When Spending Is Saving: 5 Ways to Save Money By Using It

Saving is one of the money management skills being promoted to deal with the limitedness of financial resources. It is something even young children know. However, you may not be aware of certain ways with which you can also achieve savings. You don’t necessarily have to keep money or hold back on spending to save money. You can achieve savings by spending. It is possible to say that spending is saving especially in the following instances:

1. Availing of Sales, Bargains, or Promo Offerings

This is not to say that you should commit a lot of your time to hunt bargains or sales. Don’t let excessive frugality get the best of you. The key is good decision making. You have to pause for a while to properly think of your buying decision. Should you spend your money on a sale you stumbled upon in a store or are you just being lured to some “bargain” trap?

Not every sale or price reduction in stores and the malls actually means savings. Some are deceptive and you could be able to get the item at a lower price in another store. That’s why you have to be careful. Do some research first. Don’t be too skeptic, though. You can definitely enjoy some good deal of savings when you spend for sales and bargain promos at stores. There will be times when you encounter temptingly low prices that really mean excellent buying opportunities.

2. Buying Alternative Items that Make You Forget about a More Expensive, Less Worthwhile Purchase

It pays to trick yourself sometimes. For example, if you decide to go to the mall to obtain parts to upgrade your gaming computer, you may want to cancel the upgrade as you encounter a booth that sells the newly released book you are a fan of. If you are a big fan of a certain book series and you find a copy of the recently released sequel, you can choose to buy a copy of the book.

This allows you to forget about video gaming for a while while enjoying the advantages of reading the book. Reading the book does not consume electricity so you get savings on power consumption by deferring the computer upgrade. Besides, you can sell the book after you’re done with it. A used book can fetch a better resale price compared to consumer electronics.

3. Buying Instead of Renting

If you are offered a great rent-to-own house, consider getting it even if you may end up spending more every month. Rent-to-own properties are not common. Property owners usually resort to offering them only during economic downturns or when property prices are falling.

You can also apply this idea when it comes to buying certain household or business equipment. You can buy your own lawn mower or grass cutter, for instance, instead of renting or having somebody do the lawn maintenance or grass cutting task for you. However, always be sure to properly evaluate if the acquisition will indeed mean savings. Having your own equipment often means savings but there are also times when the opposite is true.

4. Spending on New, More Efficient Appliances

If your fridge old and rusted? Are you still on a CRT TV? Maybe it’s about time to get new appliances. Don’t let your refrigerator’s inefficiency contribute to your high monthly electric bill. Still on a CRT? Ditch your old boob tube and get a significantly more power efficient LCD TV. Newer appliances are generally more power efficient. If you have the budget to get new ones, consider buying them.

You will experience the benefit of doing this in your electric bill aside from the ease, comfort, convenience, and better enjoyability you derive from the new appliances.

5. Getting Insurance

Are you someone so clumsy you end up damaging your electronic gadgets too often, too soon? You should think of insuring your gadgets like getting a mobile phone insurance. If you simply can’t control your carelessness or if you have other family members who use your devices, spending for insurance could be worth it. The advantage of getting insurance also applies to various other situations like having your home-based store insured or buying insurance for your expensive boat, especially if you think you live in a place that is prone to disasters or calamities.

6. Buying Real Estate

If you have some good amount of extra cash you don’t need, your bank account may not be the best place for it. Why not buy real properties especially if the prevailing prices are low? Real properties are a good store for value since they usually increase over time unless tragic economic failures happen. With real estate, you can secure your money and grow its value into levels exceedingly higher than what your deposit interests can yield.

Don’t mistake savings with the simple act of not spending. You can also save as you spend. There will be opportunities that will allow you to cut down on future expenses or obtain future earnings. There’s nothing wrong with controlling your extravagant spending habits but you also have to consider the benefits of actually spending money in some cases.