Let’s face it, friends. Saving money is hard. We all have limited resources and unlimited wants and needs. But what if I told you there are easy, sneaky, painless ways to save money? What if you could save money without a ton of effort? Read on to find out how to trick yourself into saving money!
As I compiled this list of money-saving tricks, I pulled from my own experiences and only included the tactics that I found to be successful in my own life. These money-saving tricks are what I’ve used over the last several years to trick myself into saving thousands of dollars. I relied on the things in this list to save for a down payment on a house, pay off my car loan, set aside money for student loan debt and save for retirement.
Undoubtedly, you also have some financial goals you’re working toward. Use this list to make those goals even more attainable and trick yourself into saving money. I believe in you! Let’s do this.
Bank your raises.
If you’re here, you’re likely an ambitious go-getter who is tackling your career with pizzazz. With the pizzazz inevitably comes promotions and raises. If that’s you, take your next raise to the bank.
Here’s the process I like to follow:
- Reward yourself when your first bulky paycheck hits your account – a night out, a great pair of running shoes, some jewelry, etc. No need to work hard if you can’t enjoy it at least a little bit, right?
- Calculate how much your paycheck increased with the new, well-deserved raise.
- Remove that amount from your next (and all future) paychecks by:
- Increasing your IRA contributions and/or
- Increasing your 401(k) contributions and/or
- Asking HR to deposit that amount into a separate savings account, where it can be socked away for your next financial goal
It often takes a couple of paychecks to get the amount just right, but all the calculating is worth it. This is one of my favorite money-saving tricks because it helps me keep my spending habits in check even while my income increases. It also helps me avoid any lifestyle inflation, which is a hazard in its own right.
The danger in not tricking yourself into saving this money is that jobs and income are never guaranteed. What if your spending inflates to meet your new salary, but you’re suddenly laid off for 6 months? Or what if your situation changes and you want to take a new role that comes with a pay cut?
Keeping my take-home pay at a similar level across the years (as low as possible) has been key because it gives me the freedom to make decisions based on my own happiness and goals, rather than being locked into a role just because I like the salary.
Pay yourself first.
Paying yourself first is so important, I wrote an entire blog post on it. I’d encourage you to check out that post, but here’s the cliffs notes: rather than saving what’s left at the end of your paycheck, you can make some serious financial strides by allocating your savings amount as soon as you receive your paycheck.
Once your paycheck hits your account, immediately transfer money over to your savings (or to pay off debt, contribute to retirement accounts or for another financial goal). Removing that savings amount immediately from our paycheck allows us to prioritize our future financial stability over any fleeting desires in the present.
This one is my favorite way to trick yourself into saving money. When I made the switch and began to pay myself first, it turbocharged my savings rate and allowed me to tackle goal after goal after goal. I finally started making progress and it happened so quickly! I challenge you to try out this money-saving trick; you’ll break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and build tremendous wealth.
Related post: Paying Yourself First: The Ultimate Payday Hack
Automate and limit access.
Because I KNOW you’re already paying yourself first each paycheck (right!?), let’s level up, shall we?
Advanced level: automate your savings each month. Automation is one of the best cheat codes for your financial life. Set up a weekly or monthly deposit into your savings account and forget about it. Manually transferring the money over after each paycheck is great, but automating it is better.
Advanced, advanced level: separate out your savings account. The premise is this: if your savings account is separate from your other funds, you’re less likely to dip into it. Access to that money is more difficult, and by nature, we’re less likely to go the extra mile to get to it.
You’ll be astonished at how quickly you’re able to save money when it’s not visible or accessible to you.
High interest online savings accounts (I use Ally) allow you to create buckets of money that can be designated for a specific goal. I set up a recurring monthly transfer from my checking account into my Ally savings account. Since it’s separate from my checking account, I rarely access it, rarely remember the account total and I’m never tempted to dip into it.
Have a plan for bonus money.
Recognizing that any bonus money coming in is a real privilege, it’s still a great idea to have some “rules” set up for any windfalls that come your way. Windfalls like tax returns, work bonuses, unexpected birthday money, etc. can help us all reach our financial goals even more quickly.
It’s really easy to view this “extra” money as just extra spending cash. The problem with that point of view is that as it arrives in your possession, it leaves your accounts just as quickly, without making any major impact in your life. Surely there’s a better way!
First and foremost, the priority for this extra money is any outstanding bills or debts you’re behind on. If you’re up-to-date with no unpaid bills, your next priority is your emergency fund. Three to six months of expenses saved is always our goal.
Beyond that, if you’re all paid up on bills with a fully funded emergency fund, congratulations! Now that our safety cushion is in place, we have a bit more flexibility on how we can use this money.
Even after those first two goals are accomplished, I’m still pretty strict (I’m very frugal by nature!). I set aside 10-15% for something fun as a reward to myself, and the remaining 85-90% goes toward whatever financial goal I’m working on at the time. Sometimes it’s finishing up my annual IRA contributions or sometimes it’s a specific goal like saving for Christmas.
You’ll have to come up with your own personal “rules” of how you want to treat any bonus money. It’s a little bit of a mind game, but the great thing about having a set rule is that there is no question once you have extra money. No temptation here!
Post visible goal reminders.
How do we keep our financial goals top-of-mind, even when life is crazy and our to-do list is long? One option is to create a visible reminder of your goals.
- Slap post-its around your apartment that remind you of the progress you’ve made so far.
- Create a motivating phone screen saver to remind you to make good decisions while you’re out-and-about.
- Make a financial vision board to represent how it’s going to feel when you crush your goal.
- Chart your savings progress on a bulletin board.
- Use these debt-free printables to track your pay-off journey.
- Set a recurring calendar reminder.
- Send yourself an email every week with a personal note about why accomplishing your financial goal is important to your future.
It is SO EASY to let your financial goals fade to the background. Out of sight, out of mind, right? That’s why we can’t let them shrink out of our line of sight. It’s a little bit more difficult to click “buy” on a new pair of shoes you don’t need when you’re looking at a visual reminder of your financial goals.
And! Think of how fun it will be to finally trash all of your carefully-placed reminders once your goal is in the rearview mirror.
Forget your credit card number.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to be a lazy online shopper. If a website is going to require 3 extra clicks, or ask me for 2 additional pieces of information, I’m probably going to abandon the mission. I’m always looking for an ‘easy’ button. And if it’s not there, typically I’m out. Unless I really really want the item.
The great news is that we can use this innate laziness to our advantage. Delete your credit card number from all your online accounts. Now, if you want to snag that snazzy new kitchen tchotchke on Amazon, you’ve got to get up, find your purse/wallet, dig for your credit card and enter the number.
I’ve found that in many cases (ok, most), this whole process deters me from completing the purchase at that time. And more often than not, when I go back to my Amazon cart armed with my credit card, I can’t remember why in the world I wanted that thing in the beginning.
This is a great way to trick yourself into saving money. Another sneaky pro tip? If you do go through with finding your credit card, entering the number and completing the purchase, make it even more painful by proceeding immediately to your credit card portal and paying that amount there and then.
Now we’re fully connecting the pain of the payment to the purchase itself. You’re watching the dollars migrate out of your bank account. Hurts, doesn’t it? That’s what we want!
Use cash-back or travel rewards credit cards.
First step: think through whether you should get a credit card or not. If you are prepared for a credit card, look for one that has extra rewards for you. Don’t interpret this as an incentive to spend more. But if you’re spending money (and we all are!), you might as well get some credit for it.
I always default to Ramit Sethi’s guidance on how to choose the right credit card for you – he also includes links to all the current and best credit card offers.
Use this method to trick yourself into saving money. It can work two different ways, depending on your chosen card:
- Cash back on the purchases you’re going to make anyway. Often, the cash back is added to your credit card balance so you’re paying less.
- If you’re a traveler, this is a terrific hack for saving money on flights and hotels. The points transfer to plenty of airlines and hotel companies so you can book your trip for free or less than normal.
I’ve been using the Chase Sapphire rewards card for a couple of years now, and even though I’m incredibly frugal, I’ve been able to amass a shocking amount of rewards points for a post-COVID-19 trip.
Round your spending to the nearest dollar.
We live in a digital world, fam. That means there are a plethora of apps out there to help you on your financial journey. I want to highlight two in particular, because they allow you to round up all your expenses to the nearest dollar automatically. It’s a small amount (pennies!) for each transaction that adds up to a crazy amount over time.
I’ve had the most experience with Acorns. Acorns rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar and rakes those pennies into their own investment account. I started using Acorns about 3.5 years ago, and now my pennies amount to more than $1,000. I didn’t miss any of those pennies at the time, and am so happy I started using the app when I did.
Another app that does something similar is Qapital. Instead of investing the extra cents, it moves the money into savings accounts that are earmarked for specific personal goals.
I’m not sure there’s an easier, less intrusive way to trick yourself into saving money. The time is now, my friend. Get it going! And by all means, if you use another personal finance app that you enjoy, please share it in the comments. I love to see all the new innovation taking place in this space.
In Summary
I LOVE it when we can make saving money easy. What tactics have you used to trick yourself into saving money? I challenge you to try out just ONE of these money-saving tricks. Let me know how it goes for you!
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