9 Things I Stopped Doing to Save Money for a Car

In the spring of 2018, I set out to purchase a vehicle for $20,000 and be able to cash in for it by the year 2020. My calculations indicated that to achieve my goal, I would need to save approximately $1,000 per month. Even if you consider my household earns an adequate income however, the chance to set aside this amount was almost impossible. However, the idea was birthed and it captivated me.

 

In particular specifically for Bright Side Particularly for Bright Side, I'm going to share with you about "wasteful" habits I have struggled to get rid of in order to save enough money to purchase the car I've always wanted.

 

Initial data

The name I have is Polina and I reside in Saint Petersburg and, in 2018, we planned to buy a new vehicle. We already owned a 10-year-old car that needed more attention every day. There was a coughing, sniffling, or break into pieces, then we would have to continuously "fix" it. One time, the car went down on our way to the countryside to celebrate on my mother's birthday. we missed the most important element of the occasion as we tried to get it working.

 

Additionally we were expecting a child and needed a larger car that had 5 doors rather than the three-door vehicle that we owned. We decided to purchase the car without taking out loans, even though it wasn't brand new.

 

To reach the financial goals one must know the amount of money they own.

Now I know with certainty the amount we invest in each area of our lives. I also can plan our budget for the month in advance. However, two months ago I didn't imagine how much our family would spend on goods. We'd make impulsive purchases whenever we needed something, we would purchase it. When I first decided to set a target, I began recording all of my expenses in a notebook every day. I separated them into four categories:

 

mandatory services: housing, mobile phone services internet, mobile phone services

everyday life: products, detergents products, animal food, self-care products

Entertainment: gathering with friends and enjoying museums, cafes, food delivery

force majeure: treatment, medicine, repair

 

I spent a whole month figuring out where the money is going. The reality that we'd begun to record every expense forced us to consider prior to making a purchase "Do we really need it?" I compared the method of saving money as competing with my own waste and at the end of the month, a coveted prize would be waiting to me. It was crucial to ensure that we did not compromise the quality of our lifestyle as we were going be required to save money for a lengthy period of time.

 

Bad habit #1: Spending our entire salary

I came up with an entirely new rule in order to "pay myself" monthly and registered for automatic transfers to my bank account online. The day I received my pay the money was automatically transferred to my savings account $300. The money wasn't sitting around however, I was earning an interest rate on it. The main reason for this was the fact that should I decided to withdraw it I'd lose all bonus.

 

To ease the process of releasing this cash more simple, I thought that I was taking out for a car loan. However the money stayed in my pocket. I simply kept the money from my self. It was incredibly difficult however, I did make the decision with myself to use the remaining money however I wanted to, but really couldn't. When I received my check and seeing only the half in my bank account I was unable to put the money on food or dining out at restaurants immediately vanished.

 

There were months when I was able to boost my monthly installment to myself. Because of this, I managed to save even more. I saved around $6,000 and approximately $200 was the interest I earned for simply having money in the account.

Bad habit 2: Not recognizing the chance to save money on the obligatory bill

I was always thinking it was a myth that utilities for the general public were incredibly expensive however it was discovered that there is a way to reduce the cost of these services. In addition to installing meters for electricity and water and replacing all light bulbs with LED and establishing the practice of turning off the water when we don't use our water supply, we implemented the following steps:

 

We began to use extra lights instead of the standard one in the evenings.

I would recommend using the dishwasher and washing machine after 11pm only (it's cheaper than late afternoon).

I began to select the washing option. Heating the water to 140degF takes more energy than washing at 90degF.

With these helpful practices, we began to pay less than $20-30 per month. It also added around 500 dollars to our banking accounts in the span of 1.5 years.

 

Negative habit #3 I don't check my accounts daily

I began checking my bank accounts and cash every day. If I had some money remaining at the end of my day, then I'd transfer the money into my account for savings. If, for instance, I had $186 left on my credit card, I would transfer $6 into the savings account. This allowed me to save around $70100 within a single month. I also did the same by using cash and would always spend this money for something worthwhile such as paying for bills. In the span of 1.5 years of rounding my daily expenses off, I was able to save $1200. If I hadn't done it, it could have been thrown away.

Bad Habit #4: Having a habit of eating out often

I began to prepare meals ahead in order to have enough food to last the coming week. I would then divide portions of food for one serving and then freeze the portions in containers. The recipes were easy with garnish, fish or meat + vegetables. The food can be stored for up to a week or longer. In the past, when I was too busy to prepare meals, I'd place an order for food delivery, visit an eatery, or purchase take-out food. Nowadays, I remove frozen food items from the freezer, take it out of the freezer, open it, then eat it. This way, I'm making money, and I didn't eat a lot of calories.

It's fine to freeze soups and they do not lose flavor after the process of removing them from freezers. It's much more practical to carry frozen soups to work since it won't spill. This method, however, drew the attention of my colleagues, who would constantly glance at my soup and smirk at me. However, for me I was content since I didn't eat fast food on breaks for lunch.

But, I decided to stop having soup for lunch and resorted to meals that were second in order. They look more appealing, even when frozen. This technique helped us save around $100 per month (which amounts to about $1,800 over 1.5 year) and also affected how we spent our time at home. We did not have to go to restaurants and cafes more often, and instead we decided to walk more and spent more time outside in fresh air.

Here are some additional tips for making money from products. We will always purchase items with an extended shelf life, which is usually found in large packs (tea sugar, pasta, groats, the cat food and canine food). If I found a great price on a product I would always use, like laundry detergent, toothpaste, or my usual shampoo, I'd purchase 4-5 packs at once.

 

I picked up fruits and vegetables alone, since packaged ones are always more expensive. When compared to the initial month of the study, when I was just analyzing my expenses the difference was only around $70 (which was close to $1,300 for 1.5 months).