If you find yourself living paycheck to paycheck, it may seem difficult to think about saving up for a major expense in the future. But the truth is, it’s not impossible, there is a way to save for a larger purchase without taking from your monthly expenses.
While saving up for something big, life still may happen and an unexpected event or emergency may arise. Because of this, you will want to consider the possibility of saving and budgeting for a contingency in your plans.
What is a Contingency Budget?
Whenever any unexpected costs arise, this is known as a contingency. When you are in the process of budgeting for some major expense like a wedding, you will want to ensure you have some additional funds saved up incase an unexpected cost like the price of a photographer increases, or another expense is not quite as much as you thought it would be.
This website is a great place to look to find out how you can save for unexpected fees and other items to plan a day you’ll always remember.
Change up How You Allocate Your Money
When you change up and switch the way you allocate your money, you can find that there are additional funds available that you can put into a separate contingency budget.
For example, if you typically spend $20 each week on coffee before work, why not spend $10 to make it yourself at home and place that extra $10 in a contingency budget account instead. At the end of the month you will have $40 already saved that you didn’t have to take from more important expenses.
Review Your Monthly Expenses
You want to take a real hard look at your monthly expenses when you are saving up for a major purchase. This will allow you to review what you are spending money on each month and determine where you can cut funds and start to save money.
If you are spending $300 in groceries every week, take a look at what you are spending. Are you preparing meals at home ahead of time, or purchasing already made meals for the convenience? Taking the time to plan out meals in advance can help you to cut your grocery bill almost in half.
Conclusion
With a few simple changes in the way you spend your money, you can start to save up for a major expense in no time at all. By allocating funds differently you can even start the process of creating a contingency budget that will allow for the available money should any unexpected expenses come up.
Larger purchases like saving for a wedding or family vacation may take some time to complete, but with the proper saving and spending habits, you will be able to get on the right track to having the funds you need to cover everything. While it may be difficult at first to change the way you save, once you start, you will not want to go back.