Budget Hacks: 5 Tips For Anyone Who Doesn’t Know How to Save

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If you don’t know how to save money, it’s time to learn easy budget hacks.

In some cases, this could be an earning problem, especially if you are doing everything you can to save or if due to the pandemic you have lost income. The reality is that nobody could have predicted what happened after March.

However, if you don’t even know where to start, there are seemingly endless and surprising ways to budget and save. Simply start with these practical and very effective budget hacks.

5 easy budget hacks

Put Your Savings on Auto Pilot

If you have trouble keeping enough money to save or invest each month, beat your account balance to the punch by setting up automatic savings. Just like all of the autopay options you have on your credit cards, automatic savings comes out as if it’s a payment. A payment to yourself. You won’t even miss it if you round up your change. Some apps let you invest the change you get from making debit card purchases.

Delete Delivery Apps

In general, stay away from fast food. It costs too much and it’s not worth it. You can save so much more by planning meals at home and putting together a sensible shopping list. But, you don’t have to dive right into couponing and meal planning to save money this month. Just stop ordering food to have it delivered at your door. Last-minute meal decisions and easy solutions add up against your account balance and they undermine your ability to pay off credit card debt. Even if you want to treat yourself and your family to restaurant food, you are better off picking it up rather than paying for delivery or service fees that quickly add up.

Get to Know Your Kitchen

Knowledge is power. Make an inventory of all the food you already have. You will be surprised to discover how much you immediately start saving when you evaluate the contents of your refrigerator/freezer and your pantry. People often buy bulk for the value and equate it to savings, but that isn’t always the solution. Be aware of what you need to throughout and remind yourself of what you have that you can still use. Getting into the habit of simply knowing what you have is invaluable in saving money and staying within budget.

Read Your Credit Card Statements

This is another way to save money just by clearly looking at your situation. With so many auto payments and credit card swipes, you can easily lose track of where your money is going and exactly how much. That destroys your ability to make any meaningful progress. It’s also the opposite of budgeting. When you budget you set clear parameters that you can’t go beyond. To do that, you need to see where you are spending and where you can cut out or reduce unnecessary expenses.

Look at Unit Cost

There are all kinds of ways to save money on groceries and other goods. It’s a really neat rabbit hole that is so exciting, because no matter how much you save, you can keep discovering new tweaks that make living so much cheaper. Best part? It’s all very accessible if you make saving money your focus. One easy way to train yourself to save is to compare unit costs on shopping items. The unit cost tells you how much you pay per ounce vs. the overall price. It is just one factor in saving money on purchases, but it’s essential knowledge. Sometimes the cheaper option is the better value which can be surprising. Use this method of shopping in connection to your knowledge of what you use and how much you throw out so you can make an informed buying decision. Also, take advantage of any BOGO (buy one, get one) deals at your local supermarket, which can lower the cost per unit even more.

 

Start saving more today with this free budget planner

 

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