[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by pinksugar

I wrote some tips on this in one of the the no buy support forum threads:

A. make a budget. Previously I'd just spend until there was no money left. This sucks if you are paid monthly like I am.

B. Anything you can pay in advance as soon as you get paid - do so. So, if you know you always go out to dinner on a saturday, put aside X amount for each week and keep it in an envelope until it's time to spend it. I do this with bus tickets, phone credit, my starbucks card and long-standing weekly 'dates' with my friends.

C. Only keep notes in your wallet. You will be less likely to spend them! If you do spend, remove any coins from your wallet and put them in a bucket, piggy bank or whatever when you get home. They will soon add up to a couple of hundred dollars!

D. Give yourself a goal. Mine is - I want to go overseas next year for my internship. It will be 3-4 months of unpaid, full time employment. I need savings to do this, therefore, I must make some before then! LOL.

E. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by my friends who are VERY savings conscious. They've really helped me and I realise I was ashamed of what I'd achieved. One friend has been working full time for 4 years and has $40 000. Meanwhile, I've been working part time/casually for even LONGER and I have NO savings from my work! I was really ashamed when I learnt that and it encourages to keep me on track. If she can do so well, so can I - she's an amazing inspiration.

D. This same friend said her rule is to spend half, save half. Obviously, some of the time I've been working I might only be earning $100 a week! (stupid casual employment!) but when you're working full time, or even part-time several days a week like I am now - it's possible to only spend half of your wage.

So there you go! Rosie's savings tips I hope these help - people save in lots of different ways but these are what I've found to work best for me. Good luck with your savings!

I would add to this that, I originally tried what you did - to put money into a separate account. It didn't work for me either, I would spend the money in both.

Instead, I keep my savings in my account until I get paid again - then I remove what I saved the previous month and put it into my savings 'tin' - because it's not on a card, the money isn't easily accessible, so I can't spend it.


Phew! I guess for some, saving is easy, but for me, I have to have all these things in place, and if I don't work at it, then nothing gets saved, lol

Very good tips! As basic as my budget gets is paying the necessities first (food, rent, gas, car, car insurance) and then i go to 2nd priorities on my list (phone, minor fix ups such as oil changes, or whatever comes up) and then i always buy at least one thing for me and the rest goes to savings. I dont' see the point of holding out completely on an item(within reasonable price) since i work all day. I think i'd go mad if i couldn't a little pick me up everytime i got paid.