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"Think about what you want to buy in terms of the hours it took you to earn that money."
"Most of the time, I'll decide against buying something useless."
"It takes a while to get in the swing of it, but it can save you some serious cash! Meal prep, stick meals in the freezer, or just make a double portion of your dinner. I invested in a nice set of containers to help you get excited about my meals."
Get a week-long meal-prep plan if you have no idea where to start here.
Learn how to make a veggie stock out of scraps here.
"I also set a certain amount to auto-transfer to my savings every week."
"After inputting my salary, recurring expenses, and desired saving amount, the app breaks all of those numbers down into a — you guessed it — daily budget. It has been SO helpful and I've saved significantly more $$ than I would have without it. The $10 expansion to access all of the features is well worth it."
Get it for free from iTunes here.
"I give myself a certain amount of cash — for food, clothing, gas, etc. — each month so I actually see what I have to spend until I get my next pay check. I need to have actual cash in my hand to track how much I'm spending — it doesn't feel like I'm actually spending when I'm using a card."
Many grocery chains offer reloadable gift cards so you can really restrict how much you purchase. Some of them also offer additional rewards.
"A lot of big retailers offer 'order ahead, pick up curbside' or just flat out grocery delivery services. This saves time and the extra money you would spend on impulse purchases. Not to mention you don’t have to spend time in-store doing the math in your head to make sure you don’t spend too much."
"January was 'no new stuff' month, February was 'no eating out' month, March was 'no fast food' month. Even when the challenge was over, we bought less junk, cooked at home more, etc. Now we have a savings account with a few months’ salary in it!"
"My fiancé and I finally went to see a financial planner after years of ending every month just praying there were still a couple of dollars left in our bank accounts. It was LIFE CHANGING. By the time we got to her office for the appointment, she had multiple Excel docs that told us EXACTLY how much we could actually afford to spend in a month, how much we could realistically save, and how much we should be spending on our student debt.
Less than a year after meeting with her, we had over $10,000 in our joint checking thanks to her simple plan. For us, that’s big! It’s not so much about budgeting line by line. Rather, she clarified for us how much we could actually spend on discretionary items per month."
"It's extremely eye-opening! A few bucks here and there really adds up."
Learn how to take in a waist and three other minor alterations here.
"One year I put together a cookbook, and the next I made jam out of fruit that grew in my yard. I have a few succulents that I propagate from cuttings and I give people those for birthdays. This way, family and friends know we are thinking of them, but we aren’t spending money on gifts for people every month."
Find ideas for DIY gifts here.