Save more money this month with these proven financial strategies. Learn how to lower your spending, make extra money, and save more of the money you earn!
So remember a couple months ago when I talked about how our family manages to live on one income? Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how you guys were going to react to that post. It wasn’t a craft or home decor project.
It wasn’t about organization or DIY. But it was about something that I am extremely passionate about– making wise financial decisions!
Based onthe overwhelmingly positive response to that post, I am guessing that you all are pretty passionate about tackling your finances and saving money as well, so I decided to put together a list of 10 very practical, actionable things that we all could do to keep more of our money this month. (And Christmas is coming up, so you’re gonna need that extra cash!)
Save More Money: The Right Mindset
Before I get into my list, though, I want to share my big, overarching secret with you when it comes to managing finances: It’s all about your mindset.
There have been times in my adult life where I have played the victim when it comes to our finances, thinking things like, “I wish we could just be normal.I want to go into one store and buy whatever I want without having to worry about shopping around for deals or staying under budget. I’m sick of tracking our spending,” etc., etc., etc.
And ya know what?
I easily get off track when my mindset is negative. When I am excited about saving and meeting our financial goals, though, it almost ends up being like a fun game. It’s a challenge to see how much we can save and what we can do to improve our financial picture.
Keep the big picture in mind, stay focused, and stay positive. That’s the real key to making this thing work.
10 Practical Ways to SaveMore Money This Month
1. Create a budget to save more money.
If you just audibly groaned, stick with me for a minute. It doesn’t take much time poking around this blog to figure out that I am a huge proponent of budgeting. If you want to save more money, you have to have a plan to do so.
Sitting around and just hoping there will be extra cash laying around at the end of the month usually doesn’t work very well! Making a budget may sound daunting, but it really isn’t difficult.
When I sat down to create our budget, I took alook at our previous months’ bank statements and made a list of all of ouroutgoing payments– everything from utility payments to mortgages to membership fees.
Then, looking atabout three months of our spending history, I was ableto estimate the amount of money weneededto purchasethings like food, clothing, car repairs, gifts, gasoline, etc.
Yes, it tooksome time to comb through our statements and crunch the numbers, but when I haddone it, I had a veryclear idea of the amount of money we wereaiming to spend each month.
(If you need help getting your budget organized, check out my budget binder that includes free printables to get you started!)
2. Track Your Spending
So once I created my pretty little budget, I had to know whether I was sticking to it or not, right? The only way to do that was to track our spending. We’ve done this a couple different ways.
We currently use a monthly budget spreadsheet that we can access from our computes, phones, and tablets to track our spending. If you’re a technology person, that may be the route you want to go.
If you’re a pen and paper person, a paper budget binder may be for you. In the second half of my budget binder, I have a sheet dedicated to each of our budget categories– I write down everything we spend on groceries on one list, clothing purchases on another, gas on a third list, etc.
This way, it’s easy to go into the binder at any point during the month and see how we’re doing.
If it’s only the middle of the month and we’re already coming close to our budgeted amount for gas, we can keep our car trips to a minimum.
If my grocery budget has run out and there’s still a week left in the month, I know my family will be getting creative meals since I’ll be cooking with whatever I already have on hand! 🙂
On the other side of the coin though, tracking our spending also helps us to know when we have room to make certain purchases. If I haven’t spent any of my clothing budget and it’s getting to the end of the month, I know I can pick up those jeans I’ve been wanting and not feel guilty at all because we had money set aside in the budget for that.
3. Make a Small Goal that You Can Achieve this Month
WhileI’m looking at my budget and working on tracking my spending, I also like to make some goals. Goals are another thing that I am pretty much obsessed with because I think they WORK!
If I amaiming for something and have a plan to get there, I amso much more likely to achieve it than if I’mjust sitting around waiting for it to happen.
Making a small monthly goal looks like this: I take a look at my previous month’s spending and identify an area of weakness.
For me, this might be home decor items or crafting supplies. I might make a goal to cut my home decor spending in half for the next month.
I write it down, tell my husband about my plan to give myself some accountability, and then any time I’m out that month and I’m tempted to buy something for our house, I’m reminded of my goal and reevaluate my purchases based on that.
Maybe your weakness isn’t home decor. Maybe it’s clothing or eating out. Or maybe it’s even items for your kids. Whatever it is, identify where you usually splurge and try to cut back. Even if it’s only 10 or 20%, it will be a savings!
I love making smaller goals like this because when I achieve them, it spurs me on and gives me confidence to tackle bigger things.
4. Make a Large Goal that You Will Reach over Time
And while we’re talking about bigger things…it’s great to have larger goals too! When we purchased our mini van, we made it our mission to pay it off early and save ourselves a ton on interest payments.
Because we were always working toward that goal and constantly putting whatever money we could toward it, we were able to pay off the van in less than two years rather than the six years that our loan would have lasted.
Not having that car payment each month gives us more money that we can put in savings or direct toward other needs.
Having a big goal in mind is an incredible motivator. When we’re tempted to go out to eat instead of finding something to eat at home, we can think to ourselves, “Would we rather have a meal out or be one step closer to financial freedom?”
It’s a no brainer!And don’t be afraid to think BIG! What is one large financial goalthat you and your family can work together totackle over time?
5. Challenge Yourself to Find Free Fun to Save More Money
This one isdefinitelyall about mindset. Yes, it’s easy to say, “I really wanted to see that new movie but instead I’m missing out just to save a little money. This stinks.”
But if you choose to make it fun, you’ll still have a great time AND you’ll be thrilled at the end of the month when your bank account is not empty!
Get a group of friends together to watch a sporting event or do game night and have everyone bring a snack to share.
Put the kids to bed early and have a stay-in date with your spouse– cook dinner together and borrow a movie from the library! (See, it’s good for your marriage AND you’re savingmoney!)
Take the kiddos to a local park or farm. There’s a large farm near us where you can pet all of the animals and even play in a little splash park, and the only thing they ask is that you bring some bread to feed the ducks. It doesn’t get much better than that!
There are awesome free activities out there if you go looking for them!
(Con creek walking with dad in our local county park– FREE fun!)
6. Go Shopping Less Often
This is a tough one for me. My son’s preschool is right across the road from Target, and it is so easy to want to run in and pick up a few things all the time.
Those small purchases (usually impulse buys) add up, though, and if I’m simply not in the store, I won’t be making them.
Right after I had my surgery, I spent a few weeks in my house recovering, not going to stores, not buying anything at all. And you know what? I still had everything I needed!
We were still able to go about our day-to-day lives and our household continued to function. It was really eye opening to see how much I had been spending on all of these small incidental purchases just because I was visiting the store frequently.
7. Create a Waiting Period for LargeorImpulse Purchases
And speaking of impulse buys, let’s try to take the “impulse” out of it. Creating a mandatory waiting period before purchasing something that wasn’t on your list can help to curb those spur-of-the moment buys and ultimately save you money.
It could be something as small as creating a section in the cart to hold potential impulse buys and making a conscious decision to reevaluate each and every one before you check out to make sure you actually need it in your life.
Or take it one step further byimplementinga one week mandatory waiting period before you make a purchase over $50. That way you are actually walking away from the store and will have to make a concerted effort to go back if you decide that the item in question is needed.
I know that when I do this, I often don’t end up going back for the item simply because it’s inconvenient, and guess what– I save money AND my life is still complete without said item!
8. Sell Your Stuff
I know we aren’t the only ones with extra “stuff” lying around that we don’t use anymore. Chances are, though, that someone else would be happy to pay you for those things you aren’t using! Amazing how that works!
If the weather is still warm where you live, have a yard sale! If it’s not, list your stuff on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. (Obvious but important note: always use extreme caution when meeting up with someone you don’t know!)
We did this with the Cs’ nursery furniture and ended up getting a good amount of money back. Or try eBay for more expensive things that require a larger audience.
We soldsome American Girl items I had from my childhood that were still in great condition on eBay. Our boys wouldn’t play with them, but others were happy to have them and we got some cash out of the deal!
The “Fulfillment by Amazon” programis another great option. Donnie has made a decent amount of money selling his old books through this service. You would be amazed at what people are willing to pay for your old stuff!
(Our secret nook in the basem*nt that holds stuff we need to sell. Clearly we should get on that soon. 🙂 )
9. Minimize Your Monthly Payments to Save More Money
When I talked about making a budget, I mentioned listing all of our recurring monthly payments. If some of those payments were smaller (or didn’t exist at all!), we’d have more money to put toward other things.
When we took a look at our monthly payments, we definitely saw some areas that could use improvement. We ended up getting rid of cable and using a Roku instead. We’ve spent two years without it, don’t miss it at all, and we’re loving the savings!
We switch between internet service providers all the time because we always want to be with the one that is running the best deal. We did the same thing with cell phone providers and don’t have a home phone.
Similarly, talking to your utility companies and insurance company about ways you could save some money are great options as well.
10. Get the Extra Money out of Your CheckingAccount
Donnie is great at this final tactic. I am always telling him that he is a money hoarder. 🙂 Any time we have money come into our main bank account other than his paycheck, he is always siphoning it off into our savings account so that we don’t touch it! It’s a mind game really.
If we look in our checking account and see a large balance, it is way easier to think, “Oh great, now I can go out and buy that ______________ that I’ve been wanting for a while!”
If the money is in savings, though, and we have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to it, we are a lot less likely to make those same purchases.
So now that you’ve saved a bunch of money by budgeting, selling your stuff, minimizing your monthly payments, etc., get that money out of your checking account and into an account that’s more difficult to access. It will add up more quickly than you think!
Related: What are sinking funds? (And why do I need them?)
What are the next steps to save more money this month?
Whew! That was a lot! And I could even go on because I get so excited when I start talking about saving money and improving our financial picture for the long term!
So what financial strategies will you be implementing this month? Will you take the time to set up a budget and track your spending? Will you sell some of that old stuff that’s just laying around in the basem*nt? Will you contact your utility companies to try to lower your payment?
Whichever method(s) you use, be proud of yourself for making the decision to improve your financial picture. The peace of mind that comes from being “financially fit” is so worth it, and it is never too late to start. You can do this!
What practical money-saving tips would you add to this list?
