Buying a new car can be an expensive business which is why many people will get a loan in order to pay for it. However, you may prefer to find a way to afford the car without a loan. Perhaps because you have a poor credit record and so cannot get a loan or because you would rather pay it off all in one go. There are things that you can do that will help you to save up.

• Designate an account for the savings – it is wise to start by setting up a savings account just for the purposes of putting the money for the car in. This could be an account you already have that you decide to just use for this purpose or one that you decide to set up. Having it separate means that you will know exactly what it is for and will be able to put money into it, knowing that it will not be spend on other things by mistake.
• Pay into it regularly – It can be good to get into the habit of paying some money into the account every time you get paid. The amount that you put in will depend what you can afford. If you normally have some money left over at the end of the month then do at least this amount. It needs to be an amount that will be significant so you can really start to save up but that will leave you enough money so that you can afford everything you need to buy. You might to do some calculations to work out how much or you may have to change it a few times before you get it right. Obviously, the more you put into the account, the quicker you will save up enough to buy the car.
• Empty out current account – at the end of the month it can be wise to take any money left over in your current account and put it in the savings account. Many people do this anyway. This is not enough though and you should do the above step as well. This is because we can often spend what is left as we will see that there is some money there and know that we can afford a few things that we want. Therefore, it is wise to make sure you save first, even though there is no harm in doing this step as well if there does happen to be some money available there.
• Spend less on other things – it can be a good idea to be careful about what you are spending money on as well. If you are saving up then you will need to make sure that you are not spending too much money elsewhere. It is not always easy to cut down as it can feel like you are depriving yourself. However, it is a good idea to think about whether you really need all of the things that you are buying so that you can cut back on things that are not so important to you. Also, you can compare prices to make sure that you are not paying more than necessary for items that you are buying. It is wise to get good value for money, but if you compare retailers you may find that they have identical items at lower prices.
• Earn more – you might find it easier to earn more money rather than trying to find lower priced items or to cut down on what you are buying. This will depend on whether you have the time to be able to fit in more work. There are lots of ways that you can earn and so you may not just have to think about whether you have the time or opportunity. For example, you might be able to look online and find some work to do from home or you could sell some things that you own or things that you make to earn some extra. It can be fun thinking of different ways that you can earn or make money, particularly if they are a bit different to normal.

You can try one or all of these things in order to make saving up for a car easier. The amount of work that you will need to put in will depend on how much money you need to save up, which will depend on how much the car is that you want to buy. It is good to think through your options and come up with a plan that will allow you to get the right amount of money to buy your car without having to make such severe lifestyle changes that you will be unhappy. You could always try a few changes and get used to those and then slowly try more and more until you find some that you really like or until you build up to quite a lot so that you start to make some significant savings.