Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Halifax via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Halifax.
2015 is the year, that I will be saving money rather than spending it. That makes a change eh? My main saving goals are for a house deposit, and secondly a holiday. I have my eye on America. I can’t decide between NYC or another trip back to Orlando. Saving for a house is also pretty important, we’ve outgrown our home, and I’m excited to hopefully one day have a kitchen that can hold more than one person in. But saving money is something I find incredibly hard. Having always been a bit of a shopaholic, let’s just say that Topshop calls my name every now and then, and I find it very hard to resist.
However I am determined to be better with saving, and with having some solid goals, this has given me more inspiration to put away those pennies.
My main goal is to save enough money for a house deposit. I have been browsing Pinterest for inspiration, as I can’t wait to have my own home that I can decorate my way and put my own stamp on. However, as much as I am excited about hopefully buying my own house one day. I have found researching the process very confusing. Henry will talk to me about shared equity and deposits, and I’ll literally sit with a blank expression on my face. I find stuff like this quite hard to understand so I was pretty relived to see that Halifax have created a series of videos on financial jargon which some people may not know much about. I have found this a huge help and has helped me to understand things such as 5% deposits, which is what we will be going for when we have enough money saved up for a deposit. It’s been a relief to finally know what this jargon means and this has even helped me be more motivated to save for a house, as the whole process doesn’t scare me as much anymore. I would definitely recommend watching these videos. As I no longer have such a blank expression when people mention these terms since watching them.
So with this in mind, I thought that today, I would write a few tips on how I’m going to be trying to save money in 2015. Let’s hope that these things will help me save up enough for both a house deposit and New York fund…. a girl can dream right?
- No more shopping! Okay that might be hard, but to buy better quality things less often.
- If I really want something, I’m going to see if I’m still thinking about it 48 hours later. If yes, then I’ll consider it, but if I’ve forgotten it, I leave it.
- To go for a run or pop on a fitness YouTube video rather than joining up for another gym membership to save money. You can still get fit for free.
- To shop at different places when doing my food shop. Shopping around for the best deals rather than all at one place just for connivence.
- To put away all the spare change in my purse into a money bank. Not only will I be saving money, my handbag will be lighter.
- To walk more places rather than driving and having to pay for parking.
- To utilise apps such as Spotify rather than download album after album on iTunes.
- To shop my make up stash more often, I always find forgotten gems in there. It’s like make up shopping for free.
- Download voucher apps and only eat out in restaurants that have deals or voucher codes.
- Realise that I can literally blog about anything I want without having to spend money. Taking my camera to a park with Frankie, you don’t have to spend money to create great content.
- To put away a certain amount of money each month into a separate savings account that I can’t access very easily. ( Less easy to spend then)
- To remember why I am saving. Look round show houses and imagine how nice it would be to have this as my house, or watch vlogs of New York to see just how amazing it is. It’ll inspire me to keep going.
- Ditching takeaways, and lets be honest making my own pizza is much healthier, cost effective and tastes better than the likes of Domino’s.
- To get crafty when it comes to birthdays and Christmas gifts, this will help me save money and well luckily homemade DIY gifts are very on trend right now 😉
These are just some things that I have started to do in an attempt for saving. So far so good. I feel that I’ve got into the mindset that I want to save and I know that the end result will totally be worth having a few tighter months. You see the thing is, just because I’m saving doesn’t mean that I can’t ever have any fun, it’s all about keeping things in perspective and well the odd topshop haul doesn’t hurt every now and then. Fingers crossed that 2015 will be the year of saving for me, let me know your top tips for saving, and what you’re saving for. We can do this together 🙂
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