I need tips on saving money!

[BlueJoe]

Hey tm3. So I work mon-sat 10-7 everyday and I love paycheck days but when I get it I just have a sudden urge to spend it on everything. On my car, taking gf out places, buying take out and restaurants, shopping.. etc.. I know some of you will say just stop spending money.. well thats hard for me lol.. What do you guys do to save money? I need to develop a plan of some sort.. :bang

[Jeff-TheBiz]

spending is okay... just spend smart.. spend less.. use coupons, wagjags, groupons.. etc

[breakfasteatre]

Im 24, own a house and still have like 10k in the bank.

I work a shitload, but at the same time, at the eak of my savings, i had ingdirect do auto withdraws from my account each month. I would account for the withdraws and make sure i had the balance and over a coule years the money just built u. I never invested it until recently, and i could have ossibly made even more money.

Take it out of your hands, force yourself to save by having the auto withdraws,


i have learned though that owning a erformance car is a HUGE waste of money



as well, i did a budget. I averaged how much i made er month, what i was sending it on, how much i needed at the end of the month to ay the bills, and the rest was divied out., If you think of the autowithdraw as a bill, it might be a little easier sychologically to save. I also never went into my actual savings to buy stuff, i only used the money i had left over at the end of the month

[PearlM3]

Auto withdrawals, by a canada savings bond, or rrsp, that way you cant just spend it

[Thrizzl3]

only buy what you need..wants can come later asa reward for saving a certain amount of money

[ovie8]

I think the first thing you need to do is account for the things you are currently spending on. Make a spreadsheet with categories...food...clothing...entertainment...etc .

Then make a budget for yourself for each of the categories...the hard part is trying to stay within it.

Easiest thing to do is setup a monthly PAC to an investment account. Take advantage of a TFSA if you haven't already. At the end of the day...you cannot spend what you don't have in your bank account.

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Im 24, own a house and still have like 10k in the bank.

I work a shitload, but at the same time, at the eak of my savings, i had ingdirect do auto withdraws from my account each month. I would account for the withdraws and make sure i had the balance and over a coule years the money just built u. I never invested it until recently, and i could have ossibly made even more money.

Take it out of your hands, force yourself to save by having the auto withdraws,


i have learned though that owning a erformance car is a HUGE waste of money



as well, i did a budget. I averaged how much i made er month, what i was sending it on, how much i needed at the end of the month to ay the bills, and the rest was divied out., If you think of the autowithdraw as a bill, it might be a little easier sychologically to save. I also never went into my actual savings to buy stuff, i only used the money i had left over at the end of the month

from this post, it looks like you saved a couple of bucks on a keyboard that has no "p" key.

[breakfasteatre]

Another benefit of having an ing account is that you dont have a debit card, and the money take a day or two to transfer if you attemt to send it. Makes it sit a little safer


Telling yourself thats a want and not a need etc is ointless, take it out of your own hands! Youve already admitted you are weak, you arent going to change overnight. :)


actually my keyboard was eensive, for a keyboard, and all of a sudden has been giving me roblems. Not enough to justify buying a new one :)

[JonsMazda]

Watch "Till Debt do us apart"
http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/

[alhope34]

as well, i did a budget.


Obviously a new $10 keyboard has not been in your budget for what...a few weeks now?? :P

[SilentJay]

Force yourself to deduct a certain set amount every cheque to be put aside for TFSA, RRSP, or savings/investment accounts.


Wait...


orce ourself o educt a ertain et mount very cheque o e ut side or FSA, RSP, r avings/nvestment ccounts.



lol - sorry, I couldn't resist :chuckle

[dadinho_nfg]

i work for td and could def help u set up any one of these savings patterns mentioned below...
think of putting that money aside in a mutual fund as now would be a good time to get into the market as we are still not recovered from 2008/2009...let me know

[omalak]

Get engaged and set a wedding date.. That will knock some sense into you.

I setup auto deductions on my paycheck. A certain amount to savings, some for bills, and a few hundred left to spend..

If you have atleast 2-3 grand in the bank go and get the most feature added account where the fees are waived if you maintain a certain balance, fearing that if you dip below that amount will force you to maintain a consistant

Good luck

[PCLoadLetter]

TFSA if you don't have one already. Automatic withdrawal.

[jonjon72]

Another benefit of having an ing account is that you dont have a debit card, and the money take a day or two to transfer if you attemt to send it. Makes it sit a little safer


Telling yourself thats a want and not a need etc is ointless, take it out of your own hands! Youve already admitted you are weak, you arent going to change overnight. :)


actually my keyboard was eensive, for a keyboard, and all of a sudden has been giving me roblems. Not enough to justify buying a new one :)

I seriously have an extra keyboard that I used once to try out on my PS3 a couple of years ago. Sitting in the closet since then. Its yours if you want it. Free of charge.

[oxide]

everything in moderation, i haven't had a drink in 4 weeks - and its freaking hard i DJ all the time and my buds are always wasted.damn

[komi]

TFSA if you don't have one already. Automatic withdrawal.
+1

this is exactly wht i do make sure the withdrawal is set in the same date as ur pay day, helps u save alot trust me

[PearlM3]

Once you get into the investment game it will become much easier, when you get your quarterly statements and you see your accounts going up it will become like a drug, it will make you want to invest more and more.(or save more and more)but you need to start. I would really recommend mutual funds.

[rzapata]

I agree with most of the posts, like ING, TFSA, RRSP.. I have all of them and I set up my ING to deduct every week on my cheque. At the end of all the deductions, I feel like I don't have anything else to spend. Budgeting is a great way and a spreadsheet is also a very nice tool to make sure that you do keep track of all your stuff.

