Millennial Living: 7 Ways On How To Save Money While Living In The City

As a millennial living in the city, I know one of my greatest challenge is how to save money while living in the city.

Living in the city can be one of the most daunting tasks not just because of how overly crowded they are but also because the “cost of a cool lifestyle” is mainly rocket high. But the good part is there are always two sides to a coin and hence one can take certain steps to live the good life in the city while saving money too.

I live in Lagos which is the commercial capital of my country, one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the most populous city in Africa. Need I say more? I bet you already get the drift- life in Lagos is crazy. Especially as a young 20 something trying to carve a career path.

However, I’ve learnt to “hack” living in Lagos my own way in order to save more while living in the city. And of course, I decided to share these quick tips with you all as Lagos, Nigeria is one the highest source of my blog traffic, third to the United Kingdom and the United States.

Inasmuch as I am writing this post in relation to how I save money while living in Lagos, please note, these tips can also work in similar cosmopolitan cities.

Here are 7 ways on How to Save Money While Living in the City

Evaluate Your Spending Habits

They say the way to finding a solution is to first know the root cause of the problem. The same rule applies if you want to learn how to save money while living in the city.

You first have to figure out where, when and what your money goes to. So, evaluate your spending habits.

My prefered way to do this is to grab a notepad and pen and write down everything I spend money on daily and also write down how much I spend on these things. If you aren’t certain about your spending habits, then I strongly advise you practise writing down all your expenses over the course of the next week. And I mean every darn thing; from transportation to food to clothes etc.

Draw Up a Budget

Have you evaluated your spending habits? Well, congratulations and welcome to the next step on how to save money while living in the city.

But don’t set aside your note pad and pen because you are about to start drawing up a budget, YOUR BUDGET! but if you aren’t a fan of traditional “paper & pen” budgeting, and prefer modern budgeting styles, don’t fret, I’ve got an amazing list of the best budgeting apps for millennials.

In drawing my budget, I usually do it in a scale of preference format going from fixed expenses such as transportation to work, lunch bills, etc. down to seemingly less important things like buying new outfits. I don’t suppose this approach can work for everyone, so I’ll advise you to read any of the posts below to find how to budget your own way.

1. No More Budgets– By one of my favourite finance blogs for millennials. @ Moneyunder30.com
2. 5 steps to creating a budget that works for you by my best blog for 20 somethings females @theverygirl.com

Cut Down on Entertainment

When you live in Lagos, the capital city of “Owanbe” (partying), saving can be pretty difficult because there are always events to attend and if you are big on entertainment, you might be finding it hard to save while living in Lagos city.

Try to cut down on entertainment, not every Friday should be “TGIF” night out for you, not every wedding should be graced with your presence and not every new restaurant should have you as a customer ( this one hit hard, y’all already know I am a foodie). But to save while living in the city, I had to make some of these changes.

I can say over time, it has saved me more. This is not to say you should become a hermit and go nowhere, rather this is saying you should give a second thought to the importance of that “waka-waka” you are about to embark on and if it’s not important then cut it off and save you some bucks.

Shop at Thrift Stores

A couple of years back, people largely commonized thrift shopping or “okrika” shopping as it’s popularly known in Nigeria. But lately, it seems people have realized that thrift shopping doesn’t necessarily mean you are broke and more people are publicly embracing the thrifting lifestyle.

One thing I advise is for you to “thrift carefully”, – buy quality thrift items. There are so many places one can get thrift items of clothing from, we have popular markets such as Yaba, Aswani and many more. If you can’t be stressed with going to the market, then check out online thrift stores like Thriftstore.ng.

Eventually, you will realize thrifting still fuels your “shopaholic” lifestyle but in a more pocket-friendly way. And when you live in the city, you will need every cent you can save.

Eat Out Less, Eat in More.

This tip is for those who prefer to eat out more. If you sit down to calculate how much you spend on eating out, you will realize shockingly that food takes a large portion out of your money. Raise your hands up if you are a foodie like me.

So how about you cook your own food? You can do your grocery runs in bulk on a monthly basis in some of the “affordable” markets for foodstuffs in your city. In Lagos, we have some like the Oyingbo market, Mile 12 market etc.

What if you hate to cook? then patronize food vendors who do bulk cooking for clients. A bowl of soup can cost from about 3-10 thousand Naira, same for stews. Which I think is relatively affordable considering the fact that one trip to a restaurant might snag up that entire amount.

If you must eat out frequently, probably due to your schedule then patronize fast foods that sell affordable food that tastes good too.

Take Cabs Less, Use Public Transportation More

I almost left out this tip because the transportation system in Lagos is crap but if the BRT system works along your route, taking them isn’t so bad as long as you can get to sit and not stand ( This right here is akin to a death sentence, no kidding)……. okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit, but you get the drift right?

As a rule, I never take Cabs unless I am running late, going to a part of the city with a terrible public transport system, attending an event or probably too exhausted for that public transport life ( on rare occasions) But for regular commutes like going to work or market, I use public transport…. at least until I make “moneyyyyy” and get a car.

Automate Your Savings

Now to the last but the most important tip on this list, AUTOMATE YOUR SAVINGS, I can’t rave enough about how automating my savings has helped made my saving culture better.

If you’ve followed up on the previous 6 tips, word on the street says you’ve managed to cut down on your expenditures and hence can save up what you have successfully rescued from changing your spending habits. What better way to put them to good use than to save them?

I automate my savings using Cowrywise, a Fintech company that provides affordable savings and investments for all.

Using their periodic plan to automate my savings involves me setting it up to automatically save a specific amount after PAYDAY. This helps makes the saving process easier as I can go ahead and spend without any nagging conscience as my savings app has done the needful!

You can sign up for Cowrywise using my Cowrywise link to get N250 free.

Learning how to save in a city is no doubt daunting but if you follow these tips thoroughly, you will find it to be a piece of cake.

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