In this ever more expensive world we’re all looking for more ways to save money. Does it feel like you’re barely getting by, paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay your monthly bills?
Maybe you’re saddled with thousands of dollars worth of credit card or student loan debt and you can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe you just want to boost that savings account so you can put some away to buy a new car or home, take a great vacation, or plan ahead for retirement or your child’s education.
How to Save Money
Do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try it’s still impossible to find ways to save money?
You mean well and try to spend less, but something always comes up.
Life gets in the way—the car needs new tires, the teenager needs braces, the house needs a new roof—and just like that, saving money takes a back seat. Sound familiar?
The truth is, you don’t need everything to magically line up perfectly before you start saving money.
Whatever the case, we all have savings goals, but sometimes the hardest part can be figuring out where you can adjust and make changes to help save money.
Sometimes the hardest thing about saving money is just getting started.
This step-by-step guide can help you develop a simple and realistic strategy, so that you can save for all your short- and long-term goals.
One of the best ways to save money is by visualizing what you are saving for. If you need motivation, set saving targets along with a timeline to make it easier to save.
There are ways to slowly save money without sacrificing your lifestyle , and then there are ways to save money fast. If you need to build your savings account balance quickly.
In this article, we’ll look at some proven ways to save, so you can start making progress and reaching your goals.
Budget Plan
Related Article: Unmask Budget Challenges
Step One: Make a Budget
Before you do anything else, you need to know exactly how much money you have coming in and going out each and every month.
It can help you divide your income into categories that make saving easy.
How to budget for household expenses
Developing a household budget takes some work, but it’s always a good idea to dive into your spending habits to see where you could save some cash.
We recommend a monthly budget for so many reasons, but achieving your savings goals is perhaps one of the greatest.
Household budget
You can do this either with an app or spreadsheet, or good old pencil, paper, and calculator, but make sure you tally up both your monthly income and all your expenses.
Include your regular expenses such as rent or mortgage, utility payments, internet and phone bills, car payments, gas, food, and incidentals.
If you’re not sure what you’d like your savings goal to be, now would be a great time to set it.
Perhaps you would like to put aside a certain amount for retirement this year, or pay off some substantial debt in a particular time frame.
Maybe you just want to save up for a big trip or purchase, like a new car. Figure out how much you need to save each month to reach that goal and work it into your budget.
Free Printable Monthly Budget Planner
Life Hack
Life Hack: Pack Your Lunch An obvious money-saving tip is finding everyday savings. If buying lunch at work costs $7, but bringing lunch from home costs only $2, then over the course of a year, you can create a $1250 emergency fund or make a significant contribution to a college plan or retirement fund.
If you need motivation, set saving targets along with a timeline to make it easier to save. Want to buy a house in three years with a 20 percent down payment?
Now you have a target and know what you will need to save each month to achieve your goal.
Step Two: Pay Yourself First
Once you have decided how much of your income you’d like to devote to savings each month, then make sure you are doing just that.
One of the best ways to ensure you stick to this goal is to pay yourself first.
The easiest method is to set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account; you could do this once a month or each time you get paid, whatever works best for you.
This makes it almost mindless for you – that money goes into savings without you ever having to give it a second thought.
Similarly, there are also apps these days like Qapital, Digit, and Acorns, that will transfer money in small amounts directly from checking to a separate savings account, or round up purchases and deposit the change into your savings or investment accounts.
If you carry cash regularly, you can do something similar, by depositing any change you have left over at the end of each day into a jar or box, and then depositing it into your savings account when you have a good amount.
Step Three: Cut Expenses
Perhaps the hardest part of reaching a savings goal is figuring out where you can cut expenses. It takes some thought and planning, but don’t worry, you can cut corners and save money without feeling deprived. Let’s look at a few ways to do so.
- Pay off debt: If you are carrying any debt, whether it be from credit cards, medical bills, or student loans, focus on paying this off first.
- Consolidate and eliminate debt. High interest rates on credit card debt makes it difficult to get ahead. Look into debt consolidation loans to see if you can qualify for a reduced interest rate or lower monthly debt payments.
- If any of your lenders have high interest rates, focus on paying those off first; even though it might require more up front, in the long run you’ll pay less because you’ll save some of those interest costs. What if you have collective debt over $10,000?
- It might be worth contacting a debt consolidation service, such as National Debt Relief, getting a personalized loan, or moving debts to a new credit card with 0% interest for a period of time.
- Through these methods, you can make a single payment towards your total debt each month, making you feel like you’ve accomplished more. With lower interest and delayed service fees, you’ll also be able to focus on paying off what you owe before adding more to your burden.
