Living alone (not in your parents’ house) is one hell of an adventure. You get to enjoy your space, you get to learn about yourself, and you get to make your own decisions! The autonomy truly is freedom for you. All of this is fancy and cool when your mind is not clogged with all the financial decisions you have to make that come with living alone.
That’s why it is important to use money wisely. Financial difficulties bring so much stress that might make you regret this beautiful, bold decision. I hope you don’t get there, and so before you do, let me share five money-saving tips for you that can be helpful in reducing the financial load.
1. Buying in bulk
Buying in bulk is an easy way to save money since things tend to have a little bit of a lower price when you buy them in bulk. Also, when you have things in bulk, you are covered for sometime and hence you can allocate your money in some other areas.
PS on this tip: When you go shopping, carry an exact amount that you need to buy things, since when you carry some extra money you get tempted to use it.
2. Cooking in more and carrying food to work
When it comes to this, meal planning helps. Assuming you have the things in bulk already. You can now plan your meals for the whole week. And since you cook in more, why not carry some so that you save money from buying lunch?
3. Writing down a budget and recording expenditure
A famous Swahili proverb says, “Mali bila daftari hupotea bila habari“, translated as “Money that is not recorded disappears without information“. It is important to record how you spend your money since this will help you to know your needs and where to reduce your expenditure.
4. Saving the coins every time you get change
I advise buying a kibubu so that you can put in the change that you get from bus rides or from the shop. Someday that money that you are saving will save you!
5. Recycling and reusing more
Instead of buying a paper bag every time you go to the shop, why not save some and carry it every time you need to go to the shop? Why not reusing the bottles by storing some stuff in them? There are so many ways that you have seen your Mom recycle and reuse things at home. You can do the same!
In addition to all this, when you have your storage full, budget and plans going well, you can even pay for the house rent on a long-term basis so that you can spend some months not worrying about rent, electricity and water bills.
Saving money is a skill and I know you can learn it too. No where else is this skill of so much use and needed as when you are living alone and on a budget.
