Saving is exhausting and impossible with your salary? We wouldn't be so sure about that. Maybe you just have to change a few little things – and avoid these 5 savings mistakes right now.
Wouldn't it be nice to have money left over at the end of the month instead of scratching dangerously close to zero (unfortunately often enough from below)? And best of all, without having to follow twelve savings tips and rules at once, win the lottery or pocket a six-figure annual salary?
Of course it would – and now hold on tight: It works! Most of the time, we don't have to develop a complicated savings system to put something back, just a few Change habits that keep us from saving every day. So let's be honest: How many of the following five savings mistakes are you making?
5 savings mistakes and how to avoid them
1. We buy on account
Ordered two pairs of pants in the online shop with the intention of sending one of them back. But then, when trying it on, I realized that both of them are simply too good to send one back. Doesn't hurt – if we have ordered on account and the reminder does not flutter into the house until six weeks later. But then all the more, because the feeling of happiness because of the new pants has long since vanished …
Unless absolutely vital, we should Generally avoid buying on accountbecause at some point they put us in the uncomfortable position of having to run after our expenses. Either we can afford the two pairs of pants and pay for them straight away – or not. When we make a purchase decision, we should feel the consequences immediately – the positive and the negative …
2. We don't know our fixed costs
Pretty much everything goes down on the 1st of every month, so we know how much we have available by 4th / 5th at the latest – not. Times. Nearly. Apart from the rent, hardly anything is debited on the first of the month. Electricity, mobile communications, internet, license fees, water, maybe one or the other installment payment – all of this often extends to the 29th and when we then calculate with the account balance that we queried on the 5th, the shock at the end of the month is of course great.
Therefore: Write down once how much money is really going down from our account each month (Attention: note quarterly and annual payments!) And deduct this sum for us in our head on the first of the month – or even better: keep the budget book.
3. We think in too long periods of time when we save
When we try to make targeted savings, we usually set ourselves monthly goals and budgets. That is not necessarily wrong in itself. But especially when we want to start to budget a little more consciously, relatively difficult to implement. Because how do I have to behave here and now so that I haven't exceeded my budget in 30 days? Often we are very generous at the beginning of such a monthly period because we think we can easily compensate for this generosity. But then you have to buy more beauty products earlier than expected, a new film is running that we wanted to see, or when you go out to dinner with the BFF there is more wine than planned – Zack, monthly budget is once again far exceeded.
If we set a monthly goal, we should calculate down what that means in concrete terms for each day. Sure, when we do our weekly shopping on Saturdays, we spend the most by far. But ideally we made enough "plus" on the other days by not exhausting our daily budget to be able to afford everything we needed when shopping.
4. We underestimate small sums
A coffee to go, an ice cream at the cash register or a salad at the supermarket salad bar – all small amounts that none of us think about. But precisely because of that Our unconscious consumption often spills up sums that we would have liked to invest differently in retrospect. Because let's be honest: How much do we need and enjoy our 2-euro coffee from the baker on the way to work and what makes the individually wrapped 1.80-euro ice cream so much more delicious than the one in our freezer for which we as Part of a six-pack didn't pay 30 cents?
We don't have to deny ourselves anything that really gives us pleasure, but we should get used to ours even with small amounts Always questioning the purchase decision.
5. We don't set any specific goals
Oh, it would be great if at some point there is so much money in the account that I can buy something really nice with it … Sure, but it won't work that way. We'll never save if we don't know how much we want to cover and, ideally, what we are going to cover it for. We need now an incentive and a motivationto let the joy of the new pants spoil with an immediate debit or prefer to drink the coffee in the office.
With a specific request, it's easier to save – and when we have the money for the new bike, we can always decide to keep bunkering for the USA trip …
You can find more tips on how to save in everyday life or how you can save money every month in our related articles. And if you want it to be easy: Have you ever heard of the € 5 trick?