My biggest take away from the latest book I’m reading, Atomic Habits by James Clear, is that we should be focusing on the small steps we need to achieve in order to become who we want to be, rather than placing all of our focus on the end result of becoming that person.

So, here are 3 simple steps you can implement right now that don’t require a lot of effort but will make a great deal of difference to becoming a better saver.

1. BUY ONE LESS COFFEE A DAY

We all have a unique relationship with coffee, you either love it, need it, hate it or like me… can’t live without it!  This probably won’t come as a surprise but it’s the most consumed commodity in the world, but do we really need so much coffee in our lives or is it just that we want it?

I’ve developed a habit of ordering a double Espresso (my poison of choice)  before every business meeting; a bad habit to have considering I sometimes have several meetings a day, and by home time I’m completely buzzing with heart palpitations. So how can I curb this costly and unhealthy habit? Well, I could conduct walking meetings or hold them all in my office where coffee machines are nowhere to be seen, limit my weekly intake by 50 per cent or simply buy one less coffee a day.

Challenge yourself: See how much you can save in one week – Average price of regular coffee $4.50 

2. BRING YOUR LUNCH FROM HOME

Fast food is one of the biggest retail industries in the world, think about McDonald’s, Boost Juice, Sumo Salad, Sushi Hub, you’ll have heard of at least one of these.

Their success is largely due to their convenience. Their business models heavily rely upon the simple fact that humans need to eat, full stop.

Think about how many times you or your colleagues have brought your lunch to work, once a week, twice a week, never? Our offices are located in the city and are surrounded by hundreds of food outlets, cafes and restaurants all packed to the rafters during the lunchtime rush. Companies like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, HelloFresh and Youfoodz are making it even easier for us to spend our hard earned on take out.

My challenge to is to bring your own lunch to work for one week and notice the difference to your bank balance. The average lunch time meal costs around $10-$18. A home made lunch could costs you as little as $5 per day or even less if you have left overs from the night before.

Bringing your own lunch not only allows you to control your diet, based on your goals but is far more cost effective if you take the time to track your spending.  If you take small steps to do your meal prep for the week on a Sunday, you’ll start to work towards saving your dollars.

3. STOP USING YOUR CREDIT CARD FOR ONE MONTH – USE CASH INSTEAD

The down fall of a cashless society is that it sometimes conditions us to devalue money. When you don’t hand over physical cash at the counter to buy that large ticket item, you don’t feel the pain, you only see a bunch of numbers in the debit column of your bank statement – it just doesn’t have the same impact.

Our cashless society is definitely growing, we know this because even Apple want a piece of the action, just last week releasing Apple Card.  Apples says you can ‘buy things effortlessly’ using just your iPhone or you can also use the Apple titanium card anywhere in the world. If we just went back to basics and began only using our hard earned cash over credit cards , maybe we would once again realise real the value of money.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir but it’s good to be reminded every now and then,  maybe I’ve written this as a reminder to myself. Focus on cultivating the person I want to be, then make small changes and take small steps in order to realise that person.

Challenge yourself: Go to the bank and ask for 5x $100 bills. Put them in your wallet and see how you feel breaking one for that $2 bottle of water at 7-Eleven.

“Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize”

Bill Walsh