Eight Financial New Year’s Resolutions That Will Save You Money In 2019

This article was published on December 30th, 2018

Is it time to make that financial new year’s resolution that will help you save money in 2019? If your goal is to improve your financial life, here are a few financial new year resolutions that will help you achieve that.

1. Identify your financial goals:

Before you start on this journey, the first thing you should do is identify what your financial goals are. Are you looking to save for a house? Pay off debt? Or simply start a saving fund? Becoming specific about your goals will help you achieve them.

2. Go over your finances in 2018:
Evaluating how much you spent in 2018 and how you spent it will help pave the way to understanding just what you need to do in order to make better financial decisions and save more in the upcoming year.

3. Start tracking your spending:
Commit to a monthly tracking system to help you calculate and monitor your spending. This will obviously change from month to month, but will help you forecast your upcoming spending and will give you an idea of costs that you can eliminate the following month for bigger savings.

4. Give yourself small savings challenges:

Instead of committing to one big number, give yourself small savings challenges throughout the year. It could be as small as 100 QAR a week, or QAR 1000 a month, depending on your preference and financial situation. This will make it easier for you to commit to these savings, and not panic about a bigger number.

5. Commit to zero spend days:
Make one day or one weekend a month a ‘no spend day’, where you commit to not buying or spending money on anything at all.

6. Start cooking more at home:
Take out and dining out adds up to more spending, even if you don’t spend too much on each meal. Cooking at home is one of the easiest ways that you can cut on spending unnecessarily and add that into your savings account.

7. Pay off your credit card debt:

If feasible, think of a way to pay off your credit card debt. The monthly payments plus interest will burn a hole into your budget, and eliminating it with a one-shot payment will be beneficial in the long run.

8. Remember that budgets can change:
Forget about the all or nothing mentality when it comes to saving. If you go over budget one month, shake it off and commit to more savings in the following month. In these instances, the spending tracker will come in handy and will help you evaluate how to move forward.