It’s the new year, and it’s not just a new year, it’s a new decade! So, it’s time to sit down and make some goals. One of the main things I always make a goal for is saving money. And I’m sure you do too, as saving money is one of the most common new year’s resolutions after healthy eating! After years of goal planning in my bullet journal, I feel like I finally have an idea on what actually helps me achieve these goals. Especially when it comes to money goals. So, if you have some ambitious, or even small, goals for saving money this year, keep reading make sure you hit those goals!

Recommended Supplies:

• Archer and Olive Journal – The lovely and thick pages have no bleeding or ghosting, so you get a clean start for every spread! Also, it means you can decorate the spread without worrying about it.
• Pencil – To carefully plan out your ideas so you can make sure your spread has everything you need.
• Fineliners – My favourites are the Unipin fineliners as they’re waterproof, affordable and have a strong nib.
• Decorative Touch (optional) – This could be anything from washi to gouache, or of course, nothing! I usually like to add a personal touch to my spreads so they’re more fun to use and look at.

Types of Finance Goals

Long-term Goals

When we sit down to make goals, we’re usually in an extremely determined mood, and we feel like we can change EVERYTHING in our lives. Am I right? We unintentionally make really unattainable goals, and we don’t realise they’re unattainable for us until a few months in. And at that point it’s really easy to give up all together. So, the first thing I have scrapped is making these long-term, large goals such as “Save £X” or “Stop buying non-essentials all year”. Sure, they sound great on paper, but they’re not always achievable. Instead, I found making smaller goals on the view I can amend and extend them, or even just creating spreads to track the process of these bigger goals have really made a difference.

Monthly Goals

Monthly Budgets

One great goal to make for steadily saving money, is creating and abiding by a monthly budget. I mostly talking about making budget goals for your personal spending (money left after outgoings). And I want to clarify, I’m not saying you can’t spend! When we talk about budgets, usually we think of restrictive rules and no personal spending. However, I really believe in making reasonable budgets for the things that are important for YOU. Like to buy coffee from Starbucks? You do you! But make a goal of (for example) £30 a month, and have your treats but keep an eye on the spending!

What these budgets do is encourage you to be more mindful of each purchase. It’s not about restricting yourself completely. It’s about enjoying these luxuries but not going overboard!

Fresh Month

Another money saving tip (if you’re getting a stable income) is on pay day putting everything left in your account from the previous month straight into savings. So, say after a month outgoings and monthly spending you have £50 left in your account, and you’re just about to be paid for the next month. This is an amazing chance to put a good chunk of money into savings. If you think about it, you’ve already technically ‘saved’ it as you didn’t need to use it that month. So instead of it getting lost in the next month’s finances, take it out now. You can always take a bit back if the next month ends up being more expensive.

Everyday Goals

Rounding Up To The Pound

So one trick I’ve done in the past when I didn’t have much excess money, is round up each purchase by putting the excess into savings. So say for example you buy something that is £4.49. You would put 51p into your savings. It doesn’t sound a lot, but honestly this really adds up!! And it’s much easier to save small amounts like this than larger amounts each month. Especially when you’re in the position where money is tight.

I believe you can get apps for this now too, but I don’t feel comfortable using something that I have to provide my banking details for to use. Instead, make sure to set up your online banking and you can really easily move money across accounts each evening yourself!

Pause. Think. Decide.

Now the majority of overspending comes from not thinking about purchases. Maybe you see something interesting, so you put it in your basket. But when you get home or it gets delivered, you realise you didn’t truly want/need this item. This goal is about making the conscious decision to pause before buying and decide whether you really want or need this item and it’s not simply an impulse buy.

Shop Around

This one really leads on from the previous point, but as well as thinking about whether you need each purchase, find the best deal for those items you do want/need! You can do this by looking at different shops, checking your local stores instead of paying for delivery online, or finding vouchers/discount codes online! One thing that really catches me out is the word ‘sale’. You feel like there’s more pressure to buy quickly. However, ‘sale’ doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the best deal! And it’s still worth looking around.

Shopping around can really add up. For one purchase I actually managed to save over £100 by waiting for a sale and using a voucher I found online! Just think, that £100 is now in savings!

Food Prepping

Another area I found I was really overspending is buying food on the go. As I’m extremely busy, it’s much easier to grab food from a shop/cafe. But when you’re looking over those monthly statements this really starts to add up. That sandwich from a café could have paid for a loaf of bread and sandwich filling to last a week! So little changes like these can really

Spread Examples

Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas on how to steadily save some money! And if I have, we definitely need to track this achievement in our journals, right?

Here are some ways I like to keep on top of budgets, spending and savings.

Yearly Finances

First of all, I love to have a yearly finances page where I can see everything in one place! It has all my outgoings (including planned and personal spending), and a place to track savings too.

This layout was originally created by @craftenginerd, and it has been perfect for everything I’ve needed the past two years!

Monthly Finances

I find personal outgoings can differ quite a lot month to month, so I also love to include a finances page in my set up each month to track it. This is also a great place to keep a budget so it’s always in view, and keep an eye on spending throughout the month!

You can see I also have a section for categories so I can easily add them into my yearly finances spread at the end of the month!

Savings Trackers

And, here’s for the fun ones! Here are some amazing spreads to track your spending. And remember, all of these can be tweaked to save as much or as little is possible for your situation.

I love this tracker by @faith_nonyane! It’s nice and simple, and it’s so pretty it just makes you want to colour it in!

This ‘Savopoly’ tracker by @monarch_plans is absolutely amazing! It’s so creative and inventive, and would make saving even more fun!

This simple hexagon tracker by @planwithilysse is so perfect. They’re just asking to be coloured in!

And finally, here’s this really cute piggy bank saving tracker by @blackandwhitebullet. I wish I had thought of this for my savings tracker!

Hopefully I’ve given you some help and inspiration to get saving this year, and how to best track it all in your bullet journal! And if I have, I would love to see your creations, so tag me on Instagram (@hayleyremdeart) and use #hayleyremdeinspired to get the chance to get your creations featured in my stories!