Ten money saving habits you need to have! These tips will help you create a reasonable budget and save money vs. spend money!
10 Money Saving Habits You Need to Have
Pay with Cash not Credit
This will ensure that you only purchase things you can actually afford, not everything you want to indulge on. Switching to the cash only method is the number one way to save money! If gives you time to save up for larger purchases and to really think about whether you want to buy them or not.
Using the Cash Envelope method helps a lot of people, divide your cash into sections such as Groceries, Entertainment, Utilities, etc. You will know how much you have for each expense so that you can budget and plan better.
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Start Supper before Lunch
That’s right, start supper before lunch! I use my slow cooker ALL THE TIME and by putting our supper in first thing in the morning I’ll have no reason to order pizza, go out to dinner or think I need to run to the store to grab something easy to make when the kids are starting at 5:30 pm! I swear by this technique!
We have a FREE 7 Day Slow Cooker in a Snap Recipe Challenge for you – when you sign up you’ll receive a recipe every day for a week. There are some great ideas for meals that will help you get supper going before lunch!
Shop for a Deal
Instead of going out and buying exactly what you want without shopping around, why not take the time to check different stores and see if they have different prices. Most stores have a sale rotation schedule so that item you are looking at could likely be cheaper if you wait a week or so!
We always do this, especially with larger items. We look at the local stores and online to see where we can get the best deal.
Be sure to check out our post on how to Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half, it has some great tips on grocery shopping for a deal too.
Just Don’t
If you don’t need it, just don’t buy it. I know that’s easier said than done but it is the number one way that you’re going to stop spending and start saving money.
Just don’t even put yourself in the position where you might buy something you don’t need. Don’t go out shopping just for fun, don’t surf Amazon if you there isn’t something specific that you need. Stop buying things unless you need them.
Remember there’s a big difference between NEED and WANT.
Save for big purchases and vacations
This goes along with the using cash tip, instead of booking that cruise or trip to Disney when you have to put it on your credit card, save up. I promise the trip will be that much more fun if you take the time to save up for it and feel good about going knowing you’re not going into debt over it.
Do it Yourself
This is a big area for saving money. We’ve actually built four homes ourselves, yes we hired out some things but we did A LOT of it on our own. Instead of hiring someone to clean or paint – we did it. It cut out a huge chunk of cash that we would have paid.
I know lots of people think, that’s great if you’re handy and can do those things. I promise you, there are YouTube videos that will teach you just about everything! Check there and see if you can learn how to fix your faucet or those jobs you thought you’d need to hire someone to do!
Take a Water Bottle and Snacks
Whenever we’re headed out for the day or even just for a few hours, we all grab our water bottle or drink as well as a few snacks. This helps so we don’t make those stops at the gas station and end up spending $20 on snacks and drinks. Over time this can really add up!
I do the same thing when I’m flying or headed out on business trips. It’s just more convenient to have snacks on hand!
Pay Bills On Time
Don’t get stuck paying late fee’s or interest, make sure that you ALWAYS pay your bills on time! Those fee’s and interest can really add up over the year, wouldn’t you rather have that money going into your vacation fund?
Budget
Start budgeting! Set a budget and stick to it. Know how much you need to pay every single bill you have coming in, then you’ll know if and how much extra you have for saving, investing, entertainment, vacation, etc.
It’s really hard to not spend money when you have no idea how much you can and can’t spend! Start a budget today, trust me, you’ll be glad you did!
We have a set of Budgeting Printables that you can print out and use to get started! Click the photo below to print out your own set!
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