How to avoid “ant expenses” and save up to 32 thousand pesos per year

One of the activities that can have benefits in the medium and long term is savings, since the resources raised can help savers achieve their financial and personal goals. According to the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users (Condusef), one of the easiest ways to start this habit is to allocate small fixed amounts of income to savings, which should not represent any economic impact.

Although there are different methods to raise money, one of the main obstacles to achieving the desired goals is the so-called “ant expenses”, which are often not part of the expenses of savers because they are small amounts of money that are those expenses that apparently do not affect your budget but which, in fact, have a great impact on weekly, biweekly or monthly finances.

According to Condusef, it is estimated that a person living in Mexico spends approximately 32,000 pesos a year on the type of expenses mentioned above. To save this amount, savers should avoid as much as possible small expenses that go on meals away from home, drinks such as soft drinks or coffee, platforms for travel and even weekend outings.

However, there are other “ant expenses” that are often not contemplated and that month after month appear on the statements: payments for services from streaming platforms. In fact, excessive consumption of digital services can represent up to 15% of revenue, so it is essential to review the monthly budget allocated to it.

Another expense that will have to be reduced is home deliveries or delivery services that have become very important in the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since they were an alternative to shelter us at home without the possibility of contagion.

However, reducing or avoiding these costs can also be positive when it comes to saving, since the average of this service ranges from 30 to 40 pesos, so if you order home delivery at least four times a week, you would be spending 640 pesos a month, about 7,600 pesos per year.

In this way, it will be possible to follow a series of recommendations in order to reduce such costs and achieve effective savings by the end of the year. If you cannot avoid all these outflows of money, the option is to cut them in half and allocate the other part to saving, since only from excessive expenses, the annual accrual that you could collect is 16 thousand pesos.

Other tips offered by CONDUSEF to start saving are the following:

1.Make a monthly budget

2.Learn to differentiate your tastes from your needs

3.Set goals for your savings in the short, medium and long term

4.Allocate part of your monthly income to savings

5. Be organized

6.Look for opportunities to reduce expenses

7. If possible, make a monthly budget

If you think that your savings will have a better safeguard at a financial institution, verify that it has the appropriate authorizations and regulations. Compare and choose banking establishments, their interest rates and commission charges. In addition to accumulating a good amount of money that can work to invest in a business or cover annual insurance expenses

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