With inflation growing at its fastest pace in 20 years, more and more Australians are now struggling to afford basic necessities such as food, rent, petrol and medical expenses. With wages remaining the same and the cost of living soaring exponentially, coming up with a reliable saving strategy is now more important than ever before. If you are someone who is looking to scale back on your spending but don’t know where to begin, this is the perfect article for you.
Today, we share 6 saving strategies to adopt before the end of the year, so read on to find out more.
1. Enlist The Help Of A Financial Planner
One of the best things you can do for your bank account in 2022 is to enlist the help of a financial planner. To put it simply, a financial advisor or planner is someone who assists you in setting financial goals so you feel confident that your future plans are achievable. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a millionaire to warrant the help of a financial planner. Financial advice can be incredibly useful at turning points in your life, like when you’re transitioning from a full-time student to working adult, starting a family, buying your first home or planning for retirement.
Equipped with proper strategies and advice, you will be better able to reach your financial goals at the end of the year and beyond. Find out more about the benefits of working with a financial planner here.
2.Track Your Spending
Many people fall into the trap of assuming that large purchases are what set us back financially. In reality, it’s actually the little things that end up costing us more. Your daily coffee habit, that midnight Amazon purchase and those short Uber rides all add up over time, especially if you are not tracking your spending to a tee. If you really want to get on top of your finances, tracking your spending is key. Having an awareness of your spending habits will help you create an effective budget plan that allows you to cover all your essential expenses while keeping you from overspending on unnecessary purchases.
Our favourite way to easily keep track of spending is with the help of an app. Click here to find out more about the best expense tracker apps in 2022.
3. Take Control Of Your Subscriptions
Are you a slave to recurring expenses and montly subscriptions? Research shows that the average Australian household spends $55 on subscriptions each month, with some even going as high as $120! While that may not seem like a ton of money in the present moment, the digits add up to anywhere between $660-$1000 spent annually on subscriptions alone.
If you are struggling financially or looking to take better control of your spending habits, the best thing you can do is to eliminate unnecessary subscriptions. Afterall, do you really need 4 different streaming services? If you’ve completely lost track of all your subscriptions, making use of a tool like Albert can help you identify and assess what’s essential and what can you live without.
4. Cut Back On Dining Out
Are you guilty of dining out or ordering UberEats way more often than you should? If you answered yes to this question, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Research has shown that the average Australian eats out 2-3 times per week, on top of a whopping $1590 that is spent each year on delivered food. If you’re really looking to save a buck, we encourage you to look into preparing your own meals at home as much as possible. Instead of relying on restaurants or take out multiple times a week, explore your local supermarket, look inside your pantry and come up with a variety of easy recipes that you can add to your weekly repertoire.
If cooking from scratch seems like a daunting task, you can always consider signing up to a meal kit that offers a variety of recipes and will help you reduce waste and save money. Save the dining out for special occasions or weekends and you’ll easily end up saving thousands of dollars before the end of 2022!
5. Get Smart With Your Online Online Shopping
More than 2 billion people shop online annually, and there is a 99.99% chance that both you and I happen to be part of that statistic. Online shopping is convenient, quick, easy and has completely revolutionised how we shop as a society. However, there is no rose without a thorn, and the downside of online shopping comes in the form of over consumerism and impulse purchasing. With thousands and thousands of products just a click away, more and more people are now succumbing to buying things they don’t need or simply cannot afford.
While we by no means expect you to go cold turkey with online shopping, there are a number of ways you can get smarter with your browsing:
- Use browser extensions to comparison shop and find the lowest prices always.
- Take some time to search for promo codes and coupons, or simply install Honey on your browser and let it do the job for you.
- Earn cashback on your purchases with a cashback credit card or a cashback website.
- Time your online purchases to line up with sales events such as EOFY Sales, Black Friday, Click Frenzy, Boxing Day sales etc.
6. Make Saving Automatic
Lastly, making saving automatic by simply setting up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account is a fantastic way of keeping on track with your savings goals. In most cases, you’ll want to time the automatic transfer on your payday or whenever your paycheck is deposited into your account. With the right financial planning and a little bit of expert budgeting, you can easily work out the amount you can afford to put into savings without cutting into the money you need to cover your essential expenses. Find out more about the benefits of automatic savings here.
And there you have it – 6 saving strategies to adopt before the end of the year. By following these helpful tips, you will be one step closer to reaching your financial goals by the end of 2022. What are some of your top tips for saving in the modern 21st century world? Be sure to share your tips, tricks and thoughts in the comment section below!
