Things I'm doing to save more in 2024 💰

With cost of living at an all time high, I’m sure we’re all feeling a bit of a pinch these days. It’s much harder to save money and various expenses seem to be popping up left, right and centre.

Wages are struggling to keep up with inflation and housing is hugely unaffordable whether you rent or have a mortgage. Not to mention anyone who has kids paying extortionate childcare fees.

I honestly don’t know how some people do it. Kudos to you 👏.

I realise I am in a privileged position here, but I wanted to share some of the things that are helping me save more money than ever this year.

Not trying to keep up with others’ lifestyles (and actually feeling good about it) 🤟

I’ve never been the one to spend money to keep up with a certain lifestyle, but in the past I have perhaps unknowingly compared my life with others making me less happy about my own choices.

Maybe I’m just getting older (and hopefully wiser) and starting to carve out the life I really want. I now choose to spend money on the things that matter to me rather than live according to what society deems to be the norm.

The use of social media can really make you feel like you are sometimes behind in life, so reducing the use of it has allowed me to focus on myself more.

The whole idea is based on what Ramit Sethi calls ‘living your rich life’ - spending money on things that are important to you, but may not be something others care about.

For example, I have an unlimited budget for educational books and good quality food ingredients. We cook nice restaurant like meals at home and cut down spending on eating out or takeaways.

The more specific you get about what makes you truly happy, the more it should not make sense to others. Your rich life is yours.

Doing a deep financial audit 👩‍💻

If you don’t know where all of your money is going, how can you really build wealth?

I got serious about my finances and went through ALL of my spending to understand where exactly my money is going and whether those things were of any worth to me.

Turns out, I didn’t need multiple fitness app subscriptions and spent too much on random purchases, hair appointments and skincare I already had lots of. It’s easy to loose track of it and one day you realise that you’re spending hundreds of pounds on things you don’t truly value.

Some people swear by tracking every single expense monthly, which can help you get a better picture of how much exactly you are spending on certain things and whether you want to cut down in certain areas.

I cut out anything that wasn’t providing real value and redirected that spend to investments.

Automating everything 🤖

I have been on a mission this year to automate all payments, savings and investments. Not only it can save you time, it also ensures you are putting money away first which you may have spent otherwise.

At the beginning of the month I have transfers set up to leave my account for various savings pots as well as my investments. This also takes away any indecision and puts building wealth on automation!

If you haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend it 💯.

My weekly recommendation

Last week I came across Rose Han’s channel and this video on habits that could help you become rich. I loved her advice on batching tasks and reducing context switching, which can help save a lot of time and money.

Want to support me? You can buy me a coffee here ☕

Until next time ✌️

Lina at Money Blues