How To Save Money When You’re Not Motivated

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Not feeling motivated to save money after paying off debt? Me either! Here are the reasons why we should save and how to make it a habit.

Life after debt definitely hasn’t been exactly what I thought it would be (well obviously, I didn’t see a global pandemic coming at me). After paying off $26,500 of debt about a year and half ago, I thought we’d be saving more money than ever before. In fact we made a goal to save $10,000 last year and we fell terribly short, even though our income is higher and we have no debt. So what gives? We’re less motivated to save.

It seems to be a pretty common problem, after hustling to pay off debt, we’re likely a bit burnt out, ready to spend some money on ourselves and with the goal finally achieved, a little lost.

I thought I should go over WHY we need to save, and little tricks I’m using to make sure we save money in 2021!

Why You Need To Save Money

There’s 3 basic reasons you need to save money; an emergency fund, for a purchase or for wealth building. Let’s chat about all 3

Emergency Fund

An emergency fund is usually the next step after you’ve paid off your debt. Many financial experts suggest having 3-6 months worth of expenses in your emergency fund just in case you lose your job, or are unable to work (hello, pandemic!). You should be keeping this money in an easy place to access, like a savings account so that you don’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get money when you need it.

I keep ½ of mine in my regular checking account, and ½ in a TFSA. I also keep $1000 in a savings account for small emergencies. 

To be honest though, we have about 2.5-3 months of expenses saved, so we should be saving more. Although we could pull from our vacation savings in the event of a true emergency. 

Purchases

This type of savings is for planned purchasing, like a house, wedding, car, vacation, Christmas, etc. We use sinking funds and save every month for these types of expenses by setting up an automatic transfer. 

We currently have sinking funds for: travel, Christmas, utilities, and a new car.

For Christmas and utilities I added up how much we normally spent in a year and divided by 26 (the number of paychecks we get a year). For travel we have a set amount that goes in every payday, and for the car we were trying to save whatever was leftover at the end of the month. This is not a good strategy and it very clearly has not been working.

Wealth Building

The last reason to save money is to build wealth, which is usually done through investments. Usually you are building wealth so that you can retire, and possibly pass some wealth down to the next generation.

Wealth building takes time, but it’s so important. Who wants to trade time for money for the rest of their lives? Not this girl!

I’m not a financial advisor, so I won’t recommend WHERE to invest, but I definitely recommend finding an advisor you trust, so that you are set up for the future.

How To Stay Motivated To Save Money

Make A Goal

Just like when you were paying off debt, making a savings goal will help you stay focused. I remember feeling so motivated by seeing our debt payoff tracker on the fridge, so perhaps I should be using a savings tracker now! Use whatever motivates you.

Give Yourself Grace

I feel like I’ve written this a hundred times but giving yourself grace to make mistakes, go over budgets, and miss goals is so important. If you go over budget one month, stop using it as an excuse to stop budgeting altogether. Accept that it happened and go the next right thing. 

How To Stay On Budget

Ultimately, we aren’t saving money because we’re too busy overspending. Trying to save what’s left over at the end of the month won’t work most of the time (trust me, I’ve tried). Here are some tips to stay on budget & save money:

List Your Irregular Expenses

Irregular expenses will sneak up on you if you don’t pay attention. I keep a running list of all my bills and when they are due, including ones that come up once a year, or every 2-3 months. Don’t forget things like annual dues, water bills, pet annual exams, sports fees, etc.

Automated Savings Are Your Friend

I will never be able to stress this point enough. Set up automatic transfers with your online banking on payday. Every payday money automatically goes into our RRSP (for retirement), our Christmas savings, and our travel savings. I don’t even miss that money because we never really see it. It’s the easiest way to save and once you set it up you don’t have to do anything ever again!

Mix Up Your Budgeting Style

When I first started budgeting, I made monthly budgets, because I didn’t really think there was another way. Then I discovered budgeting by paycheck and that made things SO much easier for me. I am self employed and my paychecks vary. My husband is on a salary, so his stays the same every time. Budgeting by paycheck allowed me to budget money that we already HAD instead of guessing what I would make. That way if I had a month without so many clients, I wasn’t over extending my budget. 

Don’t be afraid to mix up your budgeting style: monthly, bi-weekly and weekly are all perfectly acceptable, find what works for you!

Final Thoughts

I hope this has helped you come up with some ideas to start saving again! Obviously we won’t always be motivated, but if we make saving a habit, it will happen anyway. 

Thanks for reading. I’ll chat with you again soon,