If you’re trying to save money for a new house, for a wedding, or towards anything else, then you’re probably looking at all the things you can cut out of your daily routine to save cash. Perhaps you can save money by eating less? Or maybe you should give up that nice gym membership?
Actually though, jumping immediately to what you can cut out of your budget is a tad premature if you haven’t first looked at your efficiency. In other words, you might not need to spend less on food if you can find a way to make the food you currently are buying last longer. And you might not need to give up your gym membership if you can get it to work with your routine a little better. Being more efficient and more organized is often a more effective way to save money, so think about that before you stop eating out at restaurants.
Become more organized, and you’ll find you save money almost without having to do anything. Here are some examples.
Food
Switching to ‘own brand’ foods is something that many people saving towards a mortgage will be familiar with, but there may be no need.
Think for a moment about the amount of food you probably waste regularly – especially if there are only one or two of you at home. Chances are that you will buy bags of carrots for a meal for example and then have half the bag go off before you get around to using the rest. You’ll probably have old salad leaves decaying in your fridge, and you’ll probably have all manner of leftovers that never get eaten. In fact, it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that if you live alone or with a partner you likely waste around 30% of the food you buy.
This can easily be fixed with a little organization – by planning what you are going to eat for the upcoming week and then choosing meals that use the same ingredients. Having a hot pot one evening? Then why not have some of those same vegetables with a steak later on in the week?
Likewise, you can also save a lot of money by cooking large meals and then freezing the leftovers to eat later. Again this will require just a little planning to ensure you have space in the freezer along with the forethought to cook in ‘bulk’ that way to begin with.
Activities
You can save a lot of money similarly by planning your activities better. This might mean thinking more carefully about how you’re going to get there, or how you’re going to save money while you’re out.
For instance, if you’re planning a holiday, then you can save money by doing some planning: this may mean traveling with friends to the airport so you can car share, or it might mean minimizing your time off work by coinciding your trip with bank holidays – or even by arranging a remote work agreement and then working while you travel.
You can save a lot of money on travel by simply planning your route more carefully and again by sharing lifts. And you can save on nights out by choosing to have drinks at your house first and by arranging a lift home from a friend or partner rather than having to pay for a taxi.
Efficiency
By organizing your lifestyle you can be more efficient in everything you do and thus reduce waste. This goes for energy efficiency of course too – and simple things like planning what you are going to wear can help you to save a lot of money that you would spend running your washing machine or on washing products. Even carefully timing when your heating comes on and for how long can make a huge difference.
So when you’re saving for a mortgage, don’t think you have to stop doing all the things you love. Just learn to do them more efficiently!
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