what is the best way to save money?

Question

i have 203 in my saveing now.. what is the best way to save

Answer 1

Good Afternoon!
I am a certified credit counselor and this question is very common among people. We offer free financial advice and material--Here is a sample that will help!

How to Save Money
Saving money seems like such an impossible task. Many people think, “I can’t save money – I have too many bills to pay!” But that’s just a myth. There is always an opportunity to save money, no matter how much debt you may have.

How? The answer lies in “the little things” you buy out of habit. For example, do you buy a cup of coffee every morning on your way to work? If you spend $1.50 per cup every day, by the end of the week you could be saving $7.50 just by making your own coffee every morning. It doesn’t sound like much, but in a year’s time that’s a savings of $390!

Can you bring your lunch to work three or four times every week? Buying lunches out can easily cost $30-$40 every week, or $1,560-$2080 each year. That’s a lot of money that goes to your favorite restaurant rather than yourself! Instead, bring your lunch to work and save.

How about that bottle of water or soda you buy mid-afternoon every day? Is that something you can bring from home too?

By asking yourself these kinds of questions, you can begin to find simple ways to save money -- money you can put in the bank. The best part of this is that you are not really going to miss out on anything important by making these small lifestyle changes.

Spend less
Start out by making simple changes.
• Remember to shut the lights when you leave a room.
• Be a conservative shopper. Ask yourself the following questions before making your next purchase:
• Do I really need this?
• Can I manage without this (at least for now)?
• If I must buy this, can I find a better price?
• Use cash only! If you cannot afford the item immediately, then don’t buy it. If it is something that you must have, begin saving for it.
• Cut down on those cable channels!
• Take a few minutes to clip coupons. The savings can quickly add up.

Write it down
Keep a Spending Log for a week or two. A spending log is simply a sheet of paper where you write down every penny you spend and what you spend it on. After a week or two has passed, review the log to see if you can find trends to determine what and when you are spending money. You’ll probably be surprised to see where your cash is going. Perhaps you will find some areas where you can cut down on your spending without feeling the pinch. It may be a few dollars or cents, but every little bit helps!

Save for “something”
Saving money may be easier when you have decided to save for something special for yourself, like a vacation, new outfit, car, etc. Set a savings goal for yourself. If you eat out for lunch each day, stop or cut back if you can. Then put that money aside to go toward your goal. Making these minor cutbacks in your lifestyle may not seem as painful when you are saving for desired items!

Want to learn more? Call us for a no-cost consultation about this and other financial topics.
Toll free: 1.888.354.6332
Debt Counseling Corp. is a not-for-profit organization
providing education, counseling and advocacy to consumers like you.
3033 Expressway Drive North, Hauppauge, NY 11749
Licensed by the New York State Banking Department


I hope this helps and if there is anything else we can help with or you are looking for more information--feel free to check out our website or give us a call. We have a great library where this and many other great articles can be found!

Danielle
Certified credit counselor
www.DebtCounselingCorp.org

Answer 2

Put money into a managed fund, $400 dollars a month. They wait for the payment, so you are forced to save it. Anytime is a good time to start cause it is a Long Term investment (so generally over time you can double it every say around 7 years) and it compounds. So you could get a 30% return in say 4-6 months, if u pick a good one. $100 a week=$400 a month =$4800 a year =$24000 over five years and double this by compound following the rule =$48,000 not bad for 100 bucks a week. Theres always an excuse it will go down or won't work but at least youll have 24 grand. Internet accounts are good also 5% interest and cant get at on weekends, till Monday morning. Just dont ask for a card. Get a timer for your oil heater- I was living in a cold climate (Orange) last year and the timer reduced the bill by like $500 bucks for the quarter. From 900 to 300 and it was still snowing in November. Dont buy books on investment, you could have invested the money. If u do sell it on ebay when finished. Sell anything u dont need on ebay. Its cheap to sell and someone else benefits from something you dont need. If you have Cash pay you credit card off, this is the worst debt you can have.

Answer 3

I have a hard time saving money into my personal savings account as well. Money is automatically deducted from my paycheck to go into my 401K, so if you have that option, I would highly suggest it because you will be amazed at how quickly a little can accumulate in a 401K account, especially if your employer will match what you put in. My easy tip to save more money is to begin by keeping track of your bank balance, and the purchases that you make. For each and every purchase that I make, I put $5 into my savings account. It may not seem like a lot, but this is such an easy way for people on a tight budget to save more money. If you are like me, and use a debit card more often than carrying cash, you will be amazed at how much money you can save this way! For some reason, this just worked better for me than putting aside a set amount each month. I keep track of my bank balance on an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Money is another good program) and each time I enter a transaction, I add $5 to it and at the end of the month I transfer the total into my savings account. This is also a good idea if you don't keep a very high balance in your checking account, it will give you a small cushion in case you go over one month.

