How To Become Better At Saving

Saving money is something that you would think everyone can do, but in fact it's really something of a skill that requires practice and the correct mindset. Not everyone can save money and you may well know this yourself if you have ever tried and failed to stick to a new, stricter budget.

The issue here is that saving money requires a great amount of mental discipline, as well as a good understanding of budgeting. A lack of either of these traits will cause you to regularly slip up and end up spending money on things you don't have, or just forgetting to move the money across at all.

So how do you train yourself to be better at saving? How do you develop the skills that will help you to keep more of your cash and afford the things you need faster?

Learn to Budget

The first skill you are going to need is the ability to budget. This means creating a spreadsheet normally that contains all of your regular and predictable income and outgoings. From there you can then work out how much 'profit' you are left with at the end of the month, and you can decide which amount of that profit you want to put away. This will depend partly on what it is you are saving for, and what your timescale is. Try creating such a spreadsheet and sticking within that budget and you'll find that things are already a lot easier.

Use Automatic Transfers

With your budget in place a great way to help yourself stick to those guidelines is to set up more than one bank account and then to use standing orders between them. In the best case scenario this should mean that the amount you had budgeted for savings gets transferred straight into your savings account as soon as you get paid. That way you can't forget and you can't put off the decision.

Best of all is to have three accounts – one for 'daily expenses', one for bills and one for your savings Have an allocated amount directly transferred to your daily expenses account, spend the money in that account, and then don't think anything else of it (you could also have multiple savings accounts for your different goals).

Don't be Too Strict

In many ways, saving money is a lot like starting a new training program. You are going to be trying to force yourself to do something you don't want to do on a regular basis using your sheer discipline alone, with the intention of sticking to that new regime as long as possible.

The problem with 99% of new workouts though is that they're unrealistic – and people end up becoming disheartened and giving up before they've achieved what they wanted to. The solution is to make the programs fit in around their lifestyles more and to include more rest days and days when they can eat what they want. Those rest days prevent the others from becoming too much and give you energy to stick at it. The same is true with saving towards something: allowing yourself occasionally treats and being sure not to make the budget too strict is what will ultimately enable you to stick at it longer and save more!

The author of this article, Nancy Baker, is a freelance blogger and she is currently writing for First World Mortgage, leading mortgage lenders in Connecticut. She has a very dynamic personality and she enjoys interacting with people. You can also follow her on Twitter @Nancy Baker.

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