Also, if you have an iphone, ipad or ipod touch, I recommend the home budget, iXpensit.. This way you can keep track of your spending and see if you go over your monthly income etc..

I also recommend investing but I'm still not used to that concept so I haven't done it myself yet. I'm still in the process of researching....

Key thing I think is control.. Once you have that, saving will be like a second nature.. :)

[bluemazda3]

auto withdrawls work good... invest in rrsp it'll save up fast!!

[Default User]

Just tell your bank to deduct $20-50 every payday and through it into a savings account that you can't access through your bank card.

You won't notice $20 out of your paycheck. And you'll think twice about having to line up at a teller to withdraw from your savings account just to eat at the Red Lobster

[Booter22]

RRSP's, mutual funds, savings bonds, best would be to talk with an investor, find out what your expenses are per month, leave some $$ that you can spend and still enough or save up for the toys for the car or bigger purchases you need or want to get and every month have the money auto removed into your account. RRSP's and mutual funds will build up quickly, and from what my investor tells me now is a good time to buy.

[JaYson]

give it all to me, and i'll hold onto it for you, so that you cant spend it!

[bluemazda3]

give it all to me, and i'll hold onto it for you, so that you cant spend it!

lol hahaah i think im closer so he can give me the money!

[JaYson]

even more the reason it should be me, close = convenient lol


lol hahaah i think im closer so he can give me the money!

[peterm15]

I've actually always had the same prob. I save a few grand and something pops up. I can save but the second the money MUST be spent I have a hard time getting it back up. Trust me once you get a bit n the bank it gets easier.

[JaYson]

i always make a point to put away atleast half of each and every pay cheque (obviously unless there's some other circumstance that needs me to brake that trend)

with that said, i always budget myself seeing how much my current visa bill is working up to, what i estimate it'll be at when i need to pay it, and then deduct that from my total pay cheque, then deduct about 200-300 for entertainment + buffer, then the rest (with any luck is more than half) goes straight into an ING TFSA account.

also what may help is 1. the fact that a TFSA is tax free savings, so obviously you're earning a great yield on your investment than any other type of savings account
2. if its in something like ING Direct, you'll have to take extra steps, and it'll take up to 3-5 days to actually get money OUT of the account
3. once you've made a contribution to your TFSA, you can take the money out, but you CANT make the contribution again. you get $5k per year to invest into a TFSA. (eg. if you invest $5,000.00 in january, then feb. you take out $1,000.00 you cant "re invest" that money, or "put back" the 1000 you took out, once it goes in, that investment has been made, if you take any money out, its "lost". and if you invest over the $5,000.00 you'll get taxed on it, basically it only counts on the way in, so you can put up to $5K in, but it wont adjust if you take money out) hope thats clear.

biggest thing is to make a plan. sit down write down all your FIXED expense. ie. car payment, tuitions, rent, stuff that has to be paid regularly, that you can estimate the cost of. so that'll be your Fixed cost for the month, then you'll have variable costs, ie. your entertainment, or potential Buffer money if you get a flat tire and need a new one, from there you can introduce your income, and then the rest is BUDDA

[STeeLy]

See if your employer will let you pay more on Federal Taxes.

I heard that you can opt to pay "more" Federal taxes on your pay and then you can get ALL that money back + interest from the government when you do tax returns, best part is, you can't touch that money AT ALL until you get your tax returns.

[ovie8]

ype of savings account
if you invest $5,000.00 in january, then feb. you take out $1,000.00 you cant "re invest" that money, or "put back" the 1000 you took out, once it goes in, that investment has been made, if you take any money out, its "lost". and if you invest over the $5,000.00 you'll get taxed on it, basically it only counts on the way in, so you can put up to $5K in, but it wont adjust if you take money out) hope thats clear.

Great advice. Just one correction though. When you withdraw money from a TFSA you cannot recontribute in the year the withdrawal was made (assuming contributions are already maxed). However, it does increase your contribution limit in the following years. So withdrawing $1000 this year means contribution limit for next year will be increased to $6000

[KenYork]

No credit card use. No debit card use. Auto-transfer $200 to an account in another bank so it leave the habit of your usual banking routine. Only take out enough cash for each week(forces you to budget). Each time you fail, mom or dad get $100.

[drunkmunky]

I only read the first page but keep in mind that
RRSP for first time home buyers is great, but you need to pay back the borrowed RRSP's within a dedicated period of time.

[JStroke]

You have a nice car, a gf, big mistakes if you want to save money lol!

Seriously, lots of good tips on here, the biggest one is to have it automatically decucted from your paycheque or acct, before you can see it or get your hands on it. You can save a lot of money if you don't think you have lots to spend.

[JaYson]

yeah..thats what i was trying to say...lol you said it more gracefully..hah



Great advice. Just one correction though. When you withdraw money from a TFSA you cannot recontribute in the year the withdrawal was made (assuming contributions are already maxed). However, it does increase your contribution limit in the following years. So withdrawing $1000 this year means contribution limit for next year will be increased to $6000

[JaYson]

only thing about this is that you don't earn interest while the government "keeps' your money


See if your employer will let you pay more on Federal Taxes.

I heard that you can opt to pay "more" Federal taxes on your pay and then you can get ALL that money back + interest from the government when you do tax returns, best part is, you can't touch that money AT ALL until you get your tax returns.

[STeeLy]

only thing about this is that you don't earn interest while the government "keeps' your money

I just heard it from someone and never looked into it so it's likely you're right.

[ovie8]

yeah..thats what i was trying to say...lol you said it more gracefully..hah

opps...my bad:P