I'm on the same boat. With insurance, gas, bills etc. It adds up for me. Put into savings account. Let it build up with interest. It's hard I know just ask yourself: "Do I really need this right now?"

maDzMufc wrote I'm on the same boat. With insurance, gas, bills etc. It adds up for me. Put into savings account. Let it build up with interest. It's hard I know just ask yourself: "Do I really need this right now?"

Yeah your right I be thinking that & I'm trying to get to the point where whenever I go out somewhere I don't have to worry about how much money I can or can't spend you know ?

if you have a phone contract that is coming to an end if you start the process to end the contract most of them will offer you a loyalty bonus cutting the cost of your contract for as long as you stay with the provider just moan about other networks being cheaper.

I currently get 30% off my monthly bill for life and the money saved soon adds up.

It's all about self control. Those clothes may be nice, but do you really need them? More than you need a vehicle? The basis behind growing your money is increasing money flow in, while decreasing flow out. If you can only do one it'll still help but really focus on decreasing flow out,

I have my money in a few different categories. Any money made from overtime gets put away and I act like I don't have it. This is for retirement, maybe a rainy day, etc. Now I only keep a max of 250 cash in my wallet. Once I hit 250, 100 goes in my bank. This works for me because I hate using my card so I never spend this money. Once that hits 1k, I put 500 in a savings account where I never touch it unless I need to. Once that hits 4k, 2k goes to the same place my overtime money does.

This system may help you out or it may not but it works for me. Of course you'd need to change the numbers a bit, this is based off of my wages. Look at it as a percentage, the max my wallet can have is 1/16 of my pay for the month discluding predium. My bank can hold a max of 1/4 what I make per month, and the savings account max is what I make monthly.

For you, the max in your wallet should be 87.5 (we;ll round to 100). Once that hits 100, put 50 in the bank. Once that hits 200, put 100 in a savings. Once that hits 350, put 250 in a place and understand this is money for emergency bills, not buying clothes, or taking someone out on a date. Doing this every month you should have 50 in your wallet, 100 in the bank, and 150 in savings, Once you pay bills (they should come out of your wallet, then bank, then savings if still not covered), you should have 810 in the place where you don't spend it every month. Weather this is for retirement, for a vehicle, what ever, 810 should be going in every month.

See if those numbers / that system would work for you, This allowed me to have 5k for my truck when I was 15, and dump another 11k into it by the time I was 17. I don't like putting my current finances on the internet, but I'm in a comfortable pace for my current lifestyle. It sounds like you have more expenses than me though. I haven't bought clothes for a couple years lol.

I was struggling for a while but after a while, I thought I need to save then sometimes when I'd be at the checkout of stuff what I was about to buy, I would then stop myself then and cancel it. Just think before you finalize the purchase.

Sean wrote if you have a phone contract that is coming to an end if you start the process to end the contract most of them will offer you a loyalty bonus cutting the cost of your contract for as long as you stay with the provider just moan about other networks being cheaper.

I currently get 30% off my monthly bill for life and the money saved soon adds up.

I may have to try that soon Sean, thanks for the shout.

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Fixed savings account;

last year I didn't save a penny without one. But this year managed to save around £4,000 so far in the last 5 months. Set up a direct debit straight to my fixed savings on payday for £850.