Does Saving Really Pay Off?

Since I was a child, my father taught me a lesson.

He taught me the value of money and explicitly showed me how he was earning his money.

He taught me the value of saving.

As I grew up and started to make my own money, I found it difficult to save.

I was tempted by all these ads and was going paranoid.

I was struggling with immense personal guilt whenever I bought something.

The problem even multiplied when I got married.

Should I buy groceries from this nearby expensive store or should I drive all the way to the end of town to buy them?

Should I buy this amazing necklace for my wife as a surprise gift or should I save?

It was complex.

I felt overwhelmed and I felt some sort of guilt whenever I let go of that purchase decision.

Especially when you are saving toward a goal, not just saving for the sake of saving.

For me, I was saving towards immigrating to Canada.

But there are also other good reasons to save and one of them is investing.Indeed, as mentioned in the best financial book in my opinion, “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Samuel Clason, you should save 10% of your earnings and invest that so it accumulates over time and builds you a fortune as you go through your life journey.

One rainy Saturday, I was stuck at home and I deeply thought about my paradox with saving.

Should I enjoy life or should I save more?

Should I deny myself from this fancy restaurant or should I indulge myself and forget all about the future?

When I deeply thought about it, it occurred to me that the fancy restaurant bill did not hit me quite as hard as I expected from the large sum of it.

Because it was not a frequent habit.

It was more of a one-time thing every couple of weeks.

What actually made the difference and ate my salary were those small, frequent, mostly daily, things that made all the difference.

If I saved on those, it was not a one-time saving but more of a saving subscription I had subscribed to.

My SaveFlix.

For example, I was having a breakfast sandwich from my nearby supermarket from their ready-to-go meals. This cost me around $9.99 plus tax every morning. Plus a $2.49 plus tax coffee from my local coffee shop.

This was only for my breakfast while I was going to work. Five days a week this sums up to $62.5 plus tax weekly and to around $250 each month for just breakfast.

How insane.

Now you can take this method, analyze your daily and weekly habits, and save there.

I am not saying you shouldn’t drink coffee or you shouldn’t have breakfast but I am saying you should be aware of these effects on your financial situation.

If that sandwich is a necessity to you and you really enjoy the way they make it and you cannot replicate it at home or find a cheaper option then go for it and enjoy your life but you should really question the need for it before you commit to it.

For me, that sandwich was not a big thing but out of convenience. I replaced it with a homemade sandwich for only 10% of the price so I saved 90% of that, around $225 each month which translated to $2,700 a year.

Or 27k in 10 years.

I did the same with groceries. I decided that I will only do grocery shopping one day of the week and I chose a store that has better prices for most of the things we buy.

This helped us manage well and enjoy life.

So after all this, I haven’t felt a single guilt when I buy something because I know that I am already saving well on the things that will result in the most saving over the years.

I enjoy the things that happened once in a while without feeling guilty.

So the moral is to focus on the frequent habits and look where and how you can save on those as these are the ones burning into your budget and these are the ones that can help you save the big bucks over the years.