Hello again everyone and apologies for my month-long absence from the keyboard but I have been extremely lucky to be able to go to London this month and somehow I've also managed to afford to go again next month for my 23rd so I've been busy making plans and scouting out fun things for me and my sister to do there.
However I am not even a little bit good at saving. I'm one of these people who has to always have something to look forward to and therefore every month I'm making these elaborate plans and spending my cash on events in the future and leaving me with nothing for the rest of the month?
Sound familiar?
I wanted to write this post because as I grow older I'm constantly reminded that I have no savings for the future and as a trained garment technologist living in Scotland, it's extremely hard to find a job that isn't in England. You spend hours looking at every job website known to man and wish you had savings so that if by some chance you did get the job, you'd at least have a little something to help you move down there and get set up.
So this post is a learning curve for me as much as it is for you, my readers because I'm going to try and follow my own advice and save up some cash for the next year to help me apply for the jobs down south and move there if I got one. Sound good?
So here are some ways to save money as well as some other neat things that can help:
1. I buy and make my lunches in advance instead of going out for it during work
Now I'm a huge foodie and for ages after getting my new job I would go out to lunch but now I'm in a good habit where I bulk buy soup from ASDA to take with me to work for my lunch. You wouldn't believe the money I'm saving because I was a huuuge Costa lover and was spending £6/£7 a day on coffee and toasties as apposed to the 80p cans of soup I could be having.
2. Limit how many nights out you're having a month
I used to be a massive going-out person when I was at university. I has Fridays off when I was in second year so on Thursday afternoon I'd come back to Livingston, meet my friends and go out in one club on the Thursday night and then another on the Saturday. I should mention that these weren't exactly cheap nights and because I done it so often I was suddenly wanted new dressed to wear out so that all got added on. I'm not saying you can't enjoy yourself and socialise but sometimes I'll just bring some friends over and buy 2 bottles of wine. It's way cheaper and you can have just as fun a night!
3. I don't take my purse to work
Some of you will read this and go "What Hannah?!?" but yeah, I try not to take my purse to work because I work in a department store where my staff discount makes any purchase look like a saving when I probably didn't need it in the first place. Plus my colleagues like to go out for lunches quite often and this way I really stick to just having my cans of soup. (I sound so unsociable haha!!)
4. BUDGET
This is totally self explanatory and you'll have heard it a thousand times but it's still something I am terrible at. My form of budgeting is leaving the purse at home or having my father look after it and refuse to give me it haha!
I found a link to a site you can read about effective budgeting so: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning
5. Sell old clothes
Fashion students are extremely guilty of this because we collect clothes, our closets are our babies but my sister is an avid ebayer and the money she just made in the past month from selling her clothes online is insane and I'm going to start doing it myself! Easy money!
6. Sell old video games
If you're like me and you have a tonne of video games you don't play, we have a store called CEX where you can trade them in for cash. So instead of having all these games on my shelves that I don't even play I can trade them in or sell them to the store to make up some extra cash.
(Side note: I know the last 2 suggestions I've made aren't about saving but they are about getting some extra cash in that you could put towards savings or make it a bit easier to save during the month)
7. Make the most of being a student
You get rediculous discounts as a student and here in Scotland there's such a thing as a Young Scot card which entitles you to discounts on all sorts of stores. Look into what you can get as a student in your area and keep an eye on websites geared specifically towards student discounts. I know apple offer an awesome discount to students as well so shop around and you can save some extra money to put towards savings here as well.
8. The mason jar challenge
When I need inspiration for anything I head to pinterest. It's amazing how much you can get advice on there and when I was looking up saving methods I found this neat challenge you can do at home to help you save.
Now this won't work for everyone and my advice is to not start it in January or else by December the amount you're having to pay in each week will destroy any spending on others at Christmas.
I would start in March/April and what you do is you start at week one by putting £1 in the jar and each week the amount goes up by one.
This is something that would work for me because you can see the money gathering up and when I can see a big wad of savings I begin to just want to leave it and let it grow.
Others however will see this grow and immediately want to spend it on a big night out or a holiday so take this into account when you do it, will you be able to sit and watch it grow for the year?
9. Keep a record of your spending and saving
God bless pinterest you guys. I just found this printable debt book there which is free to download and has been made to help you track your money!
You can get it here: http://www.onebeautifulhomeblog.com/2014/12/2015-soon-debt-free-workbook/
This is going to be my bible now for saving money and keeping track of where all the cash is going AND it has a nice little savings page that if you follow correctly will have you £1300 after a year!
10. Remind yourself why you're saving
I have days where I go "This is it! I'm going to save up for a year, move south, get the dream job" and then 2 weeks later I'm like "Ugh I need to get away" and book a trip. Boom. Savings gone out the window. I'm not saying don't go away anywhere but just ensure you can afford to do it and keep saving at the same time. Don't blow the savings on just anything and remember it's all about the long term not just the next 2 months or so. I am totally guilty of this.
So my saving is for the future of my career. To keep myself motivated to save I will be doing the mason jar challenge but put a photo on the front of what I'm wanting to save for. That job, That move. That future.
I hope this is helpful to those of you in the same position as me out there. I've geared this towards the younger audience, people who maybe don't have credit cards they can cut down or a lot of bills they have to pay but if you do I seriously suggest getting on pinterest and the internet and seeing what advice and sheets people can offer you to help.
I'm off to find a big-ass mason jar!
