Common financial advice is to pay yourself first; set aside your own savings before you pay any bills. Yet, what happens if you don’t have enough money to pay yourself first? What if you can’t set aside $100 or more each month? How can you continue to save for your goals whether they are establishing a $1,000 emergency fund as Dave Ramsey recommends, saving for a replacement car so you can avoid a car loan, saving for a down payment on a home or simply saving for a vacation?
My husband and I are temporarily in a tight financial situation; he is finishing his Ph.D. and I am staying home to take care of our three children while doing freelance work at night. While I expect our financial situation to improve in a few months when my husband graduates, we are now in the situation where we have little to save, yet we would like to begin to save for a down payment for a house. We have found unusual, creative ways to save. Utilizing these methods won’t get us to our 20% home down payment, but they offer a great way to start saving, and we will add to the savings when our income increases. If you are trying to save more, try some of these strategies:
Head over to Beating Broke to read my five strategies and how we are using them to our advantage.
What unusual savings strategies do you use?
I only use my survey site money for things I don’t really need (but want): like going to to eat, etc. I consider it free money or bonus money that way!
Great idea!
As you said, I think in that case you get creative. (And work on earning more money that gets earmarked specifically for savings.)
All of the tips in your article there were great but I especially like the idea of saving money that would have been spent on impulse buys. Great post!