How to save money

We all have our own purchasing habits....whether it's the kind that makes you broke after the first week of the month or enables you to save some every month, it's upto you to choose. 

Indian consumers are rational consumers. Because we have learnt the art of living life within our means (at least most middle class and lower income families).

And by being really rational...you can save a lot using these simple tips to help you save...used by me and many other thrifty people who don't like to spend it all at once.

1. Keep a record of your earnings and spendings in the form of a book or in your phone's notepad. It helps you become aware of where your money goes so you can review and assess your purchasing habits....yes, especially when you go broke and haven't the slightest clue about how it happened.

2. Carry only as much money as you plan on spending. You can take a little extra...but not too much as it can become temptation to spend.

3. Use paper money as much as possible cause it helps you realise how much you're spending. You also feel the pinch of spending more, when you use paper money.

4. Before shopping, keep a timer on your phone and get your shopping list ready. This trick will help you save time and money as this restricts your gaze from loitering towards buying useless/unnecessary things.

5. Limit eating out to once a week or thrice a month. Food is way more expensive at restaurants. And chances are, if the food is cheap, it's probably unhealthy for you. Learning to cook is a life skill that'll help you eat healthier and save a lot!

6. Before making a big purchase, wait till you save up enough money to buy two and then if you still want it by the time, buy one. This prevents you from going broke after big purchases.

7. Accept that some people or "so called friends" will call you all kinds of mean things cause you want to value money and save up. Maybe in time they'll understand, if not...you can always make new friends.

8. Be skeptical about discounts and special schemes/sales. They are usually used for damaged/inferior products or products that are close to their expiry dates.  Sometimes, they are used for new products.
Being skeptical saves you money and another trip to the store to buy another one or get a replacement.

9. Learn to have fun by spending no money or a little money.  For example, writing, playing cards, singing, walking in parks, etc.

10.  When you write a shopping list, divide it into two parts, one for essentials and one for things you can manage without. First purchase your essentials like food and hygiene products and then proceed to purchase the others.

11. Learn to value money given to you by your parents/caregivers, relatives as pocket money, gifts, etc. Someone somewhere has worked hard for it. Value others money as your own, don't take advantage of people cause of the money they have.

12. Keep two wallets. One where you store all your money...what I call my "home wallet" and one that I take out with me. Gradually transfer small sums of money from your "home wallet" to the other as and when required.

13. Keep short-term and long-term financial aims. For example, a new phone, a scooter, retirement plan, a house, etc. This motivates you to stick to your new saving habits.

14. Use your things until it can't be fixed or reused. Don't just buy new things cause you can.

15. Try not to be wasteful. Make things last longer.

16. Don't focus on saving and neglect yourself. Invest in yourself by spending on Healthcare, therapy and vacations/trips.

17. Don't purchase things only to show off. You don't need to prove yourself to anyone.

18. Plan ahead for months/weeks you know you'll need more money. Save accordingly. For example, Christmas week.

19. Be friends with people of all economic classes. Their insights regarding money will help broaden our perspective towards money.

Have more tips to share? Leave it in the comment section for all of us to make better choices.
Happy saving! :-)

Cozy October day

The day began and I was already out of character, I didn't spring out of bed in the morning like normally do. But instead I was pleading for another few… say, hours of sleep.

Yes, I'm otherwise a morning person.

I got ready in no time for the obligatory Sunday mass, yet was still late. There was a crowd on the road. So our commute was delayed. "A protest" I thought while I queerly tried to analyze the crowd dressed in black.

The ground was wet and I shouldn't have chosen my semi-rainy ready shoes over my gumboots. What was done was done. But can these dull clouds still please go away?
"It had been so hot and sunny just the previous Sunday and look at us now", I said to myself as I lifted my head towards the sky.
I tried not to walk carelessly into puddles like I normally do, I didn't have my gumboots right now after all.

When I returned home. I felt like I needed to sleep most of the day. But instead of resting, I watched videos and ate. Nothing about the weather made me feel like doing anything extraordinary. I can't do that anyway for I'm a mortal. I was glued onto my phone, like the adults complain all the time about youngsters these days. But I also wasn't… Getting lost in my mind with thoughts, debates and questions that I sometimes let the other persons in my life know. Mostly, that is what I do…. Just think vaguely about anything and everything. Keeping it all shut out from everyone, my thoughts.

At some point of lazing around I got up from my monotonous demeanor of weekends and went into the kitchen to try recreating a childhood memory I was fond of. It was that of a packaged chocolate pudding that I couldn't seem to find anywhere anymore. I made it and left it there on the counter to cool down. And then after a reflective diary entry, I decided it was time to taste my masterpiece. The weather had been minty at the time I tasted it, my body had been adjusted to the chills of climate. It tasted exactly like what was missing on a cold day like today in October.

no sense

Typing...

Re-reading...

The backspace key is pressed down...
The page is blank again...
And the cycle repeats.

It's so weird to go from..."Wow, I know exactly what I'm doing in life" to "Yeah, I'm just surviving."

The confusion that arises in the gap between the two is no stranger to most of us in the world. 

For weeks and months now, probably, the issue I kept having with this blog is finding good topics to write about. And for those topics to be readable, understandable and not too personal, or else it'll be rejected by the biggest critic of my life...myself. 
So here I am, trying to make sense of a phase in my life where I feel nothing makes sense anymore. 
The connection between the paragraphs cease to exist and I'm just left there as just another stranger on the internet with a lots to say about....something that no-one really understands. 

Though for real, what I'm trying to say is...life doesn't make sense to us a lot of times. Like the way mine is going on right now. Because, the meaning of life is to keep going on, despite the ambiguity of the ideal and real-life. 

Life is not perfect. Nor will it ever be. Sometimes it sure does feel that way. And then it goes back to feeling imperfect again. 
Should I complain to the authorities on your behalf?

This article doesn't make sense, does it?
Perfect.