Just imagine how you would feel to discover some left-over cash in your monthly budget. The joy of having some money suddenly but not knowing what to do with it could leave you somewhat confused, and at the end, the money goes out of sight as you spend it in some way, useful or not. Before allowing the money to slip away, take stock of your spending and identify the areas of saving. The importance of saving needs no special mention because of the trend of saving that is catching up fast with the American population. A Gallup survey on 2017 shows that saving is more attractive than spending to 59% of Americans. This is interesting indeed because the millennials and Gen Y believe in spending more than saving. Live life today is the slogan of the younger generation that is not just saving enough.

However, the benefits of saving do not change and will perhaps not change sometime very soon which is why there would always be many people who are eager to save as much as they can, and even try to increase it. How to save money might sometimes seem quite simple, but when you try to implement it effectively, you might run out of ideas. Generating surplus money does not ensure that it will trigger saving because the pressure of spending might derail your plans for saving. The mind plays a vital role in deciding your saving capabilities. In this article, you will find some awesome money saving tips and tricks that work.

Play with your mind

Whether you can save or not depends on your mindset because by tweaking it, you can get a favorable outcome in savings.  If your mind tells you to spend, accept the call but put it on hold by delaying the implementation.  Suppose you have a desire to buy a stylish bicycle or a designer suit, do not rush to buy it but wait for some days or a week before you take any action. Sometimes the urge to buy is momentary that subsides with time and maybe as you wait, you feel that the desire to buy is no more as it has fizzled out with time.

When some people make some big purchase, they try to figure out what attracts them more – the hard-earned dollars or the intrinsic value of the item they want to purchase. In many cases, the worth of cash overrules the desire to acquire something.

Another way of evaluating the worth of money is to do some arithmetic with the value of the purchase and the expected return from the item in the long run. Suppose you want to buy a smart TV that costs you $1500 and you work out the appreciation of money over 20 years which at an average of 8% interest grows into $6991.50. Compare it with the gains you get from enjoying the TV and decide which is more attractive for you.

Pay attention to small savings

Long-term savings comprising of small sums of money can create a handsome corpus provided you have the will, patience, and perseverance to continue with it. Giving up some innocuous habit like ordering a cup of fancy coffee at your favorite coffee shop every morning on weekdays that costs about $4 a day can add up to more than $1000 in a year. The same logic applies for giving up smoking cigarettes that do not just save a few thousand dollars every year but increases your lifespan quite significantly.  Many such opportunities of incremental saving are spread all around that you should identify and latch upon like controlling the habit of frequently dining out and using discount coupons at supermarkets even if it is just a $5 coupon. The small savings that mostly go unnoticed add up to a considerable sum that you must be able to perceive early.

Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate

Credit card debts may look quite bad, but you can try to find the silver lining if you have an eye for it. If you are paying steep interest on your current credit card debts, start negotiating for lower rates which are often available only if you ask for it. It helps to save some money. Most credit card holders, almost 69%, were able to lower their interest by this process as revealed in a study conducted by creditcards.com. It is also possible to reduce or eliminate the annual fees on credit cards by using this technique which again adds to savings.

Negotiating with insurance companies also helps to reduce premium because the companies compute premium by using different methods which is why the same coverage costs differently for various insurance companies.

Automate your savings

Instead of trying to set some money aside for saving every month, give standing instructions to banks so that every month on a fixed date a fixed sum of money moves from the checking account into your savings account automatically. It is a kind of forced saving should help to generate a decent fund that you can use in the way you want. That is an excellent way for starting the habit of saving with the eye of creating an emergency fund. Saving $300 a month for 20 years and investing the annual fund in stock markets with 8% returns, you should be able to generate $178,000.

Balance spending with saving

The underlying philosophy of this type of saving is to impose self-penalty for fancy spending habits that you are unable to give up. For every dollar spent on account of that morning coffee or cigarettes, deposit the same amount in the savings account. It helps to match the spending with savings. Suppose you spend $6 a week on morning coffee at your choicest coffee shop, deposit $6 every week in your savings account. This approach often acts a deterrent to bad habits that you might finally give up.

The creative techniques discussed here should give enough encouragement to keep saving that takes good care of your life in all kinds of situations.