by Jeffrey Strain
It’s that time again — your chance to win a little money to help pay down debt or put it toward one of your other financial goals. We have changed things up a bit with this one, this time offering one cash prize of $25 while also offering five smaller prizes of $5. There are a lot of different ways to enter including sharing your tips in the comment area on how you save money.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
So, how do I save money?
I would argue that one of the best ways to save money is to take the time to get to know yourself well and be honest in that assessment. While that doesn’t sound like a normal piece of advice when it comes to saving small amounts, I have always found that the better you know yourself, the more opportunities you will have to save money.
While I wish I were perfect and could refrain from all the things that I know I shouldn’t do, the reality is that when it comes to certain things, I lack the willpower I have in other areas. Knowing this allows me to make adjustments so that I can compensate for these weaknesses.
One of my biggest weaknesses is snacking. I don’t know why, but if there is junk food around, I will snack on it. And snack on it. And snack on it some more. The funny thing is that if the junk food isn’t there, I’m OK and can get by fine. This has taught me to keep none of it around.
The problem arises when I see a great deal on one of my favorite snacks. The automatic temptation is to buy the snack in bulk since it’s so much less expensive than buying it individually, but the problem is that if I buy ten at $1.00 each or one a $2.00, I will still eat them all in one day (seriously, my friends and family call me the human vacuum cleaner). So while buying items in bulk when they are on sale is great advice for saving money for most, it’s terrible advice for me when it comes to snacks.
I now know myself well enough to know this and so I no longer buy snacks in bulk. I don’t even buy them on a regular basis just to have one around. I only buy them when I have the desperate craving that will get me to get up from what I’m doing and go to the store to get one. While it costs me more on the individual basis, it saves me more money than buying in bulk and keeps me a lot healthier.
Now, I know this is not an issue that most of you have, but I am pretty sure that you have your own little quirks and imperfections where you know you spend more than you should. I have plenty and I hope I’m not the only one. Denying them won’t solve the issue, but acknowledging them and looking at them realistically can go a long way to help find a solution to the issue. I find that being honest with myself and my imperfections has been a wonderful way to save money in a wide variety of areas of my life.
What are some of the ways that you are able to consistently save small amounts of money?
