How To Save Money

Start the year right.  But what is right?  Well, it depends on what your goal is.  I believe most people will agree to me that one of their goals this year (or even on their life) is to save money.  But how do you save money?  I've read so many articles on how to save money but I can't seem to follow any of them.  Last year, I read Female Network's  (FN) Challenge in saving up Php 100,000 by end of the year.  I tweak the challenge a little bit to give myself time to prepare and not be surprised to the abrupt changes that I will do just to save up.  And I believe this tweak is easier to manage if you want to start saving up.

In FN's challenge, the basic concept is to save up Php 10 per day then add an increment of Php 10 per month.  So basically that's Php 10 per day for January, Php 20 per day for February, Php 30 per day for March and so on.  If you sum it up, by end of the year, you will be able to save Php 23,820.  Not bad.  The article also discusses other means of saving up like cutting on unnecessary expenses and having packed lunch instead of eating out.

For the tweak of this challenge, basically I replaced the increment of Php 10 per month to Php 5 per month and start at Php 5 per day for January.  This translates into the following:

Total savings for the whole year will be Php 11,910.  It may seem a small amount but you can start from here, especially for students who does not have regular income but only allowances.  You can also try what was discussed in FN challenge article, most especially in cutting down unnecessary expenses.  Personally, I was able to do this challenge last year.  Also, I save about 10-20% of the total bonuses I received.  Sometimes, even 100% of it.  I also have 2 separate bank accounts, one for my daily expenses and the other one for my savings/emergency fund. 

You may also try the blog I recently read which have a different approach in saving money.  You may read it all here.

The key for this success is discipline.  So good luck and have a prosperous new year!