13 BEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY IN NIGERIA

The Best Ways to Save Money in Nigeria  

Hey dear,

A lot of right-thinking people in Nigeria often think about how they can save money from their earnings- little or big – so they can have enough funds to achieve some of their wildest dreams. For this reason, a lot of people often ask ‘how can I save and not touch it?”

If you do ask yourself that question from time to time, you’ll find satisfactory answers today.

In this post, I will show you the best ways you can save money and not touch it until you can use it to fulfill that golden purpose. I will also teach you how to save money as a student; a 9 – 5er, a work-from-home mum, or even an entrepreneur. So, grab a seat and enjoy the journey to your next 7 digits savings.

The Best Ways to Save Money in Nigeria

1. Eliminate Your Debt

Debt can be a really bad thing if you don’t know how to control it. It will keep eating and eating into your income that you will eventually have nothing for yourself.

So if you really want to save, try as much as possible to avoid unnecessary debt and if you are presently in debt. Do what you can to eliminate debt. Then you will have enough money to save.

How do you eliminate Debt?  There are a few things you can do.

First, you need to sit down and get a total of how much money you owe. Then write a list of which ones are very important for you to pay as soon as possible.

The next thing you do is to start saving separately to eliminate the debt starting with the first one on your priority list.

Although it might require that you get into another debt to offset an urgent one if you want to really save try to avoid debt no matter how small.

2. Set Saving Goals

Setting up savings for a particular purpose is the best way to save that’s why you need to set up a saving goal.

What am I saving for? How long do I want to save for it? Is this a short-term savings goal? Like you want to get a mobile phone or a piece of equipment? Or is this a long-term saving?

Then analyze how you want to achieve those saving goals, will it be with your salary or an extra job?

How much do you want to save for each saving goal and how often do you plan to make those savings. So setting a savings goal will definitely help you to keep good track of your savings.

3. Pay Yourself First

Pay yourself first to become a very popular phrase. It means using your cash to invest in cash-flowing assets before you pay your bills or buy anything fun.

Pay yourself first is much more than savings because you do not save the cash with which you are paying yourself. Instead, you invest it into something that will keep generating income for you.

Master this principle and discipline yourself to follow this principle and you will definitely save more.

4.     Spend to Save

Spending to save means you should be wise in spending. Don’t buy inferior materials that will wear out over a short period of time. Instead buy quality materials on which you wouldn’t have to spend in a very long time.

Don’t buy stuff that will keep taking money from you and will never fetch your income. Buying a male dog can be nice but it will keep taking cash from you without making any for you.

A female dog, however, will repay you later on when it bears children. You can top it up with a male. Funny right? But that’s a simple savings fact.

5.  Utility Savings

Always set aside utility savings. Don’t let your bills choke your last salary or income in a year.

Instead, start saving for your utility bills from day one. That will save you stress and frustration in the long run.

You can buy different envelopes for each utility bill such as electricity, gas, water, sewer, and solid waste expenses.

6. Pack Your Lunch

Many people are used to eating out when it’s time for launch. They go to restaurants that serve the little amount of food and drinks at really absurd prices.

Well, this can be fun once in a while, but it is a very bad habit if you make this a regular routine. Instead of that always pack your Lunch.

Yes, pack that delicious meal you cooked at home to work and eat it for lunch. That way you save your money.

7.  Annualize Your Spending

Annualizing your spending is a way of keeping track of how much you spend on a yearly basis. It often helps in the payment of taxes and investment.

This will help you see if you have a regular kind of spending or you keep spending on random things that are not really important.

Keeping track of this will then help you keep track of your annual income and then on the amount of your savings. The more savings you have the higher your net worth.

8. Create an Interest-Bearing Account

An interest-bearing account is a great way to save extra income and make your money yield more money for you.

One very good way to set up an interest-bearing account is investing. Investment is a great way to set up savings.

The capital with which you invest will keep making extra money for you that you can save

9. Compare Income to Expenses When Budgeting

Many people do not see the value of making a budget. A budget will help you to see if your expenses can be offset by your income.

If you make a budget monthly, then it will be very easy for you to realize if you are making enough money to meet up with your expenses. If not there are two things you can do: You can either look for ways to increase your income, or you cut down your expenses.

If you want to have good and quality savings then your income should always be greater than your expenses.

That’s the key to being wealthy according to Robert in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series. Try to avoid following this popular formula: Savings= Income- Spending because you will find out that you do not have enough to save at the end of spending.

Instead follow this formula: Spending= Income-Savings. Then you will have quality savings and you will be able to cut off unnecessary expenses.

10. Switch Your Budget to Auto Pilot

An airplane in an auto-pilot flies itself without the constant control or intervention of the pilot. This gives the pilot some time to rest and keeps the airplane steady for a while.

So what does it mean for you to switch your budget to auto-pilot? It means you shouldn’t tamper with your budget every single time.

Learn to stick to a set budget for a long period of time until it becomes highly necessary to include or remove anything from your budget. That way you will be able to save more for as long as your budget is in autopilot.

The Best Ways to Save Mony in Nigeria  

11. Don’t buy cheap things for cheap sake

In developing countries such as Nigeria here, it is a very common practice for people to buy very cheap goods rather than expensive ones.

The market is filled with lots of copy and high copy products rather than originals because that is the standard everyone wants. Remember if you want to save then you shouldn’t be the kind of person who buys cheap things just because they are cheap.

I am not saying you should always buy expensive products and am not saying that expensive products automatically mean they have higher quality. What I am saying is buy quality and not price.

Let me give you a brief example. Let’s say you want to get a charger for your mobile phone and when you get to the market, you saw two chargers that have the same features but the seller tells you one is of higher quality than the other.

And the one with higher quality is 1500 naira and the cheap copy is 1300 naira. And you say-” Oh this one is cheaper let me go for it”

What happens after a few days, your cheap charger gets blown and you go back to get another cheap charger at 1300 naira.

Now tell me the money you thought you were saving by buying a cheaper one actually cost you double the getting the high-quality charger. So buy quality not price. It will help you save for a long time.

12. Set Up an Emergency Saving Fund

There is usually a time in our lives when we are faced with emergencies. Perhaps our health issue or that of a family member.

And we need funds urgently. No one prays for an emergency but it’s just inevitable. So it is very good to set up savings for such situations.

Above everything, you save up for. Health should come first. Health is Wealth

13.  Save With Purpose

Have a clear purpose for your savings, this will help you to prioritize your savings over any distractions that will definitely happen each month.

Saving with purpose will also help you to make the hard decision of when and how much you want to save and will also help you to know when you have saved enough.

If after saving enough you eventually realize that your needs have changed then it will be easy for you to port these savings to meet up with your new purpose.

Rounding Up

We save today to get a reward for our savings in the future. Saving today will help you to face any money-related issue in the future peacefully and without much rush.

Saving is also a way to meet up with goals along with deep satisfaction. It is not easy to save. Discipline yourself to master savings.