It can be hard to save money, but with these easy, yet effective tips you will be on your way to saving money in no time.
1. Give Every Penny a Purpose
The most sure way to NOT save money is to have NO IDEA what you are buying. I use a budgeting app to help me stay the path! EveryDollar app is the best app I have found to tell your money where to go. This app is very practical for my everyday life. I budget every penny that comes in. The great thing is that after I put my income amount the next line is for savings. I start by controlling what goes into savings every month (and tithe of course) and then I plan each category according to what is left.
I have seen so many people do this backwards. They start with necessities and then stuff they’d like, and at the end they may or may not have leftovers to put into savings. Especially if you have a goal in mind of how much you want to save over the year, this is the only way to do it!
You just can’t save money easily, without a plan.
2. Fall-back Fund
Ever found yourself in a pinch? Ever thought, “If only I had saved up some money, I could buy a new washing machine.”
Create a dollar amount that you won’t let your bank account fall below. For some people just starting out that may be just $500. You may build to $1,000 or $10,000. It’s just nice to get to 6 months worth of expenses so that in case you lose your job or have unexpected medical bills, you are not immediately in panic mode!
Whatever amount that you need for an emergency, don’t ever let your account dip below that unless you are actually in an emergency. If that means opening up a separate savings account, then do it.
By putting emergencies on a credit card, you are creating debt. This saves money in the long run.
3. Guilt-free Spending
This is the most fun tip that I have. Back when my husband and I got married in 2012, I was in my last semester of college and he was in his first couple of years of teaching. As you can imagine, we didn’t have a lot of extra. We made sure to prioritize taking out some cash each month that we call fun money! We didn’t have to discuss everything we wanted to buy. We’ve continued to practice this and slowly added a little more money to the “fun money” budget over time as our finances grew. It is so nice not to question when he buys random “guy stuff “and I want to eat out for lunch or get my nails done. It also helps us stay within reason because I might want another latte from Starbucks, but if I’m out of cash-no putting it on a credit card.
This tip has saved us from HUNDREDS of fights over finances. Consider budgeting $100 per month for starters. You will be surprised at how free you feel to spend it.
4. Plan a Little at a Time
I hate trying to dip into savings or use my whole paycheck on a vacation or Christmas budget. So it’s nice to just save a little but each month leading up to something big and keep the money separate, that way it doesn’t feel so painful to spend it all at once. I have gone as far as 6 months out saving for a vacation, and 3 months out saving for a party.
Related: Check out my post on How to have an Amazing Party on a Budget
5. Build in a Debt Pay-back Plan
I have lumped these tips together because you can focus on them simultaneously. But, without paying off debt, it doesn’t make much sense to put any “extra” into retirement.
First, paying off debt is of course a great way to stay out of debt. I’ve known many people that get in so far that they cannot see a way out. If that is you I would suggest seeing a financial counselor of some kind who can truly tailor needs to you and help you find ways to cut.
There are a lot of good resources out there to help you find a pay back plan that works for you, but the “debt snowball” is a great place to start! You can find out more about Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball here.
6. Plan for Retirement
Once you pay back most of your debt, you can really focus on investing in retirement. (We do not have our mortgage paid back yet, but we are investing in retirement pretty heavily). The first way to invest in retirement that you should do from day one is anything that your company will match. This is FREE money you want to take advantage of! For instance, some companies do a dollar for dollar match, like when I worked for Target. They matched every dollar up to 5%, so 5% was the MINIMUM I put in. If I would have only put in 3%, then I was letting 2% of my pay go back to the company every month, no way! Now, I get about .50 on the dollar up to 6%, so even though it’s not a 100% match, I am not letting that money go to anyone but me.
If your company doesn’t do a 401k match, I still recommend opening an IRA or a Roth IRA as soon as you possibly can! Retirement funds accrue money quickly.
Dave Ramsey even has another post about how to retire a millionaire with $35 per day, check it out here. Ok can you tell I’m a Ramsey fan yet? I wish he paid me to share his stuff because I swear I have sent so many people his way!!
Bonus!
Start saving money with some of my favorite cash back apps:
Ebates: Click the link below to get it and after you spend $25 at any website you’ll get an instant $10 back on top of your cash back! Winning all around!
Ibotta: This is an amazing cash back app where you can save on things you buy in the grocery store. Just add items to your offers section, buy, snap a picture of the receipt, and SAVE! Click here to get started!
Plus, I have partnered with a few other bloggers who have some amazing money-saving tips.
Check out Coffee Pancakes and Dreams’s Tips on Saving on GROCERIES!
Check out Miss Many Pennies Ultimate Money Saving Tips!
So that wraps it up for my Tips to Keep you Debt Free. I hope you can use these tips! Comment below if you have anything else you do to stay debt-free!! I love to hear about money tips.
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