So, I'm starting a new game plan and a few strategies to raise my savings. And since Christmas is the season of giving, I’ve decided to share my savings plan with all of you. Here are my top tipid tips to save up for the holidays:
1. Say NO to impulse buying.
This is my biggest sin against my earnings. I go to the mall with a list of things to purchase— needs, not wants— and then go home spending maybe P2,000 more because I passed by a sale and could not let go of that pretty top I never intended to buy. It’s a challenge to discipline myself when it comes to shopping, but now I’ve learned to keep myself in check. When I see tempting sale events at the mall, I stop, visualize my savings goal, take a deep breath and say to myself: “You can live without it. Let it go.” Imagine keeping P2,000 every week that might have been spent unnecessarily on impulse buys. That’s P8,000 added to your savings! Yay!
2. Sacrifice your regular milk tea and samgyupsal.
Sounds pretty obvious, but if you’re a lover of milk tea and a self-declared carnivore like me, I bet you're also guilty of this. I indulge in milk tea perhaps twice or thrice a week and probably go to have samgyupsal with my hubby on weekends as a reward for ourselves. Say one cup of milk tea is at least P100. Foregoing that I save P400 a month. Then samgyupsal is P500 per meal. I stop doing it every payday and I save P1,000 a month. Altogether, that’s P1,400 to spare and save instead. If I do this consistently for three months, that would add up to P4,200. Not bad, right?
3. Do not fall on Paluwagan turned Pasikipan. Open a savings account at GSave.
If you can complete the payments until the end, it means you have the ability to save. Do not entrust your money to someone else, save it in the bank.
I have been using this virtual wallet GCash to pay my bills and online purchases. I recently found out it has a savings function, GSave. It’s a digital savings account by CIMB Bank, which I know is not that familiar to Filipinos but I looked it up and learned it’s one of Asia’s largest investment banks. I was surprised it offers a 3-percent interest rate, much bigger than in banks!
What’s more, you can open it with no initial deposit and has no maintaining balance. Once you have an account, you can deposit and withdraw anytime through GCash. No need to line up in a physical bank to start a savings account and make your regular deposits. It’s so convenient!
4. Use a mobile app to track your spending and income.
I use this app called Spending Tracker. It has a monthly calendar where you can input your income and expenses under categories like holiday, shopping, eating out, kids, etc. You can edit and add more categories as you need. Seeing my unnecessary expenses go up every day, every week jolts me into a certain panic to save as much as or more than I spend.
For example, I spent P4,000 on things that were not really necessary or urgent, so I have to put the same amount or more into my savings account. It’s a self-imposed rule I plan to adhere to until I reach my goal.
So there you go. Hope this helps.
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Any comments, my dear?