For the vast majority of people, saving money isn’t the easiest thing to do. Salaries only stretch so far. With bills, rent, debt, and basic cost of living to contend with, there’s often not much left at the end of the month to put away.

But this doesn’t bode well for your financial future. To be able to live comfortably later on in life, pay for those unexpected one-off expenses, and have the peace of mind of having a fund for those rainy days, saving is imperative. So, what’s the solution?

Simple. Seek out the best money saving tips you can find. Saving is difficult, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s far from impossible.

Often, people just don’t have the financial literacy necessary to make smart financial choices. This isn’t their fault. It simply means all they need are the tools and resources in order to be able to make smarter spending and saving decisions.

This is what we’re going to present you with today. Getting better at saving takes 2 simple steps: learning the tips and tricks necessary to do so, and then turning that knowledge into better choices and good habits. Read on to learn how now.

Clever Ways To Save Money

1. Create a Budget

The first thing you’ll need to do if you want to keep your spending in check and save more is creating a monthly budget for yourself. First, put down on paper everything you earn. Next, write out all of your expenses, including any debts and loan repayments you might have and add these figures together to get your spending total.

Now, which figure is bigger? If your expenditure is greater than your income, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands.

This exercise is good for many reasons. The first is that actually seeing all of your expenses written out in front of you can be a big shock to the system. You may not have realized how much you were spending before, and seeing it in black and white can be a catalyst for change.

Now that you’ve gotten realistic about what you can afford, you can begin to create your budget. Determine how much you’d like to save each month and deduct this from your income.

Now, from what’s left, allot yourself a certain amount each week for your groceries, bills, rent, and all the most important things to spend on first. Then, you can see how much you have left for entertainment and grooming. When you prioritize where your money goes, it’s so much easier to save.

2. Minimize Your Debt

For most people in the US, debt is a part of life. There are car repayments, phone bills, student loans, and credit cards to pay. While this may be the norm, it’s certainly not going to help you hit your savings goals.

This is why you’ll need to start focusing on paying off the debts you can, and minimize what you’re spending on others. This might seem like a gargantuan task to take on, but don’t panic, all you need is a clear strategy. For example, you can put a plan in place that you want to have your debts paid off in a set number of months or years, and then adjust your budget to reflect this goal.

Another thing you can do is rejig your relationship with your credit cards. A credit card isn’t the best thing for you to have if you’re trying to save anyway. But in certain situations, it can be handy to have—you just need to be careful about what you do with it.

You should aim, at the very least to not be paying any interest on your credit card debt (the rates of which can be astronomical). If you’ve got a lot of debt, one tip would be to transfer it to a 0% balance credit card. This way, you can avoid paying interest for a fixed time and pay off a manageable amount each month.

3. Find Smart Ways to Spend Less

Spending responsibly while balancing a full life can be tough. Nobody is expecting you to turn into a hermit who only consumes bread and water until you become a millionaire. Quite the opposite, in fact.

You should continue spending, you just need to learn how to spend in a more savvy way. There are tonnes of tips on realistic ways to save money, and we’ve compiled a few of the best here.

The first thing you should do is look at your eating habits. If you’re ordering out for lunch every day and getting a grande mocha each morning, this probably isn’t doing your wallet any favours. Why not try cutting the meals you eat outside the home by half or a quarter?

This shouldn’t be such a big sacrifice, especially when you see how huge your savings could be. Next, get savvy about your bills. Are there any ways you can save here?

Start by going through all of your active subscriptions and cancel all but the ones you really want and need. What about your utilities? It can be worth it to shop around for different phone plans and electricity rates to see if you can bag a better bargain.

4. Set Savings Goals

One of the easy ways to save money is to think about how you’re going to eventually spend it. Having saving (and spending) goals will motivate you to stay on track whenever you feel you might be veering off course.

First, you should have an idea of how you want to save each month. Then, you should set more long-term goals, like how much you want to have in 5 years’ time, or by the time you’re 40 years old.

Then you can begin to think about what you’re working towards. Do you want to be able to buy a home, start a family, retire early? No matter what your goals are, keep them in mind and they’ll help you to make more savvy spending choices.

The Best Money Saving Tips for any Budget

The great thing about the above advice is that they’re money saving tips that work for any budget. They can be applied to anyone’s financial life, even yours.

If you’re looking for more fiscal advice, we’ve got plenty. Check out the rest of our content for more of the best money saving tips around.