Saving Money in Small Ways
Here are a few tips on how to save money in small ways. All these small savings can add up over time. Believe me, I have used every one of these tips throughout my adult life to create a little wealth for myself.
First, let me tell you a little story. Many years ago when I was in college several of my friends invited me to spend the weekend with them. I wanted to go very badly but I had already spent all my money on groceries, rent, fixing my car, gas, and other necessities. I knew from my budget book that I had extra money every month but I had already spent my extra money on things like eating out, going to movies, etc.
Thinking about my friends enjoying their weekend without me made me realize that keeping a budget wasn’t enough. I had to do more than just keep a budget. I needed to SAVE MONEY in every way possible. So I started with a simple rule: every week no matter what I would put away $5.
I had a little wooden box, an old jewelry box, that I had been given when I was a kid. I kept all sorts of stuff in that box through the years. I decided it would be a great little bank. So that very weekend I took my last five dollars and put it in that box. To be honest, that is probably how I decided on $5 a week.
After ten weeks I had $50 saved up. That was enough for a date, a new tire, a night in a cheap hotel, etc. I realized it would take me an entire year to save up $250 so I began doubling up on my money. Now I was saving $10 a week and in a few more weeks I had $100 sitting in that box, waiting for a rainy day.
That box taught me how to save money like never before (or since). Here are my rules for saving money in small ways.
Rule No. 1: Always Put Money in the Box
Even if you know you are going to spend it the next day, you have to put that $5 in the box. This must be a clockwork habit, where every week at the same time you add $5 (or $10 or $20) to your little stash. You do this like a ritual. You don’t think about “well, I need to spend this tomorrow”. You just think about putting the money in the box.
Come the next day when you need to spend some money, you have to look for it somewhere else. The box is always a means of last resort. The little stash box is there to cover you when you need money you don’t have. Dipping into the box should be the rarest of rare occurrences in your life.
Rule No. 2: Set a Limit to How Much Money Goes in the Box
Did I just say always put money in the box? I did. But what I found out one day was that I had over $200 in that box and I wanted to go to the movies. I had no other cash. But the box is for emergencies I told myself. What if I have a flat tire? What if I need to make an emergency trip to see Mom and Dad? What if, what if, what if?
After debating with myself for about half an hour I finally took the plunge and opened the box. I had about $250 in it. I thought to myself, “Maybe I just need to keep $200 in it.” At the time, $200 was a lot of money for me. It wouldn’t pay my rent but it would cover my expenses for a week if I was really hard up for cash.
So from that time forward I made sure I never took the stash over $200. Really, it’s not a good idea to put all your savings into a box that anyone can steal. That’s just a convenient place that keeps your money outside your wallet so you don’t spend it all at once.
Rule No. 3: Throw All Your Change Into a Box
I learned this from a doctor who every day threw his spare coins into a box. He paid my sister 10% of whatever she rolled to roll up all those coins (after about 2 years) so he could deposit them in a bank. She made about $30 that day. It took that doctor 2 years to save up $300 in coins.
Thinking about that box full of coins, I realized I was wasting time by counting out the exact change whenever I made a purchase. I did this because I didn’t like carrying a lot of change in my pockets. Big bulky pockets full of coins are just annoying to me.
So one day I thought, I’ll just create a little piggy bank like when I was a kid. It was more like a brown paper bag. That lasted until the first time the bag broke and then I switched to a gallon-sized plastic freezer bag. Every day when I got ready for bed I would empty my pockets and put all the coins into that plastic bag.
I learned that I would save between 50 cents and 2 dollars in change just by only paying in bills for whatever I bought. On average I probably bagged about 75 cents a day. Every month I ended up with around 20 dollars in change. I would take that change to the bank and put it in my account; sometimes I would just convert it to dollars when I saw someone with an open cash register.
Saving $20 a month doesn’t seem like much but that earned me a dinner out each month; or it went into the savings box if I didn’t have my $200 stashed away.
Unlike that doctor, though, I didn’t want to wait 2 years for my change to add up. I especially did not want to have roll all those coins so I could take them to the bank. Of course, today you can probably find a change counting machine in a supermarket to convert your coins (they’ll charge about 8% of what you put in).
Rule No. 4: Learn to Eat Grocery Store Food
Those “house” brands can taste pretty yucky compared to the big name brands when it comes to buying groceries. But I learned I could cut my grocery bills almost in half by buying store brands rather than big brands. And I wasn’t much of a cook anyway. I often ate out with my friends (mostly fast food) so cooking bland, generic food wasn’t a big deal for me.
Now that I am older, however, I have learned that you can improve the flavor of almost any store brand with a little creative recipe of spices, herbs, or other natural additives. I don’t like adding salt or sugar to my food. There are already way too many grams of salt and sugar in our foods.
But if I want a low-cost meal I can put one together just by purchasing store brands and adding some flavor enhancing ingredients. You can also alter the texture of most store brand foods pretty easily. For example, if you buy the macaroni and cheese you can add your own melting cheese and thicken it, improving the flavor.
Just because the big brand foods taste better doesn’t mean you have to pay extra for better tasting food. Take that extra money and invest it in spices and ingredients that have long shelf lives, and with which you can improve less tasty foods.
One of my friends also tried to get me into using coupons to save money but I found that coupons work better when you are buying for a lot of people and not just one. Coupons, unfortunately, are NOT the single man’s friend.
Rule No. 5: Find Low-cost Entertainment Your Friends Enjoy
All my college friends were in the same situation as me: they had hardly any money and needed to save as much as they could. We found ourselves volunteering at events for free lunches and dinners, playing cards at each other’s houses, going to budget movies on campus, scoping out all the second-run theaters in our town, and looking for discount nights at local restaurants.
Long after I graduated from college I learned that you can eat full meals during Happy Hour at many restaurants and bistros if you’re only willing to sit at the bar. What is great about these choices is that you usually don’t have to wait for a seat. So as people pile up for 45-minute waits in the main restaurant you may be able to grab a table in about 15 minutes near the bar.
Bar food menus can be as full as the main restaurant menus. The bartenders and servers who take your orders may be busy but they are as interested in providing good service as everyone else in the restaurant. And they appreciate good tips, too.
By eating where the food is good and less expensive you can cut your entertainment budget by about a third.
Sometimes my friends would throw parties where everyone was invited to bring some food for the rest of the guests. This helped make everyone’s food budgets stretch out and we all got to enjoy time with each other eating food we liked.
Wrapping Up
I have found many ways to save money since leaving college. I wish I could say I use them all the time but I’m like most other people. I get caught up in life’s little dramas. Still, I hope you’ll appreciate the tips I share here.
