HOW TO SAVE WHEN YOU HAVE NO MONEY

There are situations where you do not have enough money, and you are just getting by month to month by living from paycheck to paycheck. People talk about saving around you, but you only care about surviving because you don’t know how to save money. 

Well, there are ways you can save even though you have no money right now. 

Budget the Money That You Have

Your barely enough or irregular income needs to be budgeted. You should do a zero-based budget where you write the amount you earn at the top of the list and itemize everything you expect to spend monthly. If you are a low-income earner, the budget may not cover everything, and there may be no room for savings, so you must review your budget for unnecessary expenses. 

Review Your Expenses

You need to look at multiple subscriptions that provide similar services and stick to just one. Look at your phone contracts and evaluate how heavy it is; review if it is a top-of-the-range premium contract. 

Check your electricity and gas bills; how long have you been with that provider? If you have been with them for more than a year and have not changed your supplier, you may be paying higher than you should. When you try to move, some suppliers will come up with bills you need to pay them. Agree on a payment plan as low as 5 pounds per month and change the supplier.

Your rent/mortgage, food, council tax, transport, and the things you need to survive and live a simple life should go on your zero budget. Review it again and make sure to get the best deals on those essentials.

Review Your Buying Habits

Food is essential because you need to eat, but how much are you spending on food? Review your grocery shopping; do you go with a list and stick to the list? Do you shop hungry, or do you eat before you shop? I once made a video of how I shopped for my family of four with just 3 pounds; you can watch it here. 

If you eat out and do takeaways a lot, you may want to consider cooking and eating at home. Cook batch meals so that when you are hungry and have no energy to cook, you can get food for your refrigerator.

Sell Stuff You Don’t Need

A lot of us have wardrobes full of clothes we don’t wear anymore. We have things we don’t use anymore scattered all over the house. You need to start seeing those things as money lying around and start selling them. 

The beauty of the internet is that there are many platforms where you can sell your stuff. I used to sell my clothes on Vinted. I have also sold items like a fridge, mattress, wardrobe, my children’s dresser, shoes, furniture, toys, and even a leftover sack of gravel on the Facebook market. Facebook marketplace allows you to easily sell your stuff locally to people who live around you. Sell them at a price that will make somebody else want them, and then you can put your earnings into a savings pot.

Get a Second Job

If you have been struggling to save, you need a side hustle. You can be a virtual assistant on fiver or Upwork. You can be a social media manager or assistant; start a YouTube channel, start blogging, cook or clean for someone. You can do these things to bring extra income into your savings pot. 

Build an Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is a fund you have for emergencies. Getting your nails done, a haircut at the salon, or buying a dress for an impromptu party is not an emergency. 

Emergencies are things or situations that impact your life and that you need to get done as soon as possible; emergencies like when your boiler or washing machine gets spoilt or your car needs new tires.

If you do not have an emergency fund, you will likely dip into your savings or go into debt. To prevent running into debt during emergencies, you must build an emergency fund. 

Your emergency funds should be about twice or three times your current monthly income. If you start building an emergency fund that is too large, you may get discouraged from saving and start seeing your emergency fund as your savings pot which should not be. 

Once you have that emergency fund saved away somewhere in a high-interest savings account, premium bonds, or anything you can access easily, you can start building your savings.

Now you know having a low income or a lot of expenses is not enough reason not to save. Using these reasons as excuses not to save will not help you. Irrespective of your income, you should be able to have a savings pot.

Till next time,

Love,

Ronke.