6 Ways To Squirrel Away More Money

Do you have trouble building your savings account or emergency fund? Here are six ways to painlessly save.

Our neighborhood wildlife madly plants nuts to prepare for leaner times, but people don’t have to pop holes in their yard to “squirrel away” a little something for the future.

Here are my favorite savings tricks.

1. Take it off the top, not the bottom.

Whether you write a savings category into your budget first, have an automatic deposit taken from your paycheck before you earmark the rest, or use a “Christmas Club” option at your bank (yes, some financial institutions still offer them), the benefit works the same.

Just determine that cash isn’t there for everyday expenses, and make sure you have a separate, adequate line item in your plan for emergencies.

2. Go back in time.

At year-end, when you usually rearrange your budget, act as if that C.O.L.A. or merit raise never came through.

If you’re really aggressive, go back two budgets. You will figure out ways of making it work even when inflation is factored in.

This option has the side benefits of simplifying your budget revision process and automatically setting you up to “live below your means.” The only category amounts you’ll change are “savings” and “taxes.”

3. Start a coin jar — physical or digital.

Remember when you were a kid and kept a penny jar in your room? If you still primarily use cash, go retro and dump each day’s change into a clear jar to physically see your money grow.

For some old-fashioned kicks, tape a picture on the jar to remind you of what you’re saving towards.

If you always use a debit or credit card, you may not remember when you had any coins to save. However, you can still save your change.

Each day, transfer any amount of your checking balance over a whole dollar to savings.

For instance, if your balance is $808.65, you’d transfer that 65 cents to savings. You might be surprised how painless it is to get an extra $20 to $30 into savings each month.

Some banks allow you to sign up to have that “spare change” automatically transferred from checking to savings daily, so you don’t have to remember to do it manually. 

4. Start a side gig.

With the internet, It is getting easier and easier to make extra cash without getting a second job outside of your home.

You can find hundreds of ideas online for starting a side gig. What skills or hobbies do you have that you can monetize? Could you find a very part-time remote job? (See Side Gigs That Can Make You Extra Cash: Ideas From Dollar Stretchers.)

Even if you only work your side gig a few hours each week, it could add up to a decent amount each month.

5. Save the extras.

Work-related extras, such as bonuses, overtime pay, tips or year-end employee gifts, usually evaporate into thin air. Consciously nail those dollars down.

If it helps, put them immediately into a timed account with no minimum balance, like a CD, or even in small denomination U.S. savings bonds, to make the money less accessible. Out of sight, out of mind.

6. Watch for sneaky sources of savings.

Oddball money-generating ventures, like yard sales, survey cash earnings, credit card cash rewards and product purchase rebates, usually sneak under our financial radar. But gather them together over time and they add up.

Even a squirrel’s uneaten plantings grow into trees.

What Easy Ways Will You Use To Save?

Collect the bits and pieces from these six methods into a single savings category, or earmark each method’s earnings toward a specific goal.

Either way, your savings benefit without a whole lot of digging.

Related:

• Tricks for Stashing Small Savings (So It Doesn’t Disappear)
• Easy Steps To Building an Emergency Fund on a Tight Budget
• Where Can You Earn a Good Compound Rate of Return?

Reviewed May 2024