Answer 4

you put in. My easy tip to save more money is to begin by keeping track of your bank balance, and the purchases that you make. For each and every purchase that I make, I put $5 into my savings account. It may not seem like a lot, but this is such an easy way for people on a tight budget to save more money. If you are like me, and use a debit card more often than carrying cash, you will be amazed at how much money you can save this way! For some reason, this just worked better for me than putting aside a set amount each month. I keep track of my bank balance on an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Money is another good program) and each time I enter a transaction, I add $5 to it and at the end of the month I transfer the total into my savings account. This is also a good idea if you don't keep a very high balance in your checking account, it will give you a small cushion in case you go over one month.

Answer 5

well first make a list of all your bills add em up and see how much you are suppose to have at the end of the months. Second you misscelaneous like movies, music, games, etc. Third put some money aside you know like into a savings account that way you have some money spare for emergencies. The main key is to make a budget for yourself this way you spend money and save money but you have to have a good head and not go crazy for every little thing you see in a store or whatever. Hope this helps, Later.

Answer 6

This is a easy way that you won't miss the money. As long as you don't break into it.

I have a change jar. When I buy something I always use bills not change, at the end of the day I put ALL the change I have in this jar. I am going on vacation in two months and started rolling it. I have rolled only half the jar.(it is really an old butter tub 3lbs) and I have over $150.00. I have save for 4 months. You be surprised at how much change you can accumulate in a few short months.

Answer 7

Get in the habit of putting a little more into your savings account reguarly (weekly, monthly, or whatever is reasonable.) It may be five dollars a week or ten dollars a month, or more if you can do it.

Your habit of saving will be most valuable to you. Concentrate on building your savings for now, and look at the best way to invest it down the road, when you can plan on putting a large amount of money aside for a long period of time, with possible risk.

You may want to check out interest rates on Certificates of Deposit, depending on how much money you can tie up for several months. See how much they need for a minumum investment, and compare the rate the CD is paying to the rate you are getting on your savings account.

Answer 8

Obviously you're not at the point where investments and mutual funds and junk like that is going to help you one bit. You need to start with the basics.

There are two ways to improve your cash flow. One is to increase your income. The other is to decrease your spending.

On the income side, you can find a better job, get married to decrease your tax deductions, or work a side job. That's about it.

There are tons of ways to decrease expenses. You need to chart out what you spend your money on any given month, and look for ways of reducing each. Can you sign up for a cheaper phone plan? Can you shop around for better car insurance prices? Travel less to save on gas? Eat less expensive food? If you have credit card debt, you need to work that down before worrying about building savings, because the money you're losing to financing charges will far outweigh any benefits you'd gain dollar-for-dollar in any savings instrument.

For regular expenses, you need to budget. Decide how much you're going to save, and put it in the savings account. The rest is ours to spend, or to put into a checking account for bills.

You just need to be careful and scale back the expensive fun as much as you can. Nowadays, it seems you can't have a good time without blowing money, but in reality there are lots of things people do for fun that doesn't cost a fortune. I like hiking and playing guitar... both require a little initial investment, and then it's done. Renting movies is better than going to the cinema. Having drinks at home is better than going out to a club. Some things you may not want to give up if it's important to you, but if you chart out your expenses, I'm sure you'll see some things in there that you COULD live without. Then you just need to live without them.

Answer 9

See if your bank can set up an automatic transfer so that once or twice a month they will automatically transfer $10 or $20 to your savings account. Make sure your savings account ISN'T on your bank card to keep you from being tempted to spend that money, that way to deposit extra or withdrawal from your savings account, you actually have to go into the bank. Depending on your age, you can make an appointment with your bank and talk to them about investment options. Save your spare change too, have a jar at home and at the end of every day, put whatever change you have in it, then once or twice a year, roll it and deposit that to your savings too. You'll be surprised how quickly it adds up!

Answer 10

Have a small percentage of your weekly paycheck directly transferred from your checking acct into your savings, the small amount adds up at the end of the month. Don't eat out at the local fast food as often, if you save a $10 for each lunchtime you don't eat out then in 30 days you'll have $300 saved.