Do you ever find yourself thinking, “If only I had $1,000 dollars saved away, my life would be so much better. I could buy 500 lattes and 300 muffins and be so happy.” Well, maybe the details of what you would do with the money are a little bit different, but the basic idea of having money saved for a rainy day is pretty common. Here are some ways that you can easily be on your way to saving that rainy day money.
First, cut extraneous expenses out of your life or at least save them for that rainy day. People spend hundreds of dollars a year on things that they could save a lot of money on. For example, if you made coffee at home instead of buying Caribou or Dunkin Donuts coffee everyday you could save upwards of ten dollars a week. While that might not seem like a lot, it certainly adds up over the course of a month and a year.
Another similar way to save is to eat out less. Even if you go out to eat and take home leftovers, you are not saving yourself money by not having to cook again later. Again, you can save the money and only go out on those rainy days. And of course, making meals at home will always be less expensive than eating out, no matter how much food a restaurant gives you.
Additionally, look at what you spend on your cell phone, car, and energy bills every month. If you can switch to a cheaper cell plan, drive less, or use less energy, do it! Most people spend more money than they have to on these things because they don’t pay attention to what they actually are using versus what they are paying for. Make sure you are only paying for what you use!
Similarly, do things for yourself, or, if you have kids, assign them chores for a weekly allowance. They will most certainly mow the lawn for less money than the landscaping person you’ve been hiring to do it. You can very easily cut money out of your budget by doing your own lawn work, washing your own car, and cleaning your own house. This can be really great for many reasons, such as keeping you and your family active and doing things together. It will also help your kids grow a work ethic and learn the importance and relationship of working for money. There is also a great sense of accomplishment in doing something yourself, for example, cleaning your house. While yes, it sucks and you will probably hate doing it, when you are done and have a sparkly clean house and no less money, you will undoubtedly be proud of yourself.
Next, open a high interest savings account and direct the money you are saving there every month. If you figure you save forty dollars a month by making your own coffee, make sure forty dollars goes into your savings. Without interest, it will take you about two years to save one thousand dollars. With interest, it will go faster. Put your money in and watch it grow!
Just imagine having a drought and you will have that $1,000 to spend on a rainy day in no time.
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I enjoyed this article. I used to eat out quite often, but because of finances, I only do it now for special occasions or if I’m on a vacation. It has saved me quite a lot of money. Anything I can cut out and do myself, I do, and then put the extra money into my savings account. Great tips for everyone to do.
The tips you offer are great. I’m a frugal person to begin and on a very strict budget, most of the tips offered are things I already do. I’m wondering if there might be tips you have for the modest consumer. Things I may not have though of myself. I have cut money where possible. I have a flip phone with no contract, I sound 20 a month for 400 roll over minutes each month. No bells and whistles just a basic cell phone. Might there be some other ways I could cut expenses to save that rainy day money.
This is something I do and it is a big frugal and yet a luxury at the same time. I happen to LOVE LOVE LOVE Bath and Body works foamy hand soap but you can do it with any clear liquid soap just not the creamy kind.
You need a foam hand soap dispenser. Then you get your favorite clear liquid soap. Fill the empty foam hand soap bottle about 1 inch with the liquid soap. Fill the bottle the rest of the way with water. Next, gently tilt the bottle back and forth and side to side until the soap is thoroughly mixed. DO NOT SHAKE. Shaking will cause it to foam up. Let it sit for about an hour and you have foamy hand soap.
Bath and Body works foam soap cost about $10. Bath and Body works gel also cost $10. You can make approx 6 foam soaps from the gel using this method 🙂 If you want to make it even cheaper, purchase gel soap from Target, Walmart or other discount chain.
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I read an article that said if you create a sense of urgency, it’ll motivate you to save money even faster. Like if you pretend that you have to come up with $1,000 or you’ll be evicted, you’ll surprise yourself with how efficient you are at scraping together that money. A lot of trouble with saving money comes from the feeling that there’s no rush to do it. When I had to come up with money to pay a bill, I’ve amazed myself with how fast I could come up with the money by working overtime and temporarily cutting back on sleep to work more hours. If I was in that kind of hurry when it comes to saving, I would make more progress. I’m working on creating that kind of mindset because I do better when I’m under pressure.
Fantastic tips! I’ve started riding a bike around town to save money that would usually go toward buying gas for my car. I’m doing it to save up for a car of my own. I’m tired of having to borrow or bum rides off friends and family all the time. Riding a bike is doubly rewarding. Not only am I saving money, but I’m also getting into better shape at the same time. I’m riding around on a mountain bike though. It’s not one of those fancy, Tour De France speedy bikes. i bought this things from the local Walmart for 90 bucks. It takes a little while to get anywhere, but it’s rugged enough to where I can take all kinds of shortcuts(and hope no one sees me crash when I’m going too fast down a steep, grassy hill).
I also use a Tracfone. I like those pay as you go services. I don’t have to worry about spending a lot on the minute cards, because I usually just hop on the bike, and visit my friends when I wanna talk to them. Face to face communication is something we seem to take for granted in the world today. Technology is great and all, but it’s no substitute to being with someone.
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I save a fortune by making my own yoghurts – but we do eat 3 or 4 a day. The only outlay was a yoghurt maker which soon paid for itself. It uses a negligible amount of electricity. I buy a little extra milk – but that adds far less to my grocery bill than the yoghurts did. I reckon that I save about $38 / €30 / £24 per month by making my own yoghurts – and they are much nicer than shop bought ones !
One way I’ve saved money over the last 18 months is by making my own yoghurts – we eat about 4 pots a day between us and commercially produced yoghurts are both expensive and wasteful in terms of their packaging. I had to buy a yoghut maker, but it wasn’t expensive and paid for itself in 6 weeks. The electricity that it uses is negligible and the pots are re-usable. The extra milk I buy is far cheaper than all the yoghurts that I used to buy. I estimate that I save $38 each month – over a year that amounts to $456 – half-way to that $1000 for a rainy day. It is also more environmentally friendly.
Now, what I need to do is put that $38 aside each month.
Your last paragraph is the most important, and the one I think a lot of people leave out of the equation. There is so much talk about saving money and reducing expenses, but often that just translates into spending that money on something else. Directly putting the saved money into a savings account is key. Many online high-yield accounts even have automatic savings plans where a certain amount of money is deposited from checking to savings every month. If you change to a cheaper cell phone plan and save $5.00, have that $5.00 deposited automatically. You won’t even have the chance to spend it on some splurge you don’t really need.
Thank you for these tips. I find it very difficult to save money, however you make it sound so easy. I definitely agree that you should eat out less, because it is so expensive and you would save so much money if you bought your own food from the supermarket. I think with that money you should put it aside so you do not end up spending it on anything else.
That’s pretty straight forward. Excellent article.
I have been able to save 30% on my energy bills by changing to a cheaper company. More and more people are doing this. There are nice websites where you can compare prices of the major players on the market, and it really helps to take some time to make the comparison.
I also saved money by checking how much I spend for my mobile phone. I switched to a good prepaid option, saving money every month.
I think it’s a good idea to directly send the saved money to a bank account, because otherwise you might not really save it, if you spend it on other (unnecessary) things.
I have an SUV that eats up gas like its water. So to cut down the cost of buying gas I catch the bus as much as I can to work and going home. It helps save the miles on my car and puts some extra cash in my wallet. Plus, I rather be reading than fighting morning and night traffic. Traffic can be crazy so that extra time to myself is a huge plus.
Another thing I did to try and save money was changing my cell plan to a cheaper family plan. It helped me save about $20 and I say that’s good enough for me. All of your tips are good and easy to follow.
Thanks for sharing!
Melanie
Getting rid of the gym membership you never use can save you about $1000 a year! There are so many ways of working out for free, or you can sign up for casual fitness classes which should still cost less than a full membership