If you are saving for something that you want in say 12 months – consider these tips. Perhaps you need a better car or some new clothes for work? Whatever your needs you will have to put a firm action in place to get what you want. You should also avoid dipping into the savings for your goal. Save money budgeting with these secrets and you’ll have what’s on your wishlist fast.

Set your goal with a firm date

Set a solid date and time for your goal. This way you can break down your goal by month, week and then task for the week.

Confirm the amount you need

Now write down the amount you need to achieve your goal. For example, if you want to save money budgeting for a new car write down how much you want to spend on your prospective car Now break that amount down by month and week. You’ll now have a figure you can work with.

Set up an automatic savings plan

Now get online and set up an automatic savings plan for the amount. Try to get an account online that is not connected with your current bank. For example, I bank with Commonwealth and have my savings accounts over at Ubank. I like them because I can name my ‘savings buckets’ anything I want. This makes it easy to see what I have in each account. E.g. Christmas or Next School Holidays.

Set up different budgets and accounts

If you have several goals, set up an direct debit for each. You will enjoy watching your savings grow over time. This will make save money budgeting easy.

If you aren’t saving for anything in particular

If you just want to save on different areas of your life, consider a tool like PocketSmith. You can set up budgets and forecasts here and track how you are going with each category. The tool feeds your bank accounts into its dashboard. You can get automatic updates on how you are tracking according to the budgets you set up. Another Aussie tool is GetPocketBook. This site is FREE and also has awesome daily app notifications via SMS.

Be realistic

Finally be realistic with your budgets according to your lifestyle. Don’t set up ridiculous budgets that will leave you too short or that you can’t achieve. Aim low and enjoy ticking off your achievements each month.