2023-10-15 09:47:20
Saving doesn’t have much mystery. The only thing we have to do is spend less than we earn. This is the simplest formula to avoid the frustrations and problems caused by financial disorder. Now, what sounds so simple in theory… is not so simple in practice. From a psychological point of view, saving is complicated because it involves putting our mind on the long term and giving up instant gratification. However, if we can change our mindset and adopt a more frugal perspective on managing our money, we can enjoy a more relaxed life in the future.
Am I throwing my money away?
When we try to put order, once and for all, in our family economy, we come across the first stone to overcome: we must carefully study how and what we are spending our money on. It is important to think about it, because if we do not know how much we spend and what we spend it on, it is impossible for us to optimize our savings in the long term.
It is advisable at this point to write down any expenses we have in our daily lives, in order to later evaluate whether these expenses are important and unavoidable… or if, on the contrary, they are superfluous and – therefore – disposable. Putting this exercise into practice consistently can be quite cumbersome, because we will have to write down even those expenses that we consider insignificant. But, if we do, we will realize how many of these seemingly harmless expenses, in the long term, can become much more harmful than others that, a priori, would seem larger.
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These expenses, which may seem small, harmless and tolerable to us in our daily lives, can be absolutely obscene when we calculate how much we spend to cover them for an entire year. To solve this problem, which makes saving and the good progress of our family economy extremely difficult, it is important to discriminate between those expenses that are necessary… and those that are not necessary at all. Below are the three types of expenses that you should pay attention to and, if you consider them superfluous and unnecessary, eliminate them once and for all from your life:
Phantom expenses
These are purchases that we make every month and that we don’t even realize. But of course, they end up affecting the budget. Within this category we can include, for example, a subscription to a productivity app thanks to which we were almost productive for 12 days, but which we forgot about shortly after. We can also put the subscription to Netflix or Spotify, etc. in this category. They are purchases that usually pass through our bank without being seen… it is as if they were ghosts.
ant expenses
It is a very appropriate name for this type of waste, because – like ants – they work slowly, but constantly… which – in the long run – generates formidable results. They are impulsive expenses, that are not planned and that do not seem like a big deal at the moment. For example, when we leave home in a hurry and without having breakfast. To make up for the mistake, we went to the office machine and bought a candy bar and a coffee from the machine. It could also be that box of gum that we buy at the gas station counter or the coins that we give to street musicians.
vampire expenses
This is the name by which fixed expenses are known, but not included in our spending plan. For example, the leak we have under the sink. We have put a bucket under it and forgotten about it, but every drop of water is money. It may not seem like much, but if you do the annual sum… then it is a problem (and of the first magnitude). Another waste that would also fall into this category are those devices that consume energy even when turned off, such as the phone charger or the toaster.
A family can save 1,300 euros a year on shopping
Identifying and eliminating these unnecessary expenses is the first step to saving effectively. Now, as we said before, what seems so simple in theory… is not so simple in practice, because it involves changing our relationship with money. If this psychological change does not occur, it is impossible for us to be able to escape from what they have called “the rat race.” Which is a term that refers to the bad habit of spending everything you earn… or worse, more than you earn. As a result, we end up making money our master, as we are forced to work harder and harder in order to continue maintaining this unnecessarily expensive lifestyle.
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