Too Lazy To Save Money? Try This!
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Too Lazy To Save Money? – Try Thinking about it like this and it might encourage you to put in the effort.
Too Lazy To Save Money? Try This!
If you’re a regular reader of my blog there may a few things that you might have noticed. Firstly, I love saving money. Secondly, I love spending it too. Something I want to be honest about on this blog is our finances, how we’re coping and why we are making the choices we are.
Are you too lazy to save money?
It may seem that recently we have spent a lot of money seemingly unnecessary things. Although, that of course does depend on your point of view. The point of this post isn’t to brag – everyone’s priorities are different and what you spend your money on is entirely up to you. I just want to show that being super savvy with your cash can have massive ramifications in allowing you to do the things you love, such travelling, eating at fancy restaurants – whatever that may be for you.
‘Time is Money’ – Benjamin Franklin
Time is money is a phrase you’ve heard many, many times and which was originally coined by Benjamin Franklin. But have you ever thought about exactly what it means for you? You probably have in terms of your hourly rate of pay – but have you ever looked at it as an hourly rate of savings?
One thing I often find when chatting to people is that they are just too lazy to save money. They either can’t be bothered, are comfortable enough that they don’t see the saving as making a huge difference to them financially or are just happy paying full price for things.
Personally, I love hunting down a bargain. If I can get something for less I will and with cashback on top of the savings the money is soon stacking up. And often all it takes is a few minutes of googling and clicking through from one of my cashback accounts.
I think part of the problem here is that people seem to don’t seem to view savings in the same way that they view earnings. The average hourly rate of pay in the U.K is £13.03 Per Hour (Source). Now I know to some reading this that might seem high and of course it is much more than the minimum wage of £7.50
With a little bit of research, especially on big household items like T.Vs you could easy make that back – and then some in the space of a few minutes – but people still don’t bother. I think convenience often wins out – a few clicks and you have whatever you were looking for delivered to your door.
How it works for me
The way I do my weekly shop is a prime example of this.
Last year I cut our monthly food budget down just £50 – previously I hadn’t budgeted but I suspect we were spending in excess of £200 a month. While we weren’t always able to stick to this budget exactly the most we went over by was about £10. It completely changed the way we shop. We were so careful – we cut out a lot of crap we were used to just buying without really thinking about and carefully considered each item we put in our basket. I meal planned and couponed and did three of four small shops a week. Admittedly this did take some extra time. Cutting the big weekly shop into several smaller ones probably cost me an hour extra a week. Another hour for the coupons, checking shopping apps and uploading receipts when I got home.
So 2 extra hours a week spent planning the weekly shop.
But the savings – roughly a £150 a month are the equivalent to getting £18.75 for each of those hours – which for me is totally worth it and much more than what I earn in an hour at my day job.
Haggling
Another great example of this is when haggling with companies over utilities and for this example I am going use Sky. I do have a post detailing a Super Lazy Way to haggle with Sky – but this method takes a little longer, around an hour to an hour and a half.
I like to use the chat function on the Sky website – mostly because I don’t like talking to people on the phone and it means I can be multi-tasking while I do it. Just ask for money off your bill. It’s as simple as that. They will ask you questions about what you watch etc which is what takes up the time.
I did this for my parents recently and secured around 25% off a month – saving them £450 over the 18 month contract compared to what they were paying. And if someone offered you £450 for an hour and half’s work you’d be jumping at the chance right? OK, so they won’t have that money immediately but it’s still worth for such a huge saving over 18 months.
When trying to find ways to ‘make’ extra money you will often there is often cash already in your budget, you just need to spend time finding it!
Are you too Lazy Too Save Money? Or do you love hunting down a bargain? I’d love to hear about it!
