How To Save Money in 2024: 15 Best Ways To Save More (And Spend Less)
Saving money is something everyone knows they should be doing, but getting started can be taxing so it never hurts to use some money-saving tips. It can seem like you need to readjust your long-term financial goals because you don’t feel like you have any extra funds to store away. You don’t need to start eight extra side hustles to save lots of money, you may just need to tweak a few spending habits to watch your bank account balance grow.
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How To Save Money: 15 Easy Ways
Whether you think you don’t have any money to save, you don’t know where to start or you’ve convinced yourself you’re simply not a saver, think again. There are always opportunities to move money from your checking account to your high-yield savings account. Here are 15 to consider:
Make a grocery list and stick to it
Eat at home to avoid restaurant spending
Buy store brands
Find ways to cut unnecessary spending
Transfer credit card balances
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
Follow the 30-day rule
Refinance your mortgage
Use a budgeting app
Cut utility expenses and energy consumption
Automate your savings
Build a budget and break it into percentages
Audit your expenses
Pay down your debt
Set savings goals
1. Make a Grocery List and Stick to It
Americans throw away about 80 million tons of food per year, totaling a whopping $444 billion. If you constantly throw away food, you’re throwing money in the trash. One way to curb this waste is to create a grocery list, and a meal plan and stick to your shopping list to avoid throwing your food and money away.
Start by planning your meals for the week or your entire pay period and make sure to pack your lunches for work. Once you have your meals planned, make a shopping list that includes all of your ingredients. Doing so will help you make sure you don’t buy too much, but you have what you need for the meals you intend to cook.
2. Eat at Home To Avoid Restaurant Spending
It is common knowledge that eating out can be more expensive than cooking at home. Making more of an effort to eat at home is an easy way to add some savings to your bank account. Cutting back on restaurant spending can go a long way to pad your monthly budget, leaving you wiggle room to put those extra funds away for a rainy day.
3. Buy Store Brands
Store brands may not have the most appealing labels, but the products are similar to — if not exactly the same as — popular brands. For example, you’ll find that off-brand medications have the same active ingredients as on-brand medications. Switching to the store brand for medications and other products can add some change to your piggy bank.
4. Find Ways To Cut Unnecessary Spending
The average person pays about $74 per month for cable services. If you got the basic packages at Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max, you’d pay a total of $33 per month. Switching to those streaming services instead is a savings of $41 per month. What other unnecessary spending could you cut out of your budget and turn into savings?
5. Transfer Credit Card Balances
High-interest debt from credit cards gets expensive quickly, but if you have good credit, you don’t have to pay interest at those high rates. Consider signing up for a zero-interest balance transfer credit card. This could save you on interest expenses for up to 21 months, saving you hundreds or thousands of dollars in the process.
Once your credit card debt is more under control you can focus on better options for your charging habits. Look into cash-back or rewards credit cards to get more for your buck.
6. Shop the Outsides of the Store
Have you ever noticed that the items on the outside edge of the grocery store are fresh? These are fresh meats, veggies and all other ingredients you need to make great meals at home. This is where you should shop. Not only can avoiding pre-packaged meals help you on your journey to learn how to save money, but it could also have a positive impact on your health.
7. Follow the 30-Day Rule
Have you ever wondered, “What is the 30-day rule?” This rule was designed to help you and others avoid costly impulse buys.
The rule is simple, when you see something new you want, wait 30 days to buy it. If you still want it after 30 days, go for it. It will likely surprise you how many items you’ll forgo if you give yourself 30 days to think about them.
8. Refinance Your Mortgage
Do you have a high mortgage payment? You may have purchased your home at a time when interest rates were high. Even if you didn’t, your beginning balance is a determining factor in your mortgage payment amount. Refinancing may result in a lower interest rate, and if you’ve paid off a significant portion of your home, you may end up with lower payments even if your interest rate doesn’t fall.
9. Use a Budgeting App
Let’s face it: some people just haven’t learned how to budget, and that’s OK. Budgeting isn’t something they teach in grade school. If you have a hard time finding money for savings, consider using a budgeting app like Goodbudget or EveryDollar to take control of your money.
10. Cut Utility Expenses
The simple act of turning off your lights when you’re not using them can add meaningful dollars to your savings over the course of a year. You could add to this savings by turning your thermostat up or down one degree depending on the weather outside or turning it off completely when you’re at work. These are just a couple of ways to save money. You can find tons of other ways to save on your utility expenses when you think outside of the box.
11. Automate Your Savings
Transferring money out of your paycheck automatically makes it easier to not spend it. You can allocate your funds to go directly into designated savings accounts to build your base or help you reach your savings goals. Here are a few tips:
Start a separate savings account to directly deposit a percentage of your paycheck automatically so it’s out of sight, out of mind.
Where you save your money matters so try and find a high-interest savings account, CD or money market account to get a better interest rate.
Direct deposit for your paycheck is convenient but you can split up where those deposits go. For example, put some into an account specifically for necessities like rent, electricity or utility bills, car insurance or phone bills.
Your bill paying can also be automated which helps keep your necessary spending accounted for and your discretionary spending in check.
12. Follow the 50/30/20 Rule
Wondering what the 50/30/20 rule is and if it can work for you? The premise is simple. Use 50% of your income for necessities, 30% for wants and 20% for savings. Although you may need to make some lifestyle changes to stick to this, it’s well worth the effort in the long run.
13. Audit Your Expenses
One way to lower your expenses and cut back on your spending habits is to take true stock of what you spend each month. This helps to see where you have room to edit. A great place to start is unused subscriptions that you pay for monthly automatically. Another place to cut back would be gym memberships you don’t use or apps you pay for on your phone without realizing it.
14. Pay Down Your Debt
It may seem obvious but paying off your debt, whether it is student loans or credit cards, is one of the best ways to help your money start going in the right direction again. Not only can paying your bills on time and in full lower the interest rates you pay but it can also help improve your credit score. This can lead to better rates and savings on future loans.
15. Set Savings Goals
Staying motivated to save more and spend less can come down just to the accountability of setting goals so you can achieve them. Setting savings goals is not too dissimilar from building a budget — you simply outline where you’d like your finances to go and then what steps you need to take to get there. Here are some examples of goals you can work towards:
Start an emergency fund where you have three to six months of expenses covered in case something unexpected happens.
Putting away enough money for a down payment on big purchases like cars or houses.
Adding to retirement savings and retirement accounts to help build a more secure future for you and your family.
Final Take To GO
The bottom line is simple. Learning how to save money may be challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it, the savings you’ll build are rewarding. Try your hand at some of these ways to save and watch your bank account grow.
FAQ
Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about saving money.
How can I save $1,000 fast?
Here are some of the best ways to save $1,000 fast:
Make a grocery list and stick to it
Eat at home to avoid restaurant spending
Buy store brands
Find ways to cut unnecessary spending
Transfer credit card balances
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
Follow the 30-day rule
Refinance your mortgage
Use a budgeting app
Cut utility expenses and energy consumption
Automate your savings
Build a budget and break it into percentages
Audit your expenses
Pay down your debt
Set savings goals
What is the 30-day rule to save money?
The 30-day rule is when you see something new you want you wait 30 days to buy it. If you still want it after 30 days, you should make the purchase but the impulse may have passed. It's a good way to distinguish between what you truly want to buy and what is a passing temptation.
Vance Cariaga and Joshua Rodriguez contributed to the reporting for this article.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Save Money in 2024: 15 Best Ways To Save More (And Spend Less)
