Our Secret Tip To Save Money – Saving For Our Next Trip To Florida

I enjoy life – unfortunately so much about daily living requires money.  We all want an unlimited amount of income but it just is not realistic for 99% of the population.

In order to do the things we want to do and have the things we want to have (such as 3 horses) – we need to constantly save money.  I hate feeling like we are suffering in order to save – I would much rather make small, less noticeable changes that don’t impact our quality of life too much.

Here are some of my go to tips:

We each have a Digit.co account.  That account allows us to have money when we need it (or want it).  I tend to use this savings when I am in a pinch with property taxes or just don’t quite have the funds readily available for something for the horses.  Digit.co 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.  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.

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.

Be open minded.  Years ago I never could have imagined not having a home phone or not having cable.  Now – those things are so unnecessary and best decisions we ever made getting rid of them.

Some ideas:

• Ditch the cable
• Get rid of the landline
• Reduce the heat/shut off the air
• Laundry in cold water
• Purchase other items online with rebates or discount apps when needed such as Ebates (Rakuten)
• Shop at discount grocery stores; coupons; savings apps – any way you can to save on groceries
• Cook at home; bring your own lunches to school and work
• Buy cheaper gas by downloading apps to help you find the least expensive gas on any given day

My favorite tip to share with you is my $5 tip.  Sometimes it is my $5 and $10 tip.  Basically every night when I get home I take any $5 bills that I have and put them aside.  I am not allowed to touch them until I want them for something major.  When I have some flexibility I follow that same rule with $10 bills.  So the only thing I walk around with (if I have cash) – are $20 and $1 bills.  I don’t carry cash too much – we are a debit card society.  But when I do – I don’t keep the $5 bills.

There are plenty of ways to make money besides a 9 to 5 job.  Some of the ways I make extra money are selling items on Facebook Marketplace; personal shopping for Instacart; blogging; freelance writing; photography; graphic design and more.  There are endless work from home possibilities – determine what you are interested in and resolve to make it happen!  When I work for Instacart, I put every dime I make towards credit card debt.  Sometimes it is just $25 extra a week while other times it may be $200 extra.

Save Without Trying

I seriously don’t know how people live without a smartphone. I use mine for everything. Is it possible to save without trying? Absolutely – I use apps such as:

• Acorns – This is a round up and invest type of program.  I sign my debit card up as a round up account and I can choose to round up to $1, 2x, 3x etc… Then those funds are invested based on a level of risk I am willing to take.  I never even notice these funds leaving my account and they add up very quickly.
• Digit – Every day, Digit checks your spending habits and moves money from your checking account to your Digit account, if you can afford it. Easily withdraw your money any time.  Digit doesn’t withdraw from my account every day and it has algorithms that work to not take too much from your account.  And if for other reasons your checking account goes below a certain amount you have the option of setting up low balance protection.  Your savings is referred to a Rainy Day funds.  If low balance protection is activated, Digit will automatically transfer some of your Rainy Day funds back to your checking to keep you above the threshold you have designated.
• Stash Invest – This is another investment type account.  I have mine set up so it withdraws $50 from my checking account automatically every two weeks and invests it.  My investments are set up based on the level of risk I am willing to accept.  I started with a much smaller amount and believe me even $5 a week can quickly add up.

What tips do you have to save for something HUGE?

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