Some tips to save money after payday...

1. WRITE-OUT YOUR GOALS
After the credit alert comes from the bank, there’s no better time to spell out your saving goals for the month. In other words, what you intend to do with your salary is just as important as the salary itself.

2. TRACK YOUR EXPENSES
Whatever happens, you have to keep track of your expenses. One easy way to do that is to come up with a rating system e.g. if you earn N100K monthly and plan to save 40% of that, draw up a rating system. Say, at the end of the month, if you end up saving only 10% of your income, be honest to scold yourself with marks like ‘FAIL’ and vice versa.

3. CREATE A BUDGET AND MONITOR IT
If you are planning to save a percentage of your earnings, you should have a budget. Bear in mind your budget should include everything you spend money on monthly, even airtime for your mobile device and money for charity. This is not the kind of budget you carry around in your head - you have to write it out or have it typed out in a document where you can look through it as frequently as you need to.

Write out how much your disposable income is on a monthly basis and how much you intend to save. Also, write out every single item or service that you pay for, right from the salon to the restaurant and others. In other words, ensure everything is accounted for. At the same time, ensure you monitor your budget. In situations where you record expenses not initially included in the budget, include them under review, and make plans for such recurrence.

4. CHANGE YOUR ROUTE
If you find yourself indulging in impulsive shopping, especially on your way from work, you may need to change your route. Where you shop is just as vital as what you are buying. A man once bought a portable wardrobe at a shop close to his work place for N11,400 and after a few months, it began to fall apart, mainly because he overloaded it. He later bought another one at N5,000 at a shop very close to his house.

5. DON'T TAKE YOUR DEBIT CARD OUT EVERY DAY
Your debit card can actually save you from being stranded, but having cards for all your accounts could tempt you to go beyond your monthly spending limit. Without caution and discipline, you will keep spending what you have saved. Instead of having debit cards for all your accounts, which may force you to leave far less than you planned to save at the end of the month, get a debit card for your operational account. The less your access to your main account, the safer your savings will be.

6. BUY WHAT YOU NEED, NOT WHAT YOU WANT
If someone offers to sell you a new pair of shoes or a really nice wristwatch, wait for a clear 48 hours before you make a decision on whether to buy or not. This gives you sufficient time to decide if this is something you need or something you want. If you work with this strategy, you’ll end up not buying quite a number of things you originally wanted to buy.

7. PRIORITIZE SAVINGS OVER SPENDING
One of the wrong ways to go about saving from your monthly earning is to save what is left after your spending. That is suicidal. If you truly desire to see the account balance of your savings account go up on a monthly basis, you have to save first, then spend what is left. If you insist on spending and then saving what is left, the chances of having anything left are quite slim.

SOURCE (abridged): https://nairametrics.com/2019/09/19/7-ways-to-save-money-after-payday/