Living Frugal
Your Savings
A couple of unexpected expenses and there goes your savings. What can you do? You're living frugal but you need to find more creative ways to save money. Saving that is painless.
If it's not something you've been accustomed to, learning to save money can be the hardest part when your starting to live frugal.
Here are five easy ways to save money and all are painless.
1. Save your change
Set aside a jar or container and make it a habit to empty all of your change each night. When the jar is full, roll the change and deposit into your bank account.
An extra boost to the savings account is to look for change in the parking lot of shopping centers you visit. When you pass a soda or newspaper machine, always look in the change slot. I can honestly say I have been on very few business trips where I didn't find change in the hotel or airport soda and newspaper machines. This is one of the better strategies to save money. Someone elses money is deposited into your account – money they left behind.
2. Setup Auto Draft
Make saving easy on yourself, setup auto draft with your bank and you never see the money. There's something about having money in hand and then saving it that makes it harder. If you never have the money, it's way easier to save. Setting up auto draft is one of my favorite strategies to save money.
3. Save your raise
When it's merit raise time, don't even think of "what can I do with this money". Increase your savings auto draft or 401K with the money from the raise. If you let your take home pay increase, you're spending will increase automatically. You are living on what you take home today, make yourself do the same tomorrow.
4. Rebates
If you participate in rebate offers (and you should) deposit all your rebate checks into your account.
5. Hide Money from Yourself
If you have easy access to money, it's money your more likely to spend. Setup a separate account at a different bank or maybe an online bank. If there's extra effort to get to the money, you'll think twice about spending it. Certificates of Deposits are ideal for keeping your savings "hidden" from yourself.
