By Emily Wei, Lifestyle Columnist
Hi everyone and welcome to April! This month, I’ll be discussing some strategies for smart saving. As a student in university, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to balance a tight budget while saving room for the occasional little treat! It’s important to know that you don’t need to cut down on everything you enjoy to make your lifestyle budget friendly.
First of all, some strategies that take relatively little effort include; reward programs, cancelling unused memberships, stashing some payday money away, and public transit! There are so many rewards programs available through credit card companies, grocery stores, coffee shops, and more that can add up fast. My personal favourite is the PC Optimum program through Shoppers Drug Mart and Superstore where you earn points on every purchase. If you already shop somewhere frequently, it’s worth checking out if they have some sort of rewards/points program! Next, I’m sure some of you are guilty for buying a subscription, using it consistently for a few weeks, and then forgetting about it. Whether it be a gym membership, online subscription to a streaming service, or a store’s VIP program, make sure to think twice about whether you use it enough to be worth the regular payments. The next strategy is to put a small amount away into your savings every payday and don’t let yourself touch it! It doesn’t have to be a lot but just enough to eventually add up over time. Even if you only save $5 a day, it’ll still come to almost $2000 by the end of the year! Lastly, if you drive often, take taxis, or Ubers, try to make use of the public transit service more! The Halifax Transit system is pretty good if you need to get around (especially downtown) and definitely more cost efficient than filling up your car with gas every week.
Secondly, some more strategies to save a few dollars include; meal prep, thrifting, and smart buying. Instead of buying groceries or eating out almost everyday for your meals, try experimenting with meal prepping! Meal prepping is when you prepare your meals ahead of time. It not only saves you time, but it also saves you some extra grocery store trips while being nutritious as well! There are tons of videos available on youtube and TikTok to help you with meal prepping ideas. Another idea to save money is to thrift! Thrifting has become more popular over the past few years, causing some stores to raise their prices so it sometimes feels as though you might as well buy things new. However, I can assure you there are plenty of thrift stores around us that are still very affordable and another perk is that you get to give donated items a second chance. A few of my favourite thrift stores include; Mission Mart, Hand in Hand, and Frenchy’s! Present giving is something I’m sure a lot of us enjoy but it can become a big expense over time. So, a small suggestion is to plan ahead for presents and try buying the big gifts during the major sales events of the year such as; Boxing day, Black Friday, Back to School, etc! Lastly, a mindset you can start to implement while shopping is to wait a week before buying a non essential item. If you still want it by the end of the week, you’ll know it wasn’t just an impulse buy and it’s worth the money.
That’s all for this month’s column! As always, have a good April and I’ll see you all in May!
