Does that New Year’s resolution sound familiar to you too? I know I’ve said it numerous times over the years and, like many resolutions, it just doesn’t seem to stick! Why is that? Why do we have such a tough time committing to our goals?
Personally, I believe it’s because we set big goals with big steps. What we really need, however, is small steps—small steps are a lot more sustainable. So, if the goal is to save more money, what small steps can we take to start growing our savings account? The simplest answer (sadly) is to spend less money…
SHOP ONLINE LESS. There’s no question, shopping online is extremely convenient—it’s too convenient, actually. With just a couple of clicks, you can checkout and your items will magically arrive on your doorstep in 2-5 days. So, make it more difficult to buy the things you want; force yourself to physically go into a store (gasp!) and make your purchase. It will be good for you, your wallet, and your local economy!
THINK ABOUT IT. If you find something spendy you really want, don’t buy it right away! Give yourself a few days—or weeks—to decide if it’s an impulse buy or a true “need”. In my mind, if I’ve thought about this particular thing more than five times over the course of a couple of weeks, then it’s not an impulse and buying it is likely justifiable.
DON’T PAY FULL PRICE. You and I both know almost everything goes on sale at some point in time. So, don’t pay full price! If you wait and watch for sales, you could stand to save a lot of money! Patience is hard but, if you’ve come this far without it, you can probably wait a little longer. On the same note, look for coupons! There are several great tools out there that feed you coupon codes; use them! I always quickly check my source before I checkout; I’ve saved a lot of money I wasn’t planning to—which is a major win!!!
If you want to grow your savings account, choose a few small steps to get started. “Rome wasn’t built in a day”… and your savings account won’t be either. Remember: small progress is still progress!