What Are Some Money-Saving Tips for an Indian Housewife?

source: deccanherald

Life as a housewife demands a lot of sacrifices. When you decide to stay back home to consolidate your family's financial future, you commit to fulfilling many duties.

Housewives, therefore, require next-level financial planning as they are responsible for adjusting every minute aspect within a single income source. Accomplishing this over the years requires financial discipline and forecasting abilities, two essential skills for proper money management. If you are unsure how to save money as a housewife, keep reading.

Housewives nowadays stay more aware of how to save money, as consistently putting in these small efforts will eventually help solidify the family's financial security. So, these are some of the practises they usually follow to ensure maximum savings each month:

• Constantly Look for Ways to Save Money: To deploy this strategy, you should be aware of offers that local vendors are announcing from time to time. Ensure to pick up essentials whenever you are about to run out of stock, and there are active offers of significant discounts or winning free goodies. It is a traditional method that works best to cut down grocery bills. Moreover, you can reuse leftover food ingredients to make snack items and reduce the cost of ordering food from outside.
• Draw a Budget for the Essentials and Stick to it: After you have listed the commodities you had to buy the preceding month, you can now decide which ones are indispensable and what their necessary quantities shall be. Accordingly, form a budget and make sure the daily purchases are aligned.
• Consider Working Part-Time: Even after applying the strategies mentioned above, if you are constantly looking for ways how a housewife can save money in India, then most probably, your family’s lifestyle choices need more funding. If you are determined to join a company as a part-time worker or confident to master a new skill to monetise it later on, invest sufficient effort into it. In the long run, it will help you save money as you earn more and simultaneously manage all household activities by hiring a helping hand.
• Put Aside Money in a Jar: It is an age-old practice in Indian households where housewives accumulate small changes in a jar. To make this effective, place the pot in a place that is not easily accessible. Keep checking the savings every six months. Though you assume the amount is insignificant, the savings may often amuse you if you deal predominately in cash and get change in return.

Indians who are confused regarding how to save money as a housewife can check out the following investment options:

• National Savings Certificate: It is a great investment option recently adopted by many Indian housewives who intend to grow the money at their disposal over time. You need to start with at least ₹1,000 and can continue investing with denominations as low as ₹100. The interest income generated from this investment is often exempt up to an extent under Section 80C of the IT Act. Moreover, there is no upper limit on the amount deposited annually.
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: Securing children’s higher studies is one of the biggest concerns of parents these days. You can opt for the SSY scheme launched by the Indian Government to save up to ₹1.5 lakhs per annum for your child’s education. 
• Banks and post offices extend this facility across the country, and all you have to do is open an SSY account where you need to put at least ₹250 yearly. The account must be activated before your daughter turns ten years old, and the maturity amount is ready to be withdrawn after 21 years from the account opening.
• Post Office Monthly Income Scheme: If you have been saving money in any post office account, then you are probably aware of this scheme. The account holder only needs to ensure they deposit ₹1,500 yearly under the POMIS plan to generate a guaranteed monthly interest income. The Indian Postal Services allows the citizens to enjoy risk-free investments and hence is an ideal companion for Indian housewives who can afford to take close to zero risks. Moreover, if you find this useful, you can recommend it to someone unsure about how to save money as a housewife in India.
• Gold: Buying gold is a common ritual in Indian households as it is hard to deny that most Indian housewives share an unreserved affinity towards gold.  Then how about changing this to a great investment option? Instead of sticking to physical gold jewellery purchases, you can resort to investing in gold ETFs, sovereign gold bonds, gold schemes, or even buy coins. These can be later on encashed at an appreciated rate and also eliminates the making charges involved whenever you go to make jewellery.

The whole point of the above sections has been to discuss effective money-saving ways practised by Indian housewives. To further smoothen up the process, you can follow these top 3 additional saving tips:

• Practice a Frugal Lifestyle: By ‘frugal lifestyle’, we are trying to stress that it is possible to lead the same standard of life and cutting down the utility costs. You should look for ways to save in every possible instance; a few examples of accomplishing this are making snacks at home instead of ordering online and repairing a broken gadget instead of replacing it.
• Use Cash and Do Not Depend on Credit: When you aim to spend a month on credit thinking you will be able to benefit from the discounts, in most cases, you end up overspending. Contrarily, using physical cash each time helps stay more mindful, and thus, the chances of spending more drop significantly.
• Avoid Unnecessary Expenses: Again, this practice stresses the importance of a budget. Once you control your spending habits, not only will the household expenses come down, but there will be much lesser impulse buying. Hence, clear-cut goals are necessary, and there must be a definite understanding of monthly ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. Numerous articles addressing “how to save money as a housewife” can be found across the internet. Most of them will provide you with chunks of ideas that may be difficult to execute for someone having little practical experience in handling personal finance. We have tried to eliminate this problem and provide more realistic solutions, which you can start practising right from today.