Top 10 Ways to Save Money
Everyone has expenses they have to pay and bills have a way of piling up quickly, but as important as it is to pay for these things, it’s equally important to have savings in place for a day in which you might not be able to. Savings is quite literally a monetary safety net, and one that you will probably need one day.
Even if nothing happens to prevent you from earning enough money to pay bills, there are still times in everyone’s lives where unexpected expenses come up. If you have plenty of savings, then it won’t be a problem in any case. Plus, knowing that the money is there if you need it will give you peace of mind, which is invaluable.
So today I’m going to be sharing with you ten top ways to save money that I’ve learned along my financial journey. Because I’ve definitely picked up some tips and tricks along the way.
1. Track Your Spending
Before you can even begin to make a plan for saving your money, you’re going to need to track your spending. Keeping tabs on how much money you’re spending is the key to creating any sort of budget, because you need to know where you’re starting to know where you’re going.
The way that I tracked my expenses was by writing down everything I spent money on for an entire month. This allowed me to see places where I could cut down on spending so that I could use that money for savings instead. This step is absolutely necessary if you’re serious about your finances, so consider it your very first step.
2. Pay Off Your Debts
Debt is hard enough to deal with, trust me I know the feeling, but it’s even harder to manage if it’s high interest debt. The discouraging thing about this type of debt in particular is that you’re going to be paying so much more in the long run than you should have.
So prioritize paying off things that are incurring large amounts of interest above lower interest debts. The faster you can pay off these expenses, the more money you’re freeing up for future saving. And additionally, it’s just nice to have those payments off your back.
3. Find Ways To Cut Down On Your Grocery Bill
If there’s one place in our spending that’s hard to optimize, it’s grocery shopping. Because no matter what, we all need food right? The answer is yes of course, but there are ways you can cut back on how much money is being spent on groceries.
You could start couponing. It can be a tedious task but worth it in the long run when you start to spend less for your groceries.
Make a detailed stock of what food and supplies you have at home before you go shopping, this will help you avoid buying things you don’t really need.
Cut back on the extras. The occasional bag of Cheetos is a necessity in my household but we try not to buy too many overpriced food products that we don’t really need.
Never waste food. Before you actually head to the store you should always make sure that you’ve eaten everything you have at home, within reason of course. I used to make it a challenge within my family to see how much food we could eat in our house before we went shopping.
Use a cash-back credit card. If you try this tip then make sure to pay off the credit card as soon as the charge comes thru. It can be really helpful to get that little bit of money back after you’ve been shopping. More on this in an upcoming post.
4. Consider Cancelling Subscriptions
This is one of the areas where tracking your expenses can really come in handy. You might be able to catch some active subscriptions that you don’t need or even use anymore. If you do find an unnecessary or unused subscription then make sure to cancel it. This can save you quite a bit of money after a while.
Some potential subscriptions you could cancel would be streaming services, monthly subscription boxes, or subscriptions that activated after a free trial that you forgot about. For instance, there’s no use in paying for Netflix and HBO Max if you only use Netflix or vice versa.
5. Downgrade Your Phone Plan
If you’ve noticed that you’re spending a lot of money on your cell phone plan then you could potentially find a slightly cheaper one, even if you have to lose a few benefits. One thing that many people find they can go without is insurance for their cell phones.
6. Avoid Shopping Online As Much As Possible
Impulse buying is pretty much the biggest enemy of saving money, so you want to avoid it at all costs. And the best way to do that is by avoiding situations in which you feel more compelled to buy things without thinking it through. Shopping online is one of those things.
The convenience of online shopping makes it very easy to purchase things that you don’t really need. So try to shop in person when you can, but if you have to make some online purchases occasionally then at least make the process a bit more inconvenient for yourself so you won’t do it too often.
You can do this by opting out of letting the site save your billing and shipping details. The additional step of having to type in this information will generally discourage you from unnecessary purchases.
Also make a rule that for every new thing that comes into your house something old must leave. That not only helps you think about the purchase harder but it helps keep your house less cluttered.
7. Try To Eat At Home More Often Than You Eat Out
Groceries are expensive but eating out, whether it be through fast food or sitting down in a restaurant, is considerably more pricey. So if you’re really serious about putting back money, then try to cut out going out to eat as much as you can.
But during the times when you want to treat yourself, try to do it in a way that will cost as little money as possible. There are a few ways to achieve this, such as not ordering appetizers, skipping dessert, and choosing less expensive items on the menu.
8. Carefully Consider Any Large Purchases You Make
Large purchases can destroy your chance to save money for months, and while sometimes these bigger buys are necessary, sometimes they are not. The key is to figure out which ones are important, and which ones you can go without or delay until a better time.
One great strategy is to wait 30 days (if this is possible) between the time you first want to make the purchase and when you actually do. This will give you enough time to really think it through and avoid an impulse buy that you might regret later. This tip works well for smaller purchases too, especially when you’re shopping online.
9. Create A Budget
Hopefully through looking at the previous tips and keeping track of your expenses you’ve started to see where all your money is going and how you could more efficiently allocate your resources. The best way to make sure this happens, and to stay motivated to stick to a plan, is by making an official budget.
When you actually set a budget for yourself it can increase self control, give you more confidence with both making purchases and saving, and set you up for financial success in the long haul.
Whichever budget you choose is up to you, but one of the most popular formats is the 50/30/20 budget. This means that you spend 50% of your monthly earnings on necessities, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings and payments. But of course you could adjust this, or any other budget format, to best suit your needs.
Check out this post about creating a budget.
10. Take Advantage Of Things Like High Yield Savings Accounts
Even if you follow all of the tips listed above and start to really save up money, you want to make sure that this money is going to good use. The last thing you want is your savings sitting idly when it could be creating even more money.
So make sure to keep these hard earned savings in a high-yield savings account, which means one that will pay you a lot of interest in exchange for storing your money there. Or alternatively, if you’re experienced or interested in investing then you could try your hand at it. Just be careful if that’s what you choose!
Ultimately, you just want to be putting back as much extra money into savings as possible, all the while making sure that money is doing its part in giving you more and more savings as time goes on.
I would love to hear any tips or tricks you might have to help save money. Just leave them in the comments below.
As always thanks for reading and have a GREAT DAY!
