This is a cool way to save money. You save money while you also carry on enjoying the things which you do now.

There is no need to sacrifice anything, which is great news. You might decide to cut down on a few things once you see the savings grow but other than that, you can carry on enjoying your life as you do now.

This saving idea came about while talking to a close friend of mine. We were talking about a group of regulars in a pub. They were seen in the corner of the pub several times a week.

It was their local.

While having a bar meal with his family, my friend was sitting quite close and so he was able to hear the conversations between these old men.

One of the things he heard said made him stop and think. One of the old guys had said…

‘if I had a pound for every pint I have supped in this pub I would be a very wealthy man.’

The gang of men chuckled, they all knew that they had spent a lot of money drinking and socialising in that pub. They didn’t mind either, they enjoyed it. They had fun and that is what life is all about.

Life is for living and enjoying. Otherwise it is a wasted life.

The question is, were they really enjoying life?

Was there something better that they wanted to do and could have done, if they had not spent as much as they had on beer?

Money is a tool, it can open up many different doors and help us enjoy many different types of experiences. If there is something special that you want to do, own or experience you will need to find the money to pay for it.

It is with that in mind that you should try and make as much as you can or if that is not possible, manage what you have better.

Saving money is one of the easiest ways to build up a useable pot, the only problem is that, to save a lot of money relatively fast you have to really cut back on your non-essential spending and not have a life.

That is tough, very tough.

The ‘If I Had A Pound For Every…’ Savings Plan.

This fun saving plan is based on the popular saying ‘if I had a pound for every time…’ which my friend overheard one of the old gentlemen saying.

As I say, you do not need to stop doing anything or cut anything out, rather you simply make the decision that every time you do something that you love, you put a pound, or a set amount, away in a jar as a saving.

For example: if you went out for a few drinks one evening and enjoyed 5 drinks in total, you would put away £5.

Or if you went out for a meal and a few drinks with family and the bill came to £45 you could put away £4.50 (10%) of that cost into a jar.

You might be thinking that you don’t have the money to do both, this may be true and this is where you might decide to reduce the amount you have so that you can put some money away.

Dropping from 5 drinks to 4 or 3 on an evening out is still better than not going out at all.

The power behind this saving method is that you make a strong conscious decision to do it. The decision to do it is then reinforced by actually going out and doing the thing you enjoy.

While doing the thing you love you know that it is at the compromise of saving. It is a constant reminder.

Simply decide on what your saving amount is going to be, whether it is a pound per item or a percentage of the whole cost. Then when you get home, put the money away in a jar or tin.

It really is that simple. At first you may think that it is a waste of time but once you get into the swing of things you will soon see that the jar is growing with money.

Money which can be used on items you didn’t think you could afford.

You might find that you start throwing in more money. I regularly throw my shrapnel in my money jar. All of those ones, twos and five pences which just gather up in the bottom of my pocket get thrown into the pot.

The jar will get emptied and either banked or turned into paper money at the local supermarket change machine.

Cultivate Mindful Spending Habits

People generally have more money than they realise. Even those who regularly say that they are skint. However, those types of people say they are skint when they are asked to do or buy something extra.

Normally they manage to afford to spend money on lots of other things like regular takeaways, going out, coffees and snacks.

They are not really skint, they do a hell of a lot of stuff with the money they have, they just cannot afford to do more.

Many simply do not realise what they are spending their own money on. They develop bad spending habits which over time robs them of a lot of their own money. Money which can be used better in other areas of their lives.

Further Reading: How Non-Essential Spending Is The Death To Dreams & Why You Need To Become Mindful Of What You

If you ever catch yourself saying the words ‘if I had a pound for every time I…’ then maybe you should stop and think about how much you are spending on that one thing. It is obviously something that you enjoy doing otherwise you wouldn’t be spending that amount of money doing it.

Or would you?

If however, you realise that you are in fact not enjoying it that much and that you are spending far more doing it than what you are getting back in pleasure, then maybe it is time to cut down or even stop altogether.

This has happened to me, I realised that something which I was doing for fun was taking up a lot of my time, a lot of my money and was far more effort compared with what I was getting back in pleasure.

The pleasure part just didn’t warrant the expenditure I was wasting on it, and so I stopped. Not only have I saved a lot of money, I have a lot more spare time and I am not rushing around trying to arrange the evenings.

Applying The ‘If I Had A Pound For Every Time I…’ Savings Plan To All Areas Of Your Life.

If you go out for drinks once or twice a month and used this savings plan you won’t save a huge amount. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t do it, over the year that money will add up to some serious savings.

You should use this saving mindset to other areas of your spending. It is not just for those evenings when going out for a meal or a few drinks, it is for every time you spend money on things you want and enjoy.

I am referring to the non-essential items like snacks and drinks, not the essential items like bills, you have to pay them, they are a necessity.

Whenever you buy anything which you do not need, but you want, put some money in the savings jar.

You might find that your relationship with spending changes immensely. You will save a lot more money as you may spend less on the stuff you do not need.

If you do not cut down spending on the things you enjoy but are struggling to put the relevant amounts away in the jar then maybe you should consider finding new ways to generate some extra money to help with the strain that your spending is having on your money each week.  

I suggest that you read the post in the box below to help explore great and fun ways to make some extra money from home.

Further Reading: How To Make £100 This Week (And for Weeks After)

If you want to learn how to make money, save money and generally manage your money better as well as join a growing community of fellow Smashers with the opportunity to enter competitions and challenges with prizes then join the SmarterCash forum here: (Coming Soon)