10+ ways to start saving money

Not in the habit of saving money? You're not alone. Here are some ways to start that all-important habit of saving money …

Not everyone has the habit of saving money regularly.

If this is you, then at least you're not alone. About a quarter of Americans (out of a sample of 1,000 in a study conducted by BankRate.com in June 2018) have essentially no savings for emergencies.

But there are very easy ways to start squirreling away money that aren't really that difficult. Once you have the habit of saving some money, then you're in a position to take it to the next level!

Save money if you use cash

If you're already using cash for most of your purchases, that's great. Keep doing that!

Studies have demonstrated that people are willing to pay around twice as much when they used a credit card instead of cash. (Here's one study. And another.)

Dave Ramsey has eschewed credit cards completely, and he's worth (easily) eight figures. If it works for him, it certainly can work for you, too.

Here are a few tricks that start the savings habit with cash only:

• Throw your change in a jar. When you're out and about, pay for stuff only with bills. After you're back home for the day, throw your change in a jar. A quart mayonnaise jar works. (Make sure the mayonnaise is gone first.) If you make an average of 15 purchases a week and get an average of 50 cents in change back each time, in a year's time you'll have saved $390!
• Tip yourself. Tips aren't just for waitstaff, delivery guys, and drivers! Pretend every purchase is like a restaurant meal and put 15% in a “tip jar” which is actually a savings jar. If doing the math for 15% is too much at the end of a hard day, 10% is really easy (move the decimal point one space to the left).
• Pay to play (or watch, or listen). Work out a price for something that you don't currently pay for (beyond a subscription). Maybe 50 cents per YouTube video, or $1 per half-hour of Spotify, or $2 per episode of Game of Thrones. (Do this as a trigger to save money — not to discourage you from doing something you enjoy!)

Save money if you use debit

Debit cards are (mostly) the plastic equivalent of cash. When you swipe your debit card to purchase something, the money comes out of the linked checking account.

Debit cards are also great to use, for the same reason that cash is great to use. If the money isn't in your account, you can't use a debit card to buy something. (Well, in some instances you can, but usually, you're stopped from spending more than is in your bank account.)

Here are a few debit-centric ways to save some money easily:

• Bank of America's Keep the Change(R) Savings Program. If you have a Bank of America near you (or even if you don't) then you can get Bank of America's branded debit card. Full details are here but the main idea is that every purchase gets rounded up to the nearest dollar, and the difference is deposited into a linked savings account.
• Chime. This is a new service I'm trying out. Chime offers a debit card that also rounds purchases up to the nearest dollar, and socks the money away in a savings account. The process for doing automatic payroll deposits into the account is easy. (Want $50? Sign up here and set up an automatic payroll deposit of $200 or more within 45 days!)
• Acorns. This service isn't free (the basic service is only $1/month, though) but it has more bells than a simple checking and savings account. Instead of depositing the “change” from your transactions in a savings account, it invests the change (as well as accepts additional investments from you) into a portfolio that you can specify. (Want $5 to start? Sign up here and make a successful investment, and the five bucks is yours!)

Save money by spending less

Above we talk about ways to trigger savings, either by spending cash or by making a charge on a debit card.

However, the most straightforward way to save money is not to spend it. You save 100% of the money you don't spend.

Most of these money-saving ideas involve a little work, but not a horrendous amount. Here are a few ideas that give a good return for time invested:

• Avoid vending machines. The markup is huge for vending machines (something like 100% or more). If you crave a soda or a snack at work, buy a package of snack-sized portions at the grocery store, and bring them into work. Make it more difficult to spend money at the vending machines by putting up a spending roadblock — bring only large bills to work that aren't accepted by the vending machines.
• Pack your own lunch. Making your own lunch can be as easy or complicated as you like, but “easy” is easier to stick with. Instead of heading to the sub shop or wherever at lunch, bring in a sandwich, or some soup, and a few pieces of fruit and/or vegetables. There's some prep time but the money saved adds up steadily over time. Start with once or twice a week, and work up to four or five times a week. Also, start by choosing a set of food that is less than what you usually pay for lunch — even a dollar less. That should reduce the prep time.
• Check out store-brand items over name-brand items. For a great many things, store-brand items are perfectly good substitutes for equivalent name-brand items, and often substantially less expensive.
• Stop paying for something that isn't doing it for you anymore. Whether it's an extended cable package, or a music subscription, a magazine subscription, or anything else, if it's outlasted its usefulness, cancel it. If you think you could do just fine without it, cancel it. That's extra money that can go straight to your savings account if you like.
• A whole bunch more ways. Check out this post for even more ways to save money. Also, sign up for the newsletter to get a free ebook with yet more ways to spend less.

Want to know more about saving money?

Ask your question in the comments and I'll answer!