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Besides Google and blogs, you can also get plenty of saving money tips from Reddit.
Today we’ve compiled some of the gems, hoping they’ll help you get smarter and wiser with handling your finances.
One of the best and most underrated saving money tips from Reddit is to think of your salary every time you buy something. How does it work? First, know how much you’re making in an hour. For simplicity, let’s assume you earn $10 every 60 minutes.
Then let’s pretend you’re planning to buy, say, a new pair of shoes for $50. That’s about five hours of work for you. Now ask yourself, “Is this item worth 5 hours of exhausting job hours for me?” There’s a good chance you’ll say no to a lot of your wants.
What’s worse than spending money? It’s not knowing you’ve actually done it! By the time you’re in an emergency, you realize you have no cash to rely on. Monitoring your bank accounts can also be helpful in making sound judgments about your spending.
It’s possible you still have money, but you’re using it on things you don’t actually need. You could have used it to build an emergency fund, pay off a debt, or invest, and enjoy better financial freedom.
There are a lot of saving money tips from Reddit that concern spending on food, and it’s understandable. About 40 percent of the budget on food goes toward eating out.
On the average, Americans spend $10 for lunch. That’s more than $2,300 a year! You could already pay over a month’s mortgage with that one. Learn to save by prepping your lunch for work.
Reddit users go on to share two more related tips: cook and create make-ahead meals. Online, you’ll find dozens of simple, easy, and cheap recipes you can cook in batches. This way, when you’re heading out the door, you can grab a meal and go. Another benefit of doing this is you can buy the ingredients in bulk, which actually helps you save more money.
Another of the many saving money tips from Reddit is about paying yourself first – that is, building your personal savings. It’s always best to do it as soon as you receive your salary or other forms of income. In fact, consider it as an expense so you can encourage yourself to do it religiously.
But if you can’t do these for whatever reason, you don’t have to worry. Keep saving whatever you have. It may be small, but as long as you don’t touch it, it grows over time.
Dates – ah, it’s usually one of those areas in our lives we don’t like to compromise. What will our partner say? The good thing is these don’t need to be extravagant at all times. Some ideas are creative enough to be romantic and memorable, but they don’t break the bank.
One of the clever saving money tips from Reddit is to move your savings automatically to a different account. It should be something that’s accessible but not easy enough you can use it anytime you like.
You may forgo linking a debit card with it unless you have set aside such money in the account for expenses. Otherwise, you’ll still struggle with keeping track of your spending.
There’s a direct correlation between spending and earning: the more income you get, the higher your spending tends to be. It is normal to experience that because everybody wants a finer quality of life.
But if you are not paying attention, you could end up spending more than what you can afford. But how you do learn to compromise? Decide how much you’re willing to spend for the finer things.
For example, if you earn $2,000 more per month, you may set aside 50 percent of that for the lifestyle creep.
Does your place have a company that allows you to shop for food online? It may work to your advantage and goal of saving money.
It turns out the process of choosing which to purchase prevents you from being an impulsive shopper.
One of the saving money tips on Reddit is also trying to set up zeros in your account. It tends to sound complicated, and there may be a bit of a learning curve, but it is effective.
It works by setting up your benchmark for spending. For example, if you earn $6,500, you may want your zero to be $6,000. You cannot go lower than that. But the nice thing is you actually pocketed $500 more by changing your mindset.
Many people say sharing your blessings will increase yours many times, and it’s true. You feel good about yourself, and you make this world a better place to be. That’s priceless. But some efforts may actually mean more money for you. These include making plasma donations that may pay $400 per month.
If you’re lucky enough to be in a company with a 401(k) matching plan, make sure you can contribute the maximum amount you can give. If you don’t have one, you can always explore traditional and Roth investment retirement accounts (IRAs), which have several tax-friendly benefits.
Not only that, you need to save only $5,500 annually, depending on factors such as income or tax filing status. Either way, your older self will love the efforts you’re making today.
Fancy a Gucci or a Hermes, perhaps? You know these costs thousands of dollars, but if you head to the thrift stores, you may buy them for way, way less. That’s not all. If they turn out to be authentic and are still in good condition, you can sell them online and earn more than your purchase.
Do you have a gym membership you signed up for at the beginning of the year? Sadly, there’s a good chance you cannot cancel it anytime soon. But you can save more money and get healthy in the process.
One of the smartest saving money tips from Reddit includes using the showers in the gym. You pay less for your water, you force yourself to hit the gym, and it’s “free” since you pay for it along with the membership.
While you can save plastic containers, you can do yourself a bigger favor by buying real Tupperware bins when they go on sale, which usually happens after the holiday season.
You can use them to store prepped meals or organize your rooms cheap.
Not all supposed benefits are helpful in the long run. These include an extended warranty for a vehicle. One of the saving money tips from Reddit for car owners is to avoid it and instead put it in an interest-earning account you can set up to cover car repairs.
Need more tips on how to save money on cars? Watch this video from HouseholdHacker:
Learning these saving money tips from Reddit may not be the sure way to learn how to get out of debt, but it lets you repay loans quickly and helps manage your finances more effectively.
Most of all, you enjoy the income you’ve worked so hard for in a more meaningful way.
Do you have other tips for how to save money? Share them in the comments below!
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