5 Creative Ways to Save Money for This Month’s Challenge
Readers, this month we’ve offered you a small change , and believe it or not, it’s almost halfway through July. We’ve put together some creative ideas to help you stay motivated through the second half.
Rounding off your purchases and storing “excess” change is a fun and easy way to add extra savings to your budget. Of course, the old fashioned way is to empty our pockets and put coins in the savings jar, but most of us pay with plastic, not paper. Therefore, we have recommended several digital preservation methods:
- Use a tool like Tip Yourself or Qapital to automatically save extra change .
- Use your bank. For example, Bank of America has its own savings program, Keep the Change . Wells Fargo has Way2Save .
- Sign up for a tool like Acorns , which will automatically save and invest your extra money.
Whether you’re using these tools or not, there are some creative ways to mix things up and make it more doable before the end of the month.
Save when you spend money
We all succumb to the occasional temptation to spend (I can’t stop buying junk on Amazon ). Here’s a smart and prudent trick to monetize your temptation: every time you spend money, put the same amount in a savings account. Motley Fool suggests this in their post on Down Payment Savings , but you can use it for just about anything:
Because of these opportunities to spend, change the spending process in your favor. So you wanna buy these new shoes? Compare these costs with an equal contribution to your down payment. Sometimes the pain of doubling the price is enough to deter you from buying. In case you do decide to spend, an appropriate contribution will ensure that you are at least taking steps to save money.
This is a win-win rule. You either do not spend money because you cannot afford twice the amount, or you give in and save money. In any case, you will save money. Plus, this method makes you think twice about buying. If your checking account is already dangerously low and you really want to spend $ 10 on, say, a cocktail, knowing that it will cost you $ 20 may encourage you to spend a little more consciously.
Save on save
When I cook at home on a Friday night, I like to say that I “saved” twenty bucks because I didn’t go out to eat. The truth is, I’m not really saving anything. The fictitious $ 20 is still in my checking account and can be spent on anything else. So why not literally save those twenty dollars?
With this rule, you put a certain amount in your savings when you hypothetically save money. For instance:
- You decide to skip a movie night and watch a free movie in the park instead. Add $ 20 to your savings account.
- You get a free happy hour drink. Add $ 10 to your savings account.
- Your grocery receipt says “Total Savings: $ 12.” Add $ 12 to your savings account.
Basically, when you get dizzy about saving money on something, make sure you are actually saving that money in a savings account.
Rounding higher
When we posted the assignment, one of you replied, “I’ve been doing this for years, can I still participate?”
Yes! Another reader came up with a great way to do this:
This is a great option because you are still challenging yourself. Plus, this tip encourages you to think about your purchases. And deliberate spending is good.
Make an automatic savings goal
One of my favorite ways to save money is using If This Then That (IFTTT) and the free Qapital savings app . Qapital automatically saves you money according to the rules you set in the app. You can tell him, for example, to keep a certain percentage of each deposit in your bank account. Or you can tell him to save a certain amount every time you spend money at a certain store.
What’s more, Qapital has IFTTT functionality, which means you can link Qapital with any app that links to IFTTT: Instagram, Todoist, Google Calendar, the list goes on and on. This gives you almost limitless possibilities for creating automatic savings rules. For instance:
- Save money in your Qapital account when you finish something from your to-do list .
- Save using a specific hashtag like #thank you or #progress goal or whatever .
- Save when you hit your stride goal or go to the gym .
Save specific accounts
Finally, one reader suggested this during last year’s challenge: save all of his $ 5 bills.
Instead of saving only a small change, set yourself the goal of saving on certain bills as well. So if you pay for the coffee with a $ 20 bill and get back 10, 5, and a couple, put the $ 5 bill in your savings account.
Of course, this requires you to pay in cash, but if you do it anyway, it might be an easy way to boost your savings this month. Good luck readers! We will contact you at the end of the month to find out how much you have saved.