How To Save Money For Funding A Personal Project
With enough time and the right planning, you can get into the hang of saving, too. You may have heard that all-too-familiar advice so many times, but you can never go wrong with saving for the rainy days. It’s always good to have a little extra on hand, so whenever you need it, there’s something for you to pull out. From a lifestyle change to better budgeting habits, all these efforts are going to be worth it when you see that balance in your savings accounts rising.
Do you have a big personal project coming up? Don’t worry, as the tips enumerated below can come in handy in helping you out. Now you’ll see that saving money for your personal projects need not feel like such an impossible task to achieve.
- Save First
The save-first principle is also known as the pay yourself first principle. When every paycheck arrives, automatically put a portion of it on both your savings account and another portion on the savings intended for your personal project. Don’t put this as the last item, as chances are, you’re going to end up with none at all. In doing this, you’re sure that every month, you’re putting money into the fund for your project. You don’t have to skimp yourself through the entire month, forcing yourself to have anything left so that you can save.
Along with saving first, you may also want to practice the 50/30/20 rule. This means taking out 50% of your pay for necessities such as bills for food and utilities. 30% is what you allocate for lifestyle choices such as shopping, gym memberships, and eating out. 20% is the fixed amount that you put in for your savings.
- Open A Separate Savings Account For Your Project
As you follow on with the pay first principle, it also helps to have separate savings account for your project. Choose a savings account that also doesn’t have an ATM card attached to it. This can reduce the risks of you withdrawing money whenever you think you need “extra.” Else, your project’s fund will never grow.
With a separate savings account, it’s easier for you to automatically debit the amount or transfer the fund at every payday. Most importantly, you don’t get any temptation at all to spend the money. You may have the other alternative of just keeping it with you in a box or a money envelope, hidden. But it can be so easy to grab some cash when you feel you need it physically. Little do you know, you’re draining out the intended fund.
A savings account also helps you earn a little extra on the amount that you put in through the interest that you gain from the deposits.
- Keep Daily Small Amounts
Apart from automatically deducting a portion of your salary to go to your project fund during each pay period, you can also help this grow by adding in small daily amounts. Each day, for instance, you may want to keep ten dollars and put it in an envelope. Do this from Monday to Friday. On that Friday, deposit the amount on the bank account intended for your personal funds.
That’s an extra 50 dollars that you didn’t have to put so much effort into saving. Even as small as ten dollars each day goes a long way in enabling you to reach your savings goal faster.
- Shop Wisely
Saving up for a personal project also doesn’t mean that you have to deprive yourself of life’s enjoyment for the time being. Yes, you may want to cut out on some unnecessary expenses. For example, perhaps now you don’t need to spend five dollars a day on your coffee run. Make your own instead. But, when spending is inevitable, shop wisely.
Here are some tips to follow:
- Before going to the grocery, you may want to scour the Internet first for promo codes, such as through websites like gopromocodes.com. These can help you have discounts on your bill. Whatever amount you saved because of using promo codes, put this on your savings account for your personal project.
- Buy used. When you have to buy clothes or new furniture, or whatnot, don’t throw a blind eye on secondhand stores. There are many items you can buy in those shops that still look as good as brand new ones do. Plus, they only cost a fraction of a price.
- If you want to take advantage of sales, stay smart. Don’t just buy anything else simply because they’re on sale. Buy only the items that you need.
With these tips, you’ll have more, financially, to allocate for savings in your personal project account.
Conclusion
When you’ve got a big expense or a personal project coming up, it can be daunting to think about the money that you’ll have to shell out. You don’t want to fall into debt to be able to afford to pay for that personal project. A better option is to start saving for it as soon as you know for sure that you want that personal project to materialize. There’s no shortcut to saving money. But, these tips can help get you to your goal.
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