12 Ways to Save Money Every Day

If you need to save money then these everyday saving tips are just what you need to trim your budget. 

Finding ways to set more money aside for the future can be really difficult with pressure on your budget being applied from all sides – food, bills, mortgage, and costs of raising a family. 

I hope these creative ways to find savings every single day will help you bring your finances under control. 

1. Focus on clearing debt

One of the biggest obstacles to saving money is debt. It not only stops you from saving, but holds you back in so many other ways. 

Owing money right now, means you have even less later because interest rates on the debt mean you’ll ultimately pay back more than what you initially borrowed. It also takes away your freedom, stopping you from fulfilling dreams like a special holiday you want to go to or moving to a house in a better area. 

If you are in that situation then formulate a plan for how you will free yourself. 

You do not have to do this alone. If you are struggling then contact a debt charity who will have heard it all before and can help you plan how to free yourself from the debt.

And they can even advise ways to reduce the interest you are paying, such as transfer the debt to a credit card with 0% balance transfer deal. 

And once you are clear of debt or if you already are, focus on setting up an emergency fund. Start small with a goal of a grand. That money will help you avoid debt in the future. 

2. Stop spending to look rich 

A lot of excess spending is about how we want to look to other people. It’s the keeping up with the Joneses mindset and we can all fall into the trap, even when it’s totally subconsciously. 

We’re all in a rush to have a bigger house, better car, more frequent holidays and nicer things. 

Looking more affluent may make you think you are living a better life, but actually it can cause you more problems and stress because if you’re spending every penny you earn and not saving, eventually something will sneak up, an emergency bill or unexpected cost, and wipe you out. And even on the day to day having those bigger monthly commitments means more stress and a greater burden on you to keep funding that lifestyle. 

And it may also mean you aren’t saving for the future – a relaxed retirement, funding your kids’ university tuition.

One way to avoid this trap is to practice intentional spending and to increase your quality of life intentionally. 

That means you avoid lifestyle creep – where you increase your spending to keep up with a certain lifestyle – and instead maintain modest spending habits.

Intentional spending means making more conscious decisions with money, staying focused on what you actually need and prioritising what truly brings you joy. 

3. Do a low spend week every month 

Crash budgeting, like crash dieting, is problematic when it’s not sustainable. And often you can start off full of motivation for this journey and lose your mojo then revert to old habits. 

You could try shorter bursts of aggressive saving to make it manageable. 

Challenge yourself to one week of low or no spending every month. This could potentially save you hundreds if you are in the habit of buying a lot of snacks and drinks on the go, meals out and takeaways and spontaneously buying new things regularly throughout the month. 

4. Have a balance 

That leads us nicely to this next tip that it’s all about balance. 

In order to be better with your money you don’t have to live in clothes full of holes, never put the heating on, avoiding all nights out with friends and only drinking water. 

Frugality is about balance. It’s about prioritising the things that mean the most to you. 

You ditch impulsive spending, but that doesn’t mean you ditch all spending. You decide on what really matters and make a plan to afford it, which may mean cutting back in other areas, but that’s OK because those are the areas you are happy to cut back on. 

For example maybe getting your nails done every month is a treat you love to give yourself, but you can happily live without a daily takeout coffee. It’s all about priorities. 

5. Do it yourself 

Cleaning the house, basic repairs, ironing, laundry and decorating are all things you can do yourself. 

Even small projects such as adding fitted wardrobes are things people are managing to do for themselves at a fraction of the price. I’ve seen a huge trend on social media for creating fitted wardrobes using IKEA furniture and the end result looks amazing and costs about 10% of what professional companies quote. 

6. Borrow don’t buy 

Need a tool for a job around the house? Or a nice outfit for a special occasion?

Look for friends and family you could borrow or swap items with under a regular arrangement so you don’t have to buy the item you need. 

Some areas have schemes such as this in place where communities are encouraged to lend each other items. 

Another option is to rent instead of buying, which can also work out cheaper for something you only need as a one-off. 

7. Be adaptable 

As human beings we are often predisposed to hate change. But being adaptable when in uncertain times, like we are at the moment with inflation and interest rates still high, means you are able to make changes that mean you can come out the other side unscathed. 

In this current cost of living crisis an adaptable person makes changes to their budget to ensure they are not spending beyond their means. An unadaptable person continues spending as they always have, even though the costs of things like their rent, food and bills have skyrocketed. This leads to overspending and when the crisis is over, can mean they have debt to contend with. That makes everything so much harder. 

8. Stop doom spending 

Doom spending is connected to your money mindset, which is your attitude towards money. This is so important because it has an impact on how you handle the money you earn, how you pursue getting your hands on more money and whether you avoid debt. 

Doom spending is where you feel that you don’t have enough money to save an amount that would make a meaningful difference. You feel you have so little at the end of the month, that you may as well spend it and enjoy it because life’s too short. 

The trouble with this is when a rainy day hits you may end up overspending and in debt. That can spiral, it leads to stress, a lower quality of life for you and additional financial burdens. 

There are so many positives to saving money – the largest one being the freedom from the stress of worrying about how you will pay emergency bills or even regular bills. And you aren’t going to work forever, so saving for your future, and thinking about what you may need to live a lifestyle you want in the future is something that sounds boring now but you will be absolutely grateful for when you get there. Future you will thank you. 

One great way to break free of doom spending can be to take a look at what small savings and investments can get you over the longer term. 

For example, if you save just $50 a month for 10 years with an interest rate of 5%, you could have over $7700. 

Let’s say you invest it instead and manage to achieve a return of 8%, then you could have $9200 after 10 years. 

Increase that to $100 a month and after 10 years you could have over $18,400. If you can up it to $500 a month then after 10 years you could have over $92,000, that’s so close to $100k. And what if we double it to 20 years, well this is where the magic of compound interest kicks in because then you could more than double your money to nearly $300k, simply by finding $500 a month to invest. 

You don’t have to save 1k a month to make a difference. If you save a few hundred a month instead of spending it, you’ll make money on your money. If you spend it, you’ll have stuff that chances are you won’t still love 10 years down the line. 

9. Stop budgeting

Do you hate budgeting? Try changing the system 

One of the first things at the top of every how to save money list is “setting a budget”. 

But what if you sit down with great enthusiasm to allocate every penny you earn for a specific spending category and end up overspending every single month. You never manage to save what you had planned to, because your budgeting plan went awry. 

There’s no point in having a budget if it never results in positive results for you. And you’ll only feel defeated at the end of the month. 

In this case it’s not necessarily a goal you need in order to save money, but a new system. 

You need to change your spending habits. Instead of focusing on a big savings goal, focus on small habits you can introduce that will improve your financial wellbeing. 

Those habits may include: 

• Paying yourself first – setting up your savings to automatically come out of your current account on pay day every single month. 
• Automate payments wherever you can – pay bills automatically every month so key expenses are taken care of. It can be helpful to set up a monthly standing order into savings for your annual costs – such as insurance renewal and anything to do with car upkeep – so that money is set aside ready for you to use. 
• Setting spending alerts on your account so you’re reminded to curb your spending on certain things. 
• Shopping your kitchen before you go to the supermarket and using up food about to expire. 
• Introducing a waiting period before you buy anything new – I find 48 hours is often enough to make me rethink. Add the item you are tempted to purchase into your shopping cart and don’t checkout, wait 48 hours and consider if this is actually something you need. This is usually enough to hold you back from going ahead with the purchase. 
• Make a list of things you need this year and stick to those things only when it comes to shopping. 

10. Become content with what you have

I love this quote:

“I make myself rich by making my wants few.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

There’s very little I actually need to be happy. When I realised this it led to me spending less, saving more and growing my wealth, because even a little saved today grows over time when you invest for the long-term. 

We are bombarded by adverts and people’s fabulous lifestyles online all of the time, and that can cloud our judgement and normalise spending excessively on wants. 

When we think about what we actually really want in life, it’s probably fairly simple and doesn’t involve the latest sports car. We want our kids to be happy and healthy and to live a stress-free life in a safe place.

One of the most important things you can do to adjust your spending habits and help you save more is to be grateful for what you actually have. I know that for me spending was often prompted by this desire to buy my way to a nicer life, as if things are capable of making life more meaningful. 

Now I remind myself of the things I have and to be content with that, because I have so very much to be grateful for.

11. Try a money saving challenge 

Some people really thrive with a money saving challenge which turns saving money into a bit of a game. 

Recording your progress can really help with this too. 

Some popular savings challenges including the penny challenge, the 52 week savings challenge and the 100 envelopes challenge. 

Head over to my article about money saving challenges to learn more. 

12. Switch to cash 

For some people having to physically hand over cash and then count out how much is left is a much easier way of sticking to a budget than spending on a card. 

There are good psychological reasons for doing this, as it makes your spending more intentional. 

You could try cash envelope budgeting – where you allocate money to specific spending categories and have an envelope for each category with the cash you intend to spend that week.