See How I Save For The Fun Stuff With No Effort At All

See How I Save For The Fun Stuff With No Effort At All

 

I am cheap – seriously cheap.  I can’t see spending money on stuff unless I can get it for free or at a serious discount.  Now the information I am about to share with you isn’t about getting things for free or for a discount – it is about how to save for the things we want without sacrificing other things.

 

Anyway can save money by putting $10 a week away and building a balance.  But that takes forethought, planning and some sort of system.  Don’t get me wrong – we should all have some sort of pro-active savings plan but what about the passive savings?  The information I am about to share with you is LIFE CHANGING!

 

Bank of America

 

Tip #1

I have my primary checking and savings account with Bank of America.  They have a program called “Keep The Change“.  This program tracks your spending with your debit card and rounds up your purchases to the next dollar – all of those “round ups” are transferred to your checking account.   When I buy gas – I purposely pump $25.01.   Then at the end of the day $.99 automatically is transferred to my savings account.  This is tied to the debit card – it is simple, painless and I just watch my savings account grow.

 

Digit Auto Savings

 

Tip #2

I have an online account with Digit.co.  Yes, that is NOT a .com account.  This is a auto savings program and entirely online.  You sign up with just one checking account.  If you’d like to do a second checking account, you need to set up a second Digit account.  This is the account I use to pay the boarding fees for our horse each month.

 

How does it work?  Every few days, Digit checks your spending patterns in your checking account and moves a few dollars from your checking account to your Digit account, if you can afford it. Easily withdraw your money any time, quickly and with no fees.  Occasionally, I get a text message that asks me if I’d like to increase my savings (one time increase) and if so, by how much.

 

Sign up for Digit today and start saving immediately.  This is the most amazing program.

 

Walmart Savings Catcher

 

Tip #3

Walmart Savings Catcher.  This one isn’t as “passive” as the others but it is a painless way to save.  Whether I like it or not, we do end up doing a fair amount of shopping at Walmart.  It is one stop, convenient and close to our house.  There are actually a few reasons I love Walmart Savings Catcher but I will tell you about the “savings” piece first.

 

Whenever we shop at Walmart, I scan the receipts into the Walmart app on my phone.  If you don’t have a smartphone – you can scan or type them directly to their webpage online.  Let me say that again – YOU DO NOT NEED A SMARTPHONE to use this program.

 

When I scan my receipt, the app will tell me how many stores are in the price matching area.  Near my home the app price matches 19 other stores sales.  When we shop in Maine, the receipt is compared to 42 other stores – I save a lot more money when I shop at Walmart in Maine…  In a few days I receive an email telling my they have finished comparing prices and I saved $x.xx – or in some cases, they weren’t able to find me any savings.  The savings are maintained in my Walmart Savings Catcher account and I usually use them to purchase directly from the store once I have quite a bit saved.

 

BONUS TIP

Now, even when I am purchasing things that I know I will not get money back – I still scan my receipts.  One huge benefit is we tend to buy a bunch of the $5 or $7.50 videos from Walmart.  They are far cheaper than taking the whole family to the movies and we can watch them over and over.  But when we purchase most of those videos and scan our receipts – a digital version of the movie automatically feeds to our Vudu account (app) and then we can all watch a digital version any time we want.  We almost never actually watch the DVDs – we always watch digital and everyone can choose what they are interested in.  And when the kids lose the DVDs – no big deal, we still have the digital.

 

NOW GO FORTH AND SAVE FOR YOUR NEXT DREAM

 

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