How to save when you have no money

Start

It’s the simplest way to get a savings system happening. It’ll probably never get much easier to start, and there will probably never be a point of your life where you are swimming in cash. Just start. Don’t set up to starve yourself next week, start toda and put aside $2. That is actually the most recent suggestion for the chief economist of the Social Security Administration. Other people suggest setting aside $5 a week. It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but it’ll get you into a savings routine.

Automate, if you can

If you are likely to be derailed by money consistently disappearing from your account into savings, then think about not listening to this part. Or conversely, make the deductions small but automatic. It’s easier if you don’t have to be the one responsible for moving the money.

Save your tax refund

Around the end of June, I start to get desperate for my tax return. It can pay off my credit card, it can cover my telephone expenses, it can fund a week in Melbourne. This year, my tax return will be relied upon for nothing more than a bolster to savings. Not that I’m suggesting recklessly saving the money- if you need it, you need it. But think about paying off your bills in the lead up to tax time through budgeting, which will leave you free to save you refund and use it on something you really need further down the track.

Save a daily expense

I’m not suggesting the cup of coffee, necessarily. Look at what you are spending money on, and try and cut one daily expense out and save the money instead. If you are feeling pretty skint, there may not be much to cut. Certainly, don’t sacrifice your one tiny luxury and submit to a life of total misery. Track your spending and see if there’s anything that’s not entirely necessary. Eliminate on ATM fees, and save that $2 every time. Budget as much as possible to pay your bills on time, and avoid late fees.

It’s no easy thing to start saving money when there are so many demands on your income, and it never was that huge to begin with. Rest easy, however, that any saving- no matter how small- is a step in the right direction.

How do you save when you have no money?

Regards
Sylvester