Thrifty Thursday: 5 Ways to Save Money

5 Painless Ways to Save Money

5 Ways to Save MoneyImage courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So you want to save up for something big? Like a vacation. Or new dryer. Or just have a little extra padding in your savings? Here are 5 fun ideas to make it require a little less effort to save up.

1. Use cash and keep the change. This is one of my favorites, so it’s at the top of the list. When ever you make purchases throughout the day, don’t use your change. Say your purchase is $19.27. You’ll get 73 cents back from $20.
Then at the end of the day, empty your pockets into a big jar. When it’s filled up, or after a couple months to a year, take it to one of those coin machines (if you’re lucky, your bank has one and then you won’t pay a fee!) and get it tallied up. You’ll be surprised at how much you have! Last year we got about $150! And that wasn’t even over the whole year.
2. Pick a number. Say, your 10 year anniversary. Commit to saving $10 a week in jar, envelope, box or whatever. That’s $520 in a year, which could treat you and your significant other to an overnight getaway at least. And if you’ve got a couple years, you could have $1,500!
Or your your 20 year reunion is coming up in 3 years. You could do $20 a month. That’s $720 in 3 years. See where I’m going?
3. Pay yourself for jobs done around the house. Hate cleaning the bathroom? “Pay” yourself $2 each time you do it. Give yourself $1 to cook dinner. You could do 50 cents or 25 cents if you think that $1 is too much. But it will add up. Set a time frame where you will “cash out.” Maybe you could save up those dollars cooking until you have the amount to treat the family to dinner at your favorite restaurant!
4. Make yourself pay for bad habits. Got a problem with cursing? Spending too much time online? Yelling at your kids or spouse? Charge yourself $1 for every time it happens. To make it more effective, take it out of your personal spending budget. You just might find yourself doing it less often! And until then, you can save up the money for something for the family.
5. Pay yourself for accomplishments. Did you resist the temptation to buy that candy bar at the checkout line? Put that 75 cents you would have spent away! If you take your lunch to work when you would normally eat out, use the amount you would have spent to put aside. Did you do your daily workout? Skip a cigarette? Do a good deed? Save a preset amount aside.

Use one or all of these ideas. Put them toward one big goal, or lots of mini-goals. This way you can save up and treat yourself when you can afford it. After all, you’ve earned it!

What are some tips you have for saving up for something special?

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19 Comments

  1. These are such great suggestions!! My hubby really struggles with this and it drives me insane!! It really causes so many battles in this house!!

  2. Love this content. We’re also passionate about saving money and stretching it when we can. Found you at the Lou Lou Girls link up. Thanks for posting!

  3. Great tips! I need to save up for a HUGE vacation next yr so I’ll be for sure using some of these tips!

  4. I love these. I am definitely going to start emptying all my change (and my husband’s) into a jar each night. All that loose change will add up very quickly. Great ideas!

  5. These are great ideas to enable us to save to visit family! We are military and don’t get to visit family much because of money, this will be very helpful!

  6. These won’t work for me. Been there,….. I know where the money originally came from and I can’t squirrel away with a credit card or other bills that come up.

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