10 Ways to Save $1000 on a Tight Budget- FAST!
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The beginning of the year is a great time to start fresh and create new habits. So why not start the new year (or heck, a new month!) by making a plan to save as much money as you can?!
Want to build up an emergency fund, fast?
Want to pay down extra debt, fast?
Want to save for a vacation, fast?
Here are 10 ways that you can save money toward your first $1000…FAST!
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1.Sell items online or in a garage sale
One of the best ways to start fresh, reduce stress and clutter, and have the added benefit of making some extra cash is to sell a bunch of stuff.
I can almost bet that if you start looking through your home, you’ll find a whole pile of things that have been forgotten about that you could sell for some extra money fast.
Organize a garage sale for this coming weekend, or just sell your things on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
Added bonus: less clutter equals less clutter in your mind. A more peaceful space. And a home that you can’t help but love more.
2. Reduce your utility costs
Unplugging unused appliances and drying your clothes may seem like it’s not worth the hassle…but it all adds up.
Wearing layers in your home instead of cranking the heat can be the difference of $50-100+ a month in the winter!
Did you know that your dryer is one of the biggest energy suckers in your home? Drying your clothes during “off-peak” hours, or line drying, or even doing back to back dryer sessions while the drum is still hot can save you a bunch each month.
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3. Do a no-spend weekend or month
This step alone can save you the bulk of the $1000 depending on how frugal you may already be.
When I did a spending freeze challenge a few years ago, I easily saved about $800 that one month by cutting out unnecessary expenses.
If you are interested in joining me in the new year for a “Spending Detox” challenge, sign up in the box below. I’ll walk you through exactly how to crush the challenge for the 30 days so you can save that $1000 FAST.
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4. Cancel your gym membership
I love having our YMCA family gym membership. For $100 a month I can workout everyday, have free childcare for up to 2 hours for my kiddos, and take a hot shower without anyone screaming for me to get out.
So I see the value in a gym membership.
However, if you’re financially strapped…do you think that $100 a month could make a difference for you? I think so.
Hit the pavement running, do a bodyweight workout in your garage or bedroom, borrow a workout video from the library…
There are so many options that cost you absolutely nothing. So money should never be a reason to not exercise.
When the month is over (or longer if need be!), you can sign yourself back up to your gym…but it’s a great way to save money fast.
5. Make your own coffee at home
Did you know that the average person spends $3 a day on buying coffee?
Hot damn, friend. That’s just shy of $100 a month on coffee that comes in a disposable cup (another cup in the garbage).
Instead, you could buy yourself a cute Keep Cup for $26 (anyone else as obsessed with these things as I am?!) and make your coffee at home saving you anywhere from $50-100 a month on coffee (depending on how fancy those “coffee” drinks get for you).
PS: if you don’t want to spend that much on a travel mug, you could always do what my husband did, and buy the weirdest to-go mug on the clearance rack. He literally bought a cup that says “I wish my cat wanted to go for walks”… and he does not like cats.
Freaking cracks me up.
Anyway, make your coffee at home, save $50-100 a month just doing this one step…and no one will spell your name wrong on your cup as an added bonus.
6. Don’t eat out, cook at home
According to one article, the average American spends $232 per month eating meals prepared outside the home.
I could be wrong, but I feel that number seems conservative. When my husband and I first started our business, started to see growth, and then had our first child, we lost our mind eating out each month.
We were spending $1000-1200 a month on eating out alone. And I know we can’t be the only ones.
Once we woke the heck up, and “restricted ourselves”, we now budget $150 a month on eating out.
So with that being said, depending on where you are with that… you have the potential to save a long on this step alone toward your first $1000.
And with that being said, the best way to succeed against eating out is to…
7. Make a meal plan
If you want to blow through your grocery budget each month, the most sure fire way to do that is to walk into the store without a plan.
Creating a meal plan keeps me from buying food that ends up wasting away in the back of my fridge…wasting food and wasting money.
We currently have a grocery budget of $800 a month…which may seem high to you…but it’s a number that we feel comfortable with and allows us to eat our health specific diet for all the sensitive little bodies in our home.
But the biggest gift that making a meal plan has offered me is that we save so much on eating out at restaurants. We no longer have “oh