Frugality

5 Unique Ways to Save Money You Haven’t Thought Of

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Updated on March 22, 2023 by
5 Unique Ways to Save Money You Haven't Thought Of

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We all want to save some money so that we can have it for big expenditures, rainy days, or simply for security. But every article we read seems to point us to the same old advice. We’ve got our round-up savings account. We’ve implemented every tactic we learned by reading The 20 Different Ways To Make $100,000 Per Year, and now our schedules are too full to make any more income. We’re maxed out!

So, is the conventional, current wisdom we’ve already incorporated into our lifestyles where the story ends? Or are there some hidden chapters we have yet to discover that could change the ending?

Well, we still have some tricks up our sleeves that we may have forgotten about or just haven’t thought of yet. Check out these 5 unique ways that will help you save money!

1)  Pay More Than the Minimum Balance on Credit Cards

Credit card debt can be crushing over time – especially when interest rates are through the roof! But when money is tight, it’s more than tempting to pay the minimum balance and leave your debt as something to deal with later.

The trick here is no matter how much more you can pay over the minimum balance, any amount will help. And getting in the habit of paying more than the minimum will lead to more success in the future.

Make a rule for yourself: always pay something over the minimum balance! Whatever’s reasonable and makes sense at the time of the payment.

By keeping up with this habit, you’ll be able to pay off your debt sooner and pay less interest in the long run. You’ll be setting yourself up for a more prosperous financial future!

Put high-interest payments in their place – out of your life in the long run! Not to mention, your credit score will improve in the process of making payments over the minimum balance, reducing any interest payments you might run into for future loans. That’s a double win.

2)  Break Out the Ol’ Envelope

Did you ever see your parents with an envelope full of cash and wonder what they were doing with it? Well, the envelope method is one of the most tried-and-true budgeting techniques in history. But since it’s older and based on physical cash, it’s largely been lost in the sands of time. And guess what – it’s ready to make a comeback and a meaningful difference in your ability to save money!

Digital budgeting apps and accounts are too easy to ignore. When you separate cash into different envelopes for different spending categories, you’ll notice when the dough gets low. If you want to spend more in that category, you’ll have to move money from a different envelope or add money to it – all of which is far more difficult than swiping your card again (just one more time).

Physician limitations work. Countless studies have shown that using cash instead of digital currency automatically encourages people to spend less money overall. And the envelope method capitalizes on that fact while incorporating budgeting into your thought process.

Once the envelope is empty – you’re done for the month! Try not to reallocate funds in order to spend more for a category. If you plan well enough at the beginning of the month when you’re filling those envelopes up, there’ll be no need to add more!

The envelope method puts impulse buys on the back burner while helping you watch where your money is going. You may not have thought of this one, and it’s been losing popularity by being regarded as an “old” method. But the classics are classic for a reason – they work!

3)  Buy More Expensive Products

This one will probably seem a little counterintuitive at first – but stick with us, and you’ll see how effective it can be at helping you save money over time!

Investing in products that are more expensive stops you from having to replace them every few years. High-quality, big-ticket items last way longer than their cheap counterparts. For example, furniture, electronics, appliances, and clothing will either last you a decade or a year (at most), depending on the price.

This doesn’t apply to everything! Being picky about which items you want to splurge on is essential to success. There are plenty of inexpensive or free products and services that offer you the high-quality results you’re looking for. For example, the most meaningful thing people can want – love can be found for free. You can find some top-recommended dating apps with free trials at DatingApps.com. Just because it’s important doesn’t mean it has to be expensive. The trick is to identify which splurge items will get you the significant savings you want over time.

So think about it like this: if you have to buy something 7 times over the course of 7 years, it’ll end up being more expensive than paying for one high-quality item. Let’s say you buy a cheap laptop for $60. You have to keep buying a new one every year for a decade. That’s $600. Instead, you could buy a $400 laptop that’ll serve you well for that decade with proper care. The same thing applies to a phone or a coffee table. It’s called investing for a reason – it’ll work in your favor when you put time into the equation!

4)  Pick the Most Inconvenient Bank You Can Find

Most tips about saving money are clothed in convenience to be more appetizing to people. Not this one! This tip gets overlooked a lot because it’s not particularly fun. It’s actually the opposite – because spending our money is fun! Having access to our hard-earned funds is fun. This puts as many roadblocks in the way of these fun things as possible.

We encourage you to go ahead and find the most inconvenient bank you can possibly find. Is there a bank just across the state line that doesn’t have online banking as a feature? Perfect! Is there a bank that doesn’t work with any of the ATMs in your area? Exactly what you’re looking for.

Did that bank give you a card you can use online? Shred the thing. Make yourself go in person if you need to access those funds.

Is there a bank that has hours that impossibly conflict with your work schedule? That’s the one! Will they charge you monumental fees for a withdrawal? Even better.

Your money will stay in an account if you just can’t get to it. Important note – this is not where your emergency funds should go – because those need to be immediately accessible. This is somewhere that savings sit and collect interest because they’re not directly accessible.

You won’t make that impulse purchase if you have to wait 3-5 business days to transfer funds from your savings account – because it’s just not possible.

Our society values immediate gratification and convenience – so we’re set up for banking with an ease of use that’s almost irresistible not to take advantage of. Stop yourself before you can’t resist spending your money by picking the most inconvenient banking system you can find.

5)  Make Saving Money a Challenge

We’re liable to forget the most effective money-saving tricks in the game – the ones that work to effectively inspire children! We’re adults, but if we’re being honest, the tricks that work on kids are probably still going to work on us.

Most of these tricks involve turning saving money into a game or challenge. Getting competitive with yourself or others is an excellent way to motivate yourself.

For example, one of these tricks is to have a kid put a nickel in a jar. The next day, they put in a dime. Keep upping the value at 5 cents a day, and before they know it, they’ll have to put 5 dollars in the jar. Eventually, they’ll have to slow down their savings in relation to their income, but they’ll have much more in the account than if they never took on the challenge at all.

Make a challenge that works for you! Maybe it’s not incremental – maybe you want to save every $10 bill you get. Get creative and choose a challenge that can be easily implemented into your lifestyle. And if you choose something that seems like a good idea but doesn’t pan out, keep trying different methods until you land on one that you can truly commit to. Because the time and effort in finding your perfect saving challenge will be more than worth it in the end. You’ll surprise yourself with how much money you can save!

Takeaways

Once you’ve taken on the most high-value job(s) you can find, you can’t realistically earn any more money. It’s time to turn to saving money as your new strategy. And if you’ve already tried every trick in the book, we’re glad you’ve read this article to find the effective tips you hadn’t thought of yet!

While money doesn’t equal happiness, studies show that Earning More Money Actually Does Make People Happier at the end of the day. And if you’ve maxed out on what you can earn, making the most of your money can absolutely contribute to your happiness, security, and mental health overall.

So using these tips to save money isn’t only going to improve your net worth – it’ll improve your entire life, given time! So make sure to choose at least one of these tips and intentionally implement it into your financial strategy. Even one of these tips, if incorporated correctly and committed to, can change your entire financial outlook in the long run!

We hope you save this article so you can save more money than you ever have before. Thanks for reading!

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