Budget and Save Money Budget and Save Money

make sure to resist these upgrades, and wait until there’s something actually wrong with your tech. These upgrades are more or less barely noticeable, so it all comes down to taking your money to maintain appearances. And after you make your upgrades, make sure to either sell your old devices or recycle them, but don’t let them waste space in your drawers.

If you have access to coupons or discount codes, use them. Sometimes, this only means a few dollars of savings, but sometimes you can save up a serious amount. And coupons and discount codes can be found online, in catalogues and promo e-mails, so make sure to check them out. There are even apps and websites dedicated to coupons to make it easier for you to organize and store your scores.

If you have any daily expenses, especially those that you didn’t plan on having, use cash instead of your cards. When using cards, we lose the sense of paying and spending money, but with cash, this act of spending money and watching them go away is much more visceral. Having cash is often enough to deter people from making purchases and saying goodbye to it. It might be impractical to carry cash in this day and age, but if you’re trying to save up, it’s a very good choice.

Every time you want to make a big purchase, don’t automatically say ‘no’. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend money and sometimes it’s not, so give yourself time to think about your expenses. Sleep on every more serious purchase and see how you feel about it in the morning. If you’re still excited about it and sure you’re going to benefit from this new thing, go for it—it will be money well spent. But if you no longer feel this purchase is necessary, you just managed to save yourself some money and stay on budget!