Increase Your Bank Balance

Increasing your bank balance is obviously important for your financial health. Yet it may seem an impossible task when your salary is stuck where it's at and there is no likely increase in your financial stakes in the foreseeable future.

Achieving decent savings on a tight budget is possible by taking more notice of the small expenditures that tend to seep away money unnoticed. While it may seem challenging at first, it's nice to know that there are quite a few savings over which you do have complete control. To discover how to use your small savings to increase your bank balance, follow these suggestions.

Steps

  1. Prepare to move away from poor spending habits. The best way to increase your bank balance is to not dwell on past mistakes or to repeat them. Instead, look towards your savings-inclined future. Above all, action is more important than anything else. Take one single small step, and never quit focusing on the smaller things until your bank balance has increased healthily. And hopefully by then, you'll have developed some good ingrained habits so that the balance keeps on increasing regardless of your greater spending power.
    • Adopt a savings mindset instead of a spending one. It will take time to curb a spending habit if you have one but it's nothing more than a habit, so you can break it. Every time that you go to buy something, have a phrase or a question to make you think about whether or not you really need to make that purchase.
    • Realize that minor spends tend to be "off the radar" of many people. This is why they can be so damaging because little by little, they add up to quite a bit and eat away at your chances of increasing your bank balance.
  2. Start your day with breakfast and coffee at home. If you have been in the habit of grabbing a latte and cinnamon bun on the way to work, it's time to stop. Eating on the run is unhealthy and if you're eating fatty and sugary foods, you're not giving your body good fuel for the day. Save money by eating a healthy breakfast at home and enjoying your coffee there too. If this means getting up a bit earlier, then do so––the extra sleep will have to come from an earlier bedtime, which won't hurt you!
  3. Brown paper bag (or thermal lunchbox) your lunch. You can save a lot of money by making your own lunch every day. Try it for a week and compare the savings. You'll find it's not just money but also time spent in waiting lines too. You also have more freedom about where to eat and more time to exercise, walk around or run errands when you brown paper bag your lunch. Put the cost difference into the savings account.
  4. Switch to your library for reading material. Books, magazines and newspapers soon add up if you're buying them a lot. By borrowing reading material more often, you can put the money saved straight into the bank instead.
    • Some libraries allow you to download e-books to an electronic reader. If you have an electronic reader, use the library's borrowing rights rather than purchasing your own copy.
  5. Revamp your existing wardrobe instead of tossing it out and buying all new clothes each season. Look for ways to improve the clothes you have, including adding embellishments, dying them, changing their shape or function or swapping them with a friend. If you really love clothes, set a tight budget for clothes and once it has been reached, buy no more. Put all the savings you have made into the bank––compare the amount spent now with the same time last year and put the savings straight into your account.
    • Wait for the sales. Unless you're working in a fashion house (in which case, let's hope they're subsidizing your clothing purchases), there is no need to be wearing things straight off the catwalk. Sales come quickly these days, so be patient and wait for one.
    • Some clothing stores or brands let you join their discount clubs or membership for free and then offer you sale weekends or days now and then. Be sure to make use of these by giving them a current email address, so that you can be alerted to the best deals. However, don't fall into the trap of buying just because there is a discount on! Buy what you need and no more.
  6. Reduce your travel costs. Traveling to work or studies by car can be expensive, with fuel, maintenance and car parking costs to cover. Can you ride your bike or walk instead? Perhaps there is public transportation with good deals on multi tickets. Another option might be car-pooling. While it's convenient to have your own car, it's expensive. By finding cheaper transportation methods, you will make a lot of savings for your account.
    • Try to have only one car per the whole household; this can save an enormous amount of money if everyone shares the one car and relies on other transportation methods to cover the gaps.
    • Any form of going from A to B that involves walking or cycling will improve your health. Just be aware of road safety and air pollution issues and take appropriate action as needed.
  7. Improve your waistline at the same time as fattening your bank account. Reduce or even cut out the candies, sweets and other sugary treats that you've been indulging in. By stopping the purchase of cakes, chips, chocolates, candies and other snacks, you will save money and not fill yourself up with empty calories. Save them as real treats for once in a while rather than as daily "must-haves". Put the savings straight into the bank so that you don't risk feeling deprived!
  8. Stop buying lottery tickets. Your chances of winning are astronomically tiny. Your chances of throwing away a lot of money that could have been placed into the bank instead are huge. You may feel that "just one win" will solve all of your problems but it won't. Even if you did win, you're still going to have to deal with whatever personal problems are bothering you––within a year of winning lottery, most people's lives are back to how they were before the win. Get real and let compound interest do some real increasing of your fortunes instead.
    • If your workplace makes you feel obliged to participate in contributing toward an office ticket each week, make a decision whether it's worth the angst of begrudging your fellow rainbow chasers or whether to take a stand. You can always mention that you've seen the light and no longer participate in any form of gambling. Don't feel pressured into doing it just because everyone else thinks they're going to win big some day.
  9. Review all of your subscriptions to magazines, gyms, websites, what have you. Are you getting full value out of them or have you managed to forget all of the things you're subscribed to? It's important to make the most of any subscription; if you're not, cancel it and put the money into your bank account instead.
    • Do a small calculation to see if your gym membership is worth it per visit. If you are going every day, chances are it's paying for itself nicely. If you're only going once in a blue moon, it's possible you're paying something awful like $100 a visit!
    • Instead of paying for a membership to go to a gym, just go jogging or walking every morning. Schedule other exercises that are free.
    • Check out your local charity store for backdated magazines and some great book reads. You can get a bundle for a dollar in some places!
  10. Review your telecommunications and energy contracts regularly. Are you getting the best possible deals for your phone, internet access, electricity or gas, cable TV, etc.? Check out the competitors to your current suppliers to see what is on offer.
    • Always read the fine print before leaping from one service to another and before signing up with a new service. You don't want to be lumped with paying fees for breaking a contract early or for having to sign up for longer than your attention span.
  11. Be savvy with your food shopping and eating choices. Eat in more often, eat healthily and eat things you've cooked yourself. Grab some menus from your favorite eating places and reproduce the meals at home. Put the savings you've made straight into the bank account.
    • Non-brand name food is often as good as brand name food. It's worth trying to see what's okay for your palate; you may save a lot.
    • Don't deprive yourself of eating out totally. Some eating out is essential for meeting up with friends, catching the buzz of being around other people and for simply enjoying yourself. Saving money isn't about completely denying yourself of some joys like this!
  12. Stop smoking and either reduce or quit drinking alcohol. These two items can waste a lot of money and they're not doing a lot of good for your health. Smoking isn't at all healthy, while excess drinking isn't either. One compromise for alcohol might be to stop weekday alcohol drinking and just enjoying it in moderation from Friday to Sunday night. A bottle of wine with every meal soon adds up!
  13. Curtail the shopping for leisure and substitute it with real leisure activities. Treat shopping as the necessity it is and purchase only what you need, within a limited time frame. If you really do love shops, do some window shopping rather than actual purchasing. Then, find some good leisure substitutes to take the space of aimless spending, such as playing a sport, taking a bike ride by the river, taking someone's dogs for a walk, visiting the beach or going for long walks in nature or your local urban environment. Put the savings into the bank.
  14. Slow down on the upgrades. Do you really need to have the latest computer/MP3 player/cell phone/electronic device upgrade? How good is your existing item right now? If it's doing all that you need it to and it's running just fine, consider holding off until the upgraded version is much cheaper or on sale. If it's just about keeping up or status, then you don't need to waste the money.
  15. Actively plan to shift the savings you have made from your wallet to your bank account. Saving on the small stuff won't work unless you can see actual results. You must move the savings into your account on a regular basis. It's recommended that you physically record or even count out the savings and either add real money to a jar or piggy bank for regular deposit or transfer between accounts online. After a few months of doing this, you should notice the increase as being quite substantial.
    • Doing this will remove the temptation to shift your cash somewhere else.
  16. Embrace your frugal mindset. Being frugal, thrifty or a conscious consumer isn't about deprivation. It's about knowing when too much is too much and enough is enough. It's about leading a life less cluttered and having more time to socialize, exercise and be creative instead of having to fret about bills and overdrafts.
    • Build small bonus spends into your savings. It shouldn't be all saving and no treating. On special occasions, allow yourself a little indulgence to prove to yourself that saving by paying attention to all the small things pays dividends.
    • When your spendthrift voice gets a little too loud, remind yourself that good feelings come from having saved enough for the things you really want in life rather than frittering away money here and there on this and that.
    • Do things that make you happy rather than spending to try to find happiness suspended inside an object.

Tips

  • Are your friends still spending a lot? Let them know you need to be thrifty and that you're not a charity case. You might need to spend a little less time around their big-spending habits. Ask them to come on a hike or beach visit with you now and then. Tell them you have something money can't buy––decent topics of conversation!
  • If you have family, be sure not to neglect them. Do not let your work take priority over your relationships unless you have carefully thought through your decision. It could change your life.
  • Avoid charges on your bills. Pay online before the due date and take advantage of all early payment discounts.
  • Find an additional source of income. Making a little extra money online is easy. You can start a webpage or process e-mail for free and get paid to publish ads or visit websites.
  • Throw out all but one credit card. Use that one credit card only when you really need it, such as for insurance coverage on a purchase.
  • Stick to a budget. This is the number one way to know where your money is going.
  • Make use of what you already own. Bathroom cabinets and pantries full of canned food are good places to start! Only replace consumables as and when you need them.
  • Temporary moratoriums on buying certain items can help get you through leaner periods without feeling like you have to give up the item for all times.
  • Neither a borrower nor a lender be!
  • If you need to come home in a taxicab, share the ride.

Warnings

  • Occasional treats are allowed. You're not seeking hermit award of the month! The real point of noticing small expenditures that are being frittered away is to learn to overcome impulse purchases and to make sure that your money is working harder for you instead of simply slipping away each week.

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