by Nigel Hilton

There’s not a lot of us out there with a packed out savings account these days. It seems to be a privilege only those with long term careers or their own businesses can manage; they have the money to put away once they’ve paid all their bills or their mortgage payments, and they don’t have to restock the entire kitchen with food either!

So there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you have little to no savings in the bank. And now it’s becoming much more of a problem than usual - you’ve got a big life expense coming up, like paying off a new car or getting married, and you could really do with some savings right now!

So here’s just a few ways you could try and pad your account out a little. There might be something you haven’t thought of yet, so feel free to read on below.

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Have a Clear Out

You’ve got some junk in your house, haven’t you? And it’s just laying around, taking up space, and not making you any money that you could really do with right now. So make sure you sort through it, bag it all up, and then put your stuff on sites like Ebay for auction - there’s a lot of treasure out there in our houses, and we just don’t think of them in terms of profit!

And it’s not only your tangible items and assets you can clear out. Anything you own either in the digital world or online is something you could try selling off. You could even think about how to sell an annuity, if you’ve recently been through a court case, and you’ve got a settlement you could pass off to fund that world wide trip you’ve been dreaming of for years now.

Prepare Everything Yourself

Don’t let yourself go out for lunch for a good couple of months. Instead, prepare your lunches yourself for taking to work, and try to stick to the water out of your tap! You’ve already paid for the water to flow through the pipes in your house, so you won’t need to pay for any other food and drink expenses on top if you’re looking to save up.

Pay the Bills Up Front

If you’re with a heating or electricity provider who allows you to pay your bills up front, probably on a yearly plan that you won’t have to worry about paying again until the same time next year, then it might be the best case for you and your savings account. You can get the bills out of the way there and then, and have all your amenities for the next 12 months taken care of in a few moments. If you can afford a lump sum like that, then you’re going to be able to budget for the next 6+ months.

If you’re trying to fund a life expense that’s going to set you up for a good few years, think of these ideas.