How To Save an Extra $150 Each Month
- Image by szlea via Flickr
This is the easiest most effective way to saving cash each month, other than saving immediately after being paid. Just like everything else on the site, this comes from personal experience. Here’s some of the raw numbers for you:
- Each month, we were budgeting $250 for groceries
- Each month, we averaged $190 for groceries (a $60/difference)
- Each month, we were budgeting $180 for gas
- For the past 4 months, we averaged $90 for gas (an $90/difference)
So as you can see, at the end of each month we had a pretty big surplus that was “budgeted”. What do you think we did with the extra cash (bought personal flotation devices)? What would you do (buy personal flotation devices)? Exactly. We just recategorized the money into nonexistent categories like “Eating out” and “too much coffee in a day” and of course “personal flotation devices”. We didn’t sweat it, and neither would you because the money was budgeted for, it was EXTRA. Nothing to worry about. We were already saving a good amount each month and saw no harm in emptying our cash budget each month, even if we cheated by spending it on things that were not budgeted for.
So what do you think we have done since then? That’s right! I looked at it one day and said “Hold up! We are missing out on a great savings opportunity!” I did some math, compared it to historical budget data, and figured we could shave a total of $150 of “extra” cash off of our budget and slip it right into savings at the BEGINNING of each month.
You want to save big and stop spending so much? Here is your answer. Cut down on what you budget for categories like food, gas, eating out, entertainment, etc. Chop them in half, or figure out what you can take away without starving every month. WE DID THIS AND FOUND AN EXTRA $150 EACH AND EVERY MONTH!!
Here are some places you can start:
- Groceries
- Gas
- Eating out
- Entertainment expenses (movies and such)
- Cable TV (it might seem hard to do, but we have not had cable TV for 17 months now)
Do it, I promise it won’t hurt! Where else do YOU think you can save some extra cash at the beginning of each month? Let’s talk about it below in the comments!
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Word yo about the cable…me and my one roommate are trying to get rid of it but the third roommate (the one who’s name it’s in) is totally against it. We’ll be pressing for this to happen soon since it’s a complete waste of money, all the shows I watch are online anyways the next day after they air.
@stephen Yeah, just multiply what you guys pay a month by 12 and show him how much is being thrown out the window in one year. Just be careful though, if it seems like it could cause a BIGGER problem, then let it be. But good job on trying, IT SAVES A TON OF MONEY!!
[...] How To Save an Extra $150 Each Month …at the end of each month we had a pretty big surplus that was “budgeted”. What do you think we did with the extra cash (bought personal flotation devices)? What would you do (buy personal flotation devices)? Exactly. We just recategorized the money into nonexistent categories like “Eating out” and “too much coffee in a day” and of course “personal flotation devices”. We didn’t sweat it, and neither would you because the money was budgeted for, it was EXTRA. [...]
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