the Value
Ireland Savings Plan...
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Here in VI, we are constantly
interested in the best ways for you to get more for your hard
earned euros. Through the Value Ireland Forum, and the sharing of
consumer experiences throughout the country, we're helping you get
more value for money when out shopping.
However, we thought we'd propose an
idea of how you can save your money also. This simple idea
revolves around monitoring your expenditure and income on a
monthly basis.
Through the Value Ireland Savings Plan,
we're proposing an idea that will help you save money on a monthly
basis, but will also help you cut down many unnecessary expenses
that you may incur in day-to-day life. A successful application of
the Value Ireland Savings Plan to your day-to-day life will reduce
your outgoings and increase your available cash, to do with as you
choose.
There are 2 key concepts to the Value
Ireland Savings Plan. Firstly, reduce all unnecessary outgoings.
Secondly, reward positive money incoming.
Reduce Unnecessary Outgoings
Do you regularly go overdrawn on your
bank account and end up paying interest or penalties at the end of
the month? Could you be more careful about how you conduct your
bank business and reduce the amount of bank fees you pay? Do you
find yourself wasting money because you’re too lazy – taking a bus
instead of a taxi, or paying for parking instead of walking?
Do you end up paying for plastic bags
when out shopping instead of reusing old bags or having a “bag for
life”? Or are there other areas in your life where, after spending
money on something, you think to yourself, “I wish I hadn’t done
that”? It could be as simple buying an occasional packet of
cigarettes if you normally don’t smoke.
The first part of the Value Ireland
Savings Plan is to keep track of all of these unnecessary
outgoings on a weekly basis, and total them up at the end of the
month. This total amount is what you should match and put away as
savings for that month.
So, if your unnecessary outgoings are
exceedingly high, you’ll end up having to put away large amounts
of money each month. This may be a difficult thing to do – but
while you’re trying to keep your expenditure under control, you’ll
be adding decent amounts of money to your savings pile. However,
if you stick with it, you’ll find ways to reduce these unnecessary
outgoings, reducing the amount of money you waste on a monthly
basis.
But you may say, won’t this reduce the
amount of money I’m saving each month (because you’ll like the
idea of saving money by now)?
Not if you’re following part two of the
Value Ireland Savings Plan.
Reward Positive Money Coming In
Through this part of the plan, any
money that you receive in a manner that you may consider a bonus,
or extra, is recorded on a monthly basis.
So, if you keep your current account in
the black, you may receive (probably very small) interest on your
money. Or you may explicitly save money though having shopped
around for a particular item.
You may have won money on the horses,
or the football (though if you loose money, maybe it should be
noted in the Unnecessary Outgoings). Or you could have won money
on the Lotto or scratch cards (though again, your stake money
could be considered an unnecessary outgoing).
The second part of the Value Ireland
Savings Plan is to keep track of all of the positive money coming
in on a monthly basis, and total them up at the end of the month.
This total amount is what you should match and put away as savings
for that month.
You may also receive interest on your
savings. This is where you’ll win both ways with the Value Ireland
Savings Plan.
As you decrease your Unnecessary
Outgoings, your Positive Incomings are going to increase – either
through money you consider you’ve saved, or through an increase in
the interest you receive as you begin saving more and more money.
Either way, you'll be putting away sums of money each month.
Monthly Savings and Spreadsheet
Assistance
At the end of each month, you total
your Unnecessary Outgoings and your Positive Incomings and put
that money away as savings for that month.
How you save that money is up to
yourself. Ideally it should be put into an account earning a
decent rate of interest where it is relatively difficult to gain
access to it. If your savings targets are relatively long term,
you might think of putting the money into Prize Bonds (and have
another potential for positive incomings if you win).
The spreadsheet available
by clicking here can help you keep track of your Unnecessary
Outgoings and Positive Incomings. You can either manage
your money through using this spreadsheet on your PC, or just
print out the sheet and fill in by hand.
There is an example page in the
spreadsheet also to give an idea how the Value Ireland Savings
Plan may work for you.
Conclusion
So, by adding together the money deemed
Unnecessary Outgoings and Positive Incomings on a monthly basis,
you'll gain the following benefits -