- Consolidate monthly bills: If you have a home or car loan, talk to your bank about refinancing. It will extend the life of your loan, but will often lower interest rates and your monthly payments, which can save you a lot of money in the long run.
- Additionally, it’s a good idea to review things like your cable and internet packages, cell phone plans, energy usage, and subscriptions, to see if you really need what you have or if you could cut back a bit to save some cash each month.
- Try using coupons and cash-back services for groceries and other purchases. If you’re planning a big purchase like new appliances, shop around for the best deals and try to time your purchases to common sale periods.
- Apps like Rocket Money can help analyze recurring fees like streaming subscriptions and make it easy to cancel them automatically.
Financial Literacy for Young Adults Simplified
Cut recurring expenses Consider eliminating subscriptions, streaming services and gym memberships from your budget.
- 4. Reduce unnecessary expenses: Let’s be honest, we all spend money we shouldn’t sometimes, but with some careful tricks you can limit how often you do this. If you tend to shop online a lot, set up accounts on your favorite stores to require you to input your address and credit card each time you place an order – the extra work will give you more time to decide if the purchase is really worth it. If you’re tempted to make impulsive purchases, try to start following the 30-day rule, by making yourself wait a period of time between seeing an item you want and making the purchase. You might realize you don’t really need or even want the item that much, or you might find a coupon that makes it worth your while. If you tend to spend a lot each week on food from restaurants or vending machines, plan ahead a little better when you go grocery shopping so you can keep snacks and meals that are easy to grab and won’t have you going out all the time.
Many bank statements incorporate categorized spending reports.
These can provide a good sense of where your money has been going and identify opportunities to reduce your costs.
And if you’re married or live with your partner, making this review process a shared task can be helpful in cutting expenses and save money.
For entertainment, host home gatherings, look for free events in your area and hit up free museums and libraries. Stay fit by exploring the outdoors or doing in-home exercises.
Helpful Tips
Life Hack: When you get a nice work bonus (way to go!), inheritance or tax refund (or random stimulus!), put it to good use. And when we say “good use,” we aren’t talking about adding that fancy new stamp to your stamp collection or even just putting it in the bank to camp out. If you’ve still got debt in your life, you’ll be better off using those funds to pay off your student loans.
Step Four: Bring in More Income
The great news is that in our modern, digital age, it’s easier to find a side hustle than ever.
So if you’ve followed all the other steps to set up your budget and track and reduce spending where you can, and you still need help building your savings, you might be able to find several ways to bring in a little extra money here and there and have the opportunity to save money.
Sites like Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and Income Dollars make it easy to earn a few extra bucks here and there.
Sign up for accounts on these sites and you can easily take surveys while you watch TV with your family in the evenings.
Most of them will let you cash out the points you earn via PayPal or gift cards, and some will even allow you to transfer earnings directly to your bank account.
Many survey sites have a minimum payout as low as $5, so you can easily transfer a little money every day if you take enough surveys.
Delivery and rideshare services are all the rage in today’s “gig economy.”
If you have a reliable vehicle, you could put a little extra cash in your pocket by delivering takeout through GrubHub or DoorDash, groceries through Instacart, or giving people rides around town through Uber or Lyft.
It’s easy to earn a few extra hundred dollars each month just by working with the services in the evenings and on the weekends, and as long as you can handle the wear-and-tear on your car (and are sure to hold back enough to cover gas and taxes), these services can be a big boost to your income.
In this video I go over 12 different tricks you can use to save money fast.
1- Set a Main Goal.
2- Set a Budget
3- Create Specific Goals
4- Get Rid of Subscriptions you don’t use
5- Get Rid of Spam Emails that make you spend
6- Create Automatic Savings
7- 7 Day Rule (my favorite)
8- Get Rid of the Credit Card.
9- Use your debit card instead, or buy with cash
10- Buy Store Brands.
11- You don’t need designer clothes
12- To Save More, Make More
Courtesy: Matias Rijo on Youtube
Maybe you don’t have the time or a vehicle appropriate for deliveries, but you do have some extra storage space or even an extra living space.
You can rent out a garage, basement, or shed space through the website Neighbor, and earn up to $300 in passive income per month, just by letting someone store their stuff.
If you have an extra apartment or house on your property, you could rent it out to a long-term tenant, or use it for vacation rentals through Airbnb or VRBO.
The bottom line is, saving money is a sometimes-difficult, but necessary part of life.
Thankfully, with a little careful planning and ingenuity, you can work towards your savings goals whether large or small, and see results quite quickly as you start working toward your financial future.
The benefits are worth the hard work, and soon enough you’ll be making your money work for you more than ever before!
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