One of the positive traits of character has always been considered reasonable savings. After all, the ability to maintain and maintain a family or personal budget is not given to everyone by nature. But this difficult task can be learned by mastering a few basic rules of economy.

1. Identify small but regular expenses

Large amounts that disappear from your account are easy to track, but regular small expenses are hard to spot. For example, if you spend 40₴ a day on a cup of coffee with you, you get 280₴ a week, 1,200₴ a month, and 14,600₴ a year. Not to mention the fact that with the coffee you often want to eat a delicious dessert (which has no use).

Try to give up such optional but frequent expenses and direct these funds to a savings account – it is good to use automatic “piggy banks” for this purpose. In fact, you will not notice that you have stopped spending this money, says financial expert Andrea Warroch, and the deferred amount will grow before your eyes.

2. Keep a personal budget

Money has this property – to flow through the fingers. As practice shows, most people can not remember what they spent about 20-30% of the money per month. And why? Because they do not keep records of personal finances. If you are familiar with this situation, it’s time to start counting money. At least in order to understand where they disappear.

The point of saving is not to deny yourself everything. And in order to find such cost items, the reduction of which will be the least painful for you. To do this, at least a couple of months you need to record your income and expenses. You can do this in a notebook, in a special file on your computer or using an online program. This way you can immediately see the big picture and what exactly your money is spent on. Analyze what you can save on without compromising on a comfortable life.

3. Follow the 48-hour rule

The convenience of shopping online creates an incentive to make them impulsive. To prevent this, make it a rule to wait 48 hours before purchasing an item.

The process of shopping is also facilitated by the storage of bank card data on online shopping sites. “Deleting this data can save you from impulsive shopping and save you money,” said Jennifer McDermott, a consumer advocate.

In general, the more time you have to think about buying, the more likely you are to give up unnecessary expenses.

4. Buy by weight

The idea of ​​zero waste, which is fashionable in Europe, is not very popular in our country yet. And there are shops where you can buy flour or pasta by weight and take them home in your reusable package. Often buying goods by weight is not only more environmentally friendly, but also more economical. Take a look at the dried fruit or candy department in large supermarkets – they will cost less than similar products in the package.

5. Use discounts wisely

Did you know that discount hunters spoil the store’s sales statistics? But these people, who buy only products on the stock, save well. Loyalty cards, bonuses, promotions, as well as own brands of supermarkets allow you to spend less. It is important not to fail and not to buy a bunch of unnecessary things with a couple of goods at a good price.