Now is one of the most critical times to save money. Rising inflation and cost of living require you to be more frugal with your money so you have enough to cover inevitable emergency expenses.
In other words, try to avoid spending money on things that don’t matter so you can afford the things that do.
What are you doing to save money? Below are six tips on how to save money during these challenging economic times.
1) Cancel Unimportant Subscription Services
It is easy to accumulate expenses from all the different subscription services you may sign up for. Everything from entertainment streaming services like Netflix to Amazon Prime and gym memberships will cause you to pay a lot in monthly subscription fees.
Review your monthly bank statement and create a list of the subscription services that are less important and hardly used. Once you have the list, cancel all those subscription services to avoid those fees and save money each month.
2) Add Money to a Savings Account Recurringly
Do you have a savings account at your bank? If not, you should open a savings account strictly to save money.
Add a fixed amount of money to your savings account recurringly. For example, you could set a goal to add $200 to your savings account at the end of every month.
Choose an amount you can afford or spare and add it to your savings account. Do not touch the money unless you have an emergency expense.
3) Eliminate Debt
Loans and credit card debt accrue interest. That is why you should do everything possible to pay off your loans and credit card debt immediately. Then, tear up your credit cards and never use them again.
Apply for a consolidated loan to pay off all your other debts, so you only have one loan payment to make rather than several.
You would still have interest on the consolidated loan, but far less than the total interest payments on all the other loans and credit cards combined.
4) Spend More Time at Home
You may love eating at restaurants, watching films at the local movie theater, and socializing in bars and clubs. But the costs of these activities can quickly add up if you do them regularly.
Spend more time at home doing similar activities to avoid these additional expenditures. For instance, you could cook more meals at home, rent movies online cheaply, and socialize with your friends via video chat.
You can probably have as much fun doing these things at home without paying nearly as much. Plus, you’d save money on gas by not traveling as much.
5) Get a Prepaid Cell Phone
How often do you need to talk on your cell phone? You don’t need to use a cell phone regularly unless required for your job.
Think about canceling your cell phone subscription after the contract expires. Next, replace your service-based cell phone with a prepaid cell phone from a carrier like Tracfone.
Load up the phone with prepaid minutes and use them only for essential calls. As a result, you could avoid paying $100+ per month for a cell phone service contract and only purchase minutes when you need them.
6) Get a Side Hustle
Don’t rely on your job as a sole source of income. Instead, try to get a side hustle to make extra money.
Some popular side hustles include ridesharing as an Uber or Lyft driver, TaskRabbit to do chores for people, and freelancing writing on websites like Upwork and PeoplePerHour.
Put the extra money from your side hustles into your savings and retirement accounts.
Conclusion
The idea for saving money is to eliminate debt, avoid unnecessary expenditures, and keep all the extra money you make each month. It may be challenging, but you can do it if you budget strategically.
