My savings routine used to be to only save the money I hadn't spent that month. I used to only
save money when I had money left over at the end of the month, and I used to never save regularly
or on a schedule. But now I save over fifty percent of my income and me and my partner save
at least one thousand dollars a week. First I wanted to do a breakdown of exactly how much and
on what I spend my money on in a month, so that you know exactly how I'm doing this. It's very
easy to claim that you're saving lots of money every month, but unless we look at the actual
expenses it's impossible to prove. Our by far biggest expense is rent. Our rent is $450 every
week. There's quite a large portion of our income that goes right to rent. The next expense is the
broadband. We pay $78 a month for our broadband. Next is petrol, it changes a bit, the prices
have just gone up for petrol in New Sealand. Depending on how much we're driving and on the
gas prices we spend between two to four hundred dollars each month on gas. Now our second biggest
expense after rent is food. So food prices in New Zealand are quite ridiculous and we spend between
seven hundred dollars to nine hundred dollars each month, which I personally find offensive,
but that is just the reality of it. We try to do our best. This includes eating
all of our meals home cooked, never eating out. To find high quality groceries in New Zealand can
be quite difficult. At this point I have just accepted it and I try not to worry about it
and this is exactly the reason why I don't want to eat out. And so electricity is quite affordable,
we don't spend a lot on electricity and we have one hour of free electricity every day that we
utilize to the max, which means we end up spending between $30 to $90 a month on electricity,
depending on the season. And then the last expense we have regularly in a month is activity. So maybe
going for a coffee with a friend or having a meeting at a cafe or going to a museum.
We spend about $50 maximum on this each month, but it varies and we don't really have a set
budget for it. So those are all our expenses as a couple. We aim to earn about seven thousand
dollars a month, that is New Zealand dollar so it's not U.S dollars, but by keeping our expenses
this low and not spending money on things we don't need we still manage to meet our savings goal each
week. We don't spend the money even though we have it. Saving this much money has completely changed
my mindset about money and how I look at my money, so today I'll share my best tips for saving money,
how to save money fast, and how to actually save money. So one of the things that changed my
mindset on how I look at my money was "live like you're broke not poor" This mindset made a huge
difference in how I manage my money, how I spend my money, and of course how I save my money. For
me the most important thing about saving money was to have a goal and to have a solid goal.
Before I had a goal I used to never really save money because I didn't really understand what O
would do with any money. Why would I need extra cash when I already had enough money to spend
on fun things? But having a goal was the most important money saving motivation. It really
changed everything. So currently I'm saving to buy a house and now saving is fun, saving is worth it,
and every week I look forward to put money into the account. It doesn't feel like I'm depriving
myself of money or fun activities, instead it feels like I'm working towards this amazing goal
that O can really see in the future, and for this, the majority of money I'm saving I'm saving on a
regular bank account where they have like this fun little application where you can track your goal
progress. And this is just a simple silly little thing but it's such a good motivation for saving
money. When you can see it visually and where you can see it visually growing this really helps to
keep you on track. The second thing that helps me save over 50 percent of my income is my minimalist
lifestyle. I don't own any stuff that's costing me money, I'm not purchasing new stuff hardly ever,
and I've also gotten rid of a lot of things which means I've made money from selling my old things.
All in all living a minimalist and ethical lifestyle is a huge benefit to saving money.
It will really enable you to do it smoothly and efficiently and just easier. The majority of our
expenses are foods and bills, so we don't really spend money on anything else. Instead I spend my
time doing my favorite things which is hiking and swimming in the ocean or swimming in lakes.
This is completely free, I don't have to spend any money to do it. But with this change of mindset
or lifestyle, having the minimalist lifestyle together with the ethical and zero waste lifestyle
really ensures that I don't buy any things which is very good for my savings, but is also very good
for the environment. The other thing that helps me save a thousand dollars a week is to not be
restrictive. What I mean by this is I don't feel like this way of saving is restricting
at all. I don't feel like by saving I'm losing out of doing other fun things. This is a crucial thing
to keep you motivated to save money in the long term. My current savings goal is about 18 months
so it's quite a long savings goal so it's really important to be able to stay consistent and stay
motivated for this whole time, and by not feeling like I'm restricting my life by saving, it's so
so much easier to save money. For me it doesn't feel restrictive not to go to the cinema or not
to go and get haircuts or not to buy new clothes, for me this is just simply part of my lifestyle.
There is nothing else I need, there is nothing I should want, and there are so many fun things you
can do that doesn't cost money. Another tip for saving money fast is to save weekly, not monthly.
Since me and my partner decided that we wanted to buy a house and started saving for a house
we started having weekly money meetings. Every Sunday we'll sit down and have a money meeting,
we'll talk about our expenses, we'll talk about how work is going, and we'll also transfer money
into our savings account. By doing this weekly it keeps us motivated and the goal is sort of growing
quicker because every week we get to see growth which really sets you up for success the following
week for saving, instead of spending. And the last thing for saving money is to have a budget
for unexpected expenses. So although I'm saving over 50 percent of my income and only spending
money on what really matters like groceries and electricity, there are sometimes unexpected or
unavoidable costs that one just have to pay. But by having a budget for these costs too it means
that despite these unexpected costs I will still be saving that week or that month. For example,
in the past two months me and my partner spend over two thousand five hundred dollars on teeth.
This sounds like a ridiculous and maybe even an overwhelming amount, but unfortunately we both
had to get our wisdom teeth out these past three months so this is something we had to do. And I
think the key thing here to keep your savings motivation up is to not feel bad about these
unexpected expenses, because that's exactly what they are, they are unexpected and they
are unavoidable. Expenses that are unavoidable will come so it's really good to prepare for them
so that you don't have to worry about them when they do arise, and this way you can also keep
your savings motivation and you can keep saving for that house or whatever goal you might have.
So yeah, I've just recently started saving, I've never really been interested in saving,
but now when I say I'm saving to buy a house it's so much funner, it's so much more rewarding. This
also motivates me to work more hours than I actually have to, to take more jobs, and it
motivates me to save more and spend less. Having a goal together with changing the mindset was the
best motivator for saving money, I just found it completely transformative and now I absolutely
love saving money and I'm a bit confused because I don't even know if I want to buy a house
once I got that money. I don't know how I could possibly justify spending it all in a house,
but we'll see. So yes, those are my tips for how to save money fast, and how to actually save
money. This has made a radical transformation in my life and I'm so much happier and I feel so much
confident and safe knowing that I'm able to save money, and knowing that the money I make actually
go to something and not just random things I'm not so sure about. Keeping track of your money can be
intimidating at first, but it really ultimately is just empowering, and it's also the best thing you
can do for your economy. Thank you so much for watching this video. Please leave your comments
down below if you have any questions, and remember to subscribe and like this video. Thank you! Bye!