Saving Hacks

Want to speed up filling your savings basket? “When you are out during the day, don’t spend money you get as change. Then, after you come home and are ready to make contributions to your basket/account, be sure to include all of those unspent money along with your coins.

These are called “hacks.” Here are some of money-making and saving hacks to help you save more or spend less.

Saving More

Take your discipline completely out of the equation by automating your savings. Save before you see the money by transferring it automatically from every paycheck into savings. Instead of trying to find the moneyevery month, you set it once and watch the money pile up. Saving automatically is more efficient and more effective. If you take the traditional approach—waiting until you’ve paid all your bills before saving what’s left—there’s often nothing left to save. There’s a reason “pay yourself first” has been the mantra of the money-enlightened for decades: It works.

Paying Your Bills on Time

Most banks offer automated bill payment you can set up online. Utilities and other companies offer this service too, and might waive convenience fees or offer discounts for the right to suck money directly fromyour account. If your monthly bills include debt payments, automatically pay more than the minimum to work off debts faster. Minimum payments are for losers.

Create a Budget

Traditional budget worksheets are a thing from the past. It’s time to throw out the paper and pencil and let your computer or phone do the heavy lifting. Use a free service like web saving softwares/apps to establish goals and automatically track your spending. For even more convenience, look to the dozens of apps—many free—that can put your computerized budget into the palm of your hand.

While tracking and analyzing your expenses is the only way to know if there’s really any money hiding in your budget, the time-honored technique of using a change jar is a low-tech and simple way to save. When you come home, simply empty your pockets or purse of change. Start doing this and the amount you’ll save might surprise you. Try it.

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