This is an excerpt from my upcoming budgeting guide. The full chapter includes 6 different hacks. You can find it HERE when it becomes available.
A few years ago, I found myself in a few grand worth of credit card debt. I quickly realized I needed to get ahold of my spending habits, and began reading and educating myself on money. A long the way, I found myself picking up habits and tricks in order to make my money saving journey a little less boring.
1. Digital Cash Stuffing
This is a method I would die on a hill defending. This is one of the main reasons I was able to start effectively keeping track of my money. A few years ago, I was having loads of trouble understanding how much I was really spending.
Eventually, I got a bank account that allowed me to have multiple savings accounts. I could even name them! I started using these as “digital envelopes”. You may have heard of this method before — putting aside certain amounts of cash into physical envelopes, each with a specific purpose.
I set aside a few different accounts:
- An Emergency Fund — 3x my monthly income
- A Sinking Fund — For things like holidays, birthdays, repairs, etc.
- A “Bills Only” Account — I set aside money for bills each month and connected each on to this so that I knew exactly how much I was spending on them
- A “Wants” Fund — For anything I had had my eye on lately
You can really make any “envelope” you’d like. My bank account allows me to make up to 30 accounts, so I’ve gotten specific with it too. I’ve had accounts for self care needs, to save for trips, school materials, etc. The limit is really your own imagination and needs.
This method produces guilt-free spending as long as you stay within your budget.
2. Weekly Auto Transfers
This is a great method to use in combination with the previous one. Many banks allow you to set up auto-transfer between accounts. It’s kind of a “set it and forget it” move.
Back when I was struggling, I would allow myself to spend “whatever was left” after I paid the bills. But usually, one of two things happened:
- I spent more than “whatever was left”, and ate into the money that was meant for necessities.
- There wasn’t any “whatever was left”. I was broke!
Another thing — I have pretty severe inattentive-type ADHD. I am a really forgetful person. So none of this even applied unless I could remember which bills were due and when. But you don’t even need to have ADHD to be forgetful. It happens to literally everyone — even those financial gurus you see online (more on this later).
At some point I discovered the beauty that is auto transfer and auto pay. I would set up the transfers to run on pay day, that way I was putting money away before I even had the chance to spend it. I also started with small amounts and slowly worked my way up to being comfortable with saving a few hundred dollars every month.
This method works well because it removes the decision fatigue that can come along with deciding where our money goes. You also don’t feel the loss as much as opposed to putting large amounts away all at once since everything is going in little pieces.
Even saving a mere $20 every week can add up to an extra $1,000 a year.
3. Monthly Challenges
Gamification is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Challenges can help us keep momentum when we otherwise feel like giving up.
This can be done in many different ways:
- Using savings trackers: Visually keep track of your progress with saving a specific amount or amounts per week
- No spend weeks: This is pretty straightforward — choose one week out of the month and don’t spend anything during that week (obviously with the exception of necessities)
- Envelope Stuffing: Take envelopes and label them 1–50 (or whatever number). Each week, randomly pick an envelope and stuff it with the number in dollars. So if you pick envelope #30, you’d put $30 in the envelope.
Doing little challenges here and there can make the process of saving money a little less mundane and little more fun. Try making up ones that cater to your own needs or financial goals.
I’m not saying that these tips will by themselves help you save money. But using these in combination with good habits can help make your own journey a little easier.
This article is a short excerpt from my upcoming e-guide “How To Save Money Without Compromising Your Lifestyle”. Make sure to check it out here when it becomes available at the end of this month.
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