Surprising Money Saving Tactics You Can Employ Today
Discover simple yet effective money-saving strategies that you can easily implement into your daily life. Whether you're looking to save money to put towards your student loan debt, mortgage, or simply want to cut off your unnecessary spending, you can easily automate, cut, and revamp your way to savings.
1. Cut Back on Subscription-Based Services
Whether it’s for shopping, streaming movies, or delivering groceries to your door, subscription services can add up quickly. Once you’ve signed up, it can be easy to let those monthly payments go unnoticed as they are automatically deducted from your debit or credit account. Examine which subscriptions you actually use each month, this also extends to memberships. Are you paying monthly for a gym that you haven’t been to in months? If so, it could be time to cancel these types of memberships to help you save money every month.
Consider streamlining your streaming services by limiting the number of subscriptions for viewing movies and listening to music to just one. Are you needing to continue a personal service subscription such as clothing? See if there’s an option to set up the subscription on a quarterly, rather than a monthly, basis.
2. Create a Savings Account
Saving money can be as simple as creating separate bank accounts to manage your deposits. Creating a savings account and setting aside money in it each month will enable you to hold back some of your finances from the bigger pool from which you pay bills and make purchases. Whether you’re saving hundreds or even a few dollars a month, you can easily set up an account with your bank online and start to see your savings grow.
3. Be Strategic With Your Personal Debt
From college to starting your new career and building a family, personal debt is a financial situation that many Americans live with daily. In March 2019, the total revolving credit card debt reached 1.057 trillion dollars in the U.S.1 Consider changing to a credit card with zero percent APR financing can aid in saving you money that would’ve been spent on interest, back into your wallet.
4. Break Your Eating Out Habit
Save money and gain a new skill by reducing how frequently you eat out at restaurants. In 2017, Millennials over the age of 25 spent close to 4,000 dollars on eating out while Gen Xers over 35 years-old spent close to 5,000 dollars in dining out.2 Creating a shopping list and budgeting for groceries has the potential of saving you thousands of dollars a year. This is a simple way to incorporate extra savings into your budget while also saving time. Discover various ways to meal prep and save on groceries to make your dollar go even further.
5. Resist Impulse Buys
When you hear about the latest smartphone or you see a great sale online, it can be tempting to splurge, especially if you think it is a necessity. However, breaking the cycle to get the latest and greatest gadget is key in saving money in the long run. Try to set aside a number of days as a minimum before buying something that isn’t groceries, gas, or other necessities. This is a simple way to keep your impulse buying to a minimum and add to your savings.
Additionally, you can try to resist temptation by reducing the number of promotional emails you get from your favorite stores. Whether you can adjust your email settings to automatically send promo emails to a certain folder or just unsubscribing, limiting the number of specials and sales emails can help in keeping the urge to shop to a minimum.
