How Nigerians Can Save Money On Day-To-Day Expenses – Piggyvest Blog (2024)

It’s now more challenging than ever to convince Nigerians of the benefits of saving, and we get it. The value of the naira keeps plummeting as food inflation soars, and people feel they must choose between saving and surviving each day. However, a financial safety net is not negotiable in economically precarious times. Your savings will provide a safe landing in crisis or emergencies, ease your financial anxieties, and prevent you from racking up needless debt.

You can save more if you make modifications to your daily spending habits. Small changes like saving before spending, meal prepping, buying items in bulk and creating a budget for your daily and weekly expenses can free up more financial resources to grow your savings and investment portfolio.

Achieving financial freedom requires some financial discipline. But elaborate changes to your lifestyle are not the only way to tighten your purse strings; little tweaks also do wonders. Here are our seven simple and sustainable hacks for saving money on day-to-day expenses.

1. Create weekly budgets

You are likely to overspend when you spend without a budget. To avoid this, create different Labels and allocate funds for your weekly essentials (transportation, feeding, weekly bills, and even miscellaneous expenses). If you struggle with budgeting, follow this step-by-step guide to creating a budget and start planning for the week.

If you have difficulty keeping track of your weekly spending, PocketApp by PiggyVest will be a game-changer. Pay bills, make free transfers, manage group expenses, and access your banking records all in one app.

2. Save before spending

Devout savers know saving is a habit, and the best way to cultivate that habit is to save first and spend after. This can be harder for people still struggling to build a saving culture; if you fall into this category — and even if you don’t — consider automating your savings using Piggybank. Automating your savings removes all the mental and physical labour required when saving manually, and you can earn up to 10% per annum without lifting a finger.

Breaking up your saving goals into smaller chunks using automation is a great way to build up your emergency funds. You can also save towards major recurring expenses like rent, using the HouseMoney™ feature, without feeling overwhelmed. HouseMoney™ helps you set aside money for your rent all year round until it’s time to renew. Plus, you get to earn up to 11% interest annually.

3. Buy in bulk

With 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians, not everyone can afford to buy in bulk. But in instances where you can, consider stocking up on non-perishable goods and household supplies like packs/bags of drinking water, dozens of toiletries, refill packs of beverages, or cartons of your kid’s favourite juice boxes. By taking advantage of wholesale discounts, you reduce the cost per unit of these items that you use every day.

4. Pack your lunch

With a bag of rice going for ₦95,000, you will definitely like the rice at home. All jokes aside, preparing and packing homemade meals for school or work is much cheaper than buying lunch daily. To make things easier, pick a day on the weekend to plan and prepare your meals in advance. However, if you’ve not had power for a while now, just stick to waking up early to prepare your lunch.

5. Shun FOMO:

Let’s look at this scenario: Your friends call you up at 5 pm on a Friday to join them at a newly-opened restaurant in VI, and you have only ₦32,463.91 in your account.

Will you:

1. Pick out an outfit and go and spend your last card, or
2. Politely turn down the invitation, sit at home and watch their IG stories?

If you chose “2”, you’re on the right track. The urge to spend money on random purchases or activities because your friends or colleagues are is just future penury disguised as present enjoyment. The fear of missing out might sting, but you must strive to resist it. Indeed, it’s easier said, but prioritising your financial goals means you’ll often have to take rain checks when faced with unplanned expenses. Make smart choices.

6. Limit access to funds

It’s easy to engage in frivolities when you have excess funds in your bank account after all your essential needs have been sorted. But when you lock away that cash in worthwhile investments, you can condition yourself to spend more intentionally on a daily basis as you build wealth.

Depending on your money goals, PiggyVest has a wealth of options for you. Safelock is a personalised fixed deposit that enables you to earn up to 12.5% interest annually, collected upfront. If you prefer to combat inflation by saving in dollars, opt for the Flex Dollar feature and earn an interest of up to 7% per annum. You can also earn up to 35% interest by buying pre-vetted, low-to-medium-risk investments on Investify.

7. Avoid impulse buying

Before making any purchase, take some time to consider the immediate significance as well as the future implications of that purchase. This is especially important when making non-essential purchases (aka wants): beauty treatments, eating out, random subscriptions, the perfume-oil vendor that comes to your office every day with new scents, online shopping, and yes, buying plantain chips, groundnuts and boiled eggs every single day while stuck in traffic. These little things you randomly spend money on daily add up and lead to you potentially overspending and falling short of your financial goals.

Conclusion

There are many positives to cultivating good saving habits and building an emergency fund. With PiggyVest, you can meet your money goals, while earning sweet interest. By adopting these seven simple lifestyle changes, you can significantly improve your spending and saving habits, stretch your naira, and enjoy a more relaxed relationship with money on a daily basis.