How to Save Quickly

For a while we’ve been producing blogs and social media posts that offer ideas of ways to save money, but we know it’s easy to read an article and not actually implement the ideas because it usually takes a while to start seeing results. In an age where almost everything is instantaneous, it can be difficult waiting for a savings pile to grow.

That’s why we decided to gather some methods that actually work. Obviously, you have to be strict with yourself, but try a couple of these and you should see very quick results.

1. Save your £2 coins

Although most people rarely use cash anymore, when we do, getting lumbered with heavy coins can be very impractical. But instead of just leaving them in the bottom of your purse or wallet, transfer them into a jar or tin. Try saving every £2 coin you receive in change. Put them in a jar and in just a few months you should have a nice little pot of gold. Because £2 coins are relatively rare, you won’t feel like you’re putting all your money into savings and they add up much quicker than any of the other coins.

2. Open a bank account with a mobile app

There are lots of new bank accounts which have really great and versatile banking apps. If you struggle with saving money into an account, some apps will let you create ‘saving jars’ which as you can imagine are like online versions of piggy banks. You can have multiple saving jars and transfer any amount of money into each one. It’s practical because you will still have access to the cash if you suddenly have an emergency expense and a lot of people find visual cues motivational when it comes to savings.

Other apps can help curb bad spending habits by blocking you from making purchases on certain sites. This is particularly useful if you are prone to gambling.

3. Track your spending

This one may not have immediate results as you will need to track your spending for about a month first, but then it should pick up pretty quickly. Either write down or download an app to your mobile which tracks your spending so you can see where you funnel most of your money. You can then work out how much of this you could actually be saving.

Obviously, your non-discretionary expenditure comes first; this includes things like your rent/mortgage payments and utility bills. You shouldn’t have to compromise on these bills; however, the rest of your money is considered to be disposable income, and this is where you can start to be flexible.

How do I know what money to save?

Watch where you spend your money, whether it’s clothes or tiny little payments towards food each day, outside of your weekly food shop. This is the spending you can easily reduce and put towards a savings fund – even if that savings fund is for a fancy night out or an outfit for an upcoming wedding. Not buying things that you would usually buy regularly can take some will power, and often you might find yourself relapsing and buying things you really don’t need, just because you haven’t bought anything in a while. But once you learn to control the temptation to shop unnecessarily, your disposable income will become your savings account’s best friend.

4. Lock away your savings

Locking your savings away means you cannot access them quickly or without facing a penalty, and so if you are living on a tight budget or you know you overspend and struggle to meet your priority bills, this may not be suitable for you.

However, if you have a more lucrative disposable income and you know you can afford to lock away some money each month, whether it’s £20 or £200, using a fixed-rate account means you benefit from higher interest rates, and as you aren’t able to withdraw the money whenever you please, you know that everything you put in there will stay safe and sound.

What if I might need the money?

If you know you might need access to your money in case of emergency or urgent payment, you could instead try a normal savings account that you can access, but one that doesn’t have a debit card or a mobile app. If you can’t easily spend the funds or transfer the cash, then you will find it much easier to keep that money on its own and it will soon grow into a nice little fund. Working with a savings account like this means that in times of emergency, you can still access the cash easily.

How can Clear and Fair help?

We know that not everything always goes according to plan, and we know that even if you’re financially savvy, you may need a little bit of extra cash here and there. Hopefully, some of the tips above will help you save some money for unexpected expenses, but at Clear and Fair, we know it’s not always that easy and sometimes you need a small amount of cash for a short period of time.

That’s why we compare loans. No one wants to pay more than they have to for anything, and so we rank our lenders in order of cost to the customer so you can see which loan will be the cheapest.

While a short term loan might help you out in a time of financial need, you have to make sure you don’t apply for more than you need, and you seriously consider your financial circumstances at the time of repayment. You shouldn’t use a payday loan to pay off another payday loan so if you are facing increasing financial difficulty, it’s best to talk to a free debt advisor to help sort the problem instead.