it as a category and saving will become a habit.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Cath,

    Great site, thank you for your time and your thoughts in doing this.

    I was continually disappointing myself by settings savings targets and never meeting them. Yes, they were mostly overambitious, I suppose, although that was only part of of it.

    Instead, once I focused on my spendings only, and used that for a budget, it takes time to adjust to rein yourself in, but then what was once a tight budget perceptually, was rather maneagable in day to day living. It forced priorities for petrol, weekly food shopping and discretionary spending. I now see that say a $137 Bunnings shelving purchase does not have to bought at once, but can actually be put aside and save up for it out of my allocated weekly budget.

    I now even place all left over weekly money into a money box, this is to be saved for well, just to be saved - aim is for Christmas period 2013.

    Another one that has helped, is that I have been paying my power and gas bills in advance with spare money, in time this has built me up into a good credit situation, should unemployment arise, then I am better placed for 6 months minimum of electricity and 18 months in gas up my sleeve. I have slipped to just keeping up with my phone bill as it comes in, however, when that was in credit, I found that I was more mindful that I was spending my money in making calls, so would economise better.

    The feeling to get a bill and see that you are in credit, is a good feeling whereby I actually enjoy paying some more to keep me well in front.

    Going through the shopping docket helps tremendously, you can recognise frivolity and not necessary and you can also realise the costs of things.

    Essentially, by looking at my spendings, the savings follows through automatically. It may takes 3 to 6 months to get into a swing of things, but once established it is pretty smooth sailing from there.

    I dont begrudge car repairs and major'ish unexpected hits, as well, these things need to be done and gotten out of the way, and I have helped to place myself into a position to enable these things to be mere speedbumps now where of prior times they would have been brick walls.

    Thank you for your help in all of changing my way of thinking and assisting me in this journey from that of wasteful bachelor to a man learning the true value of money.

    Cheers

    Graeme : )) : )) : ))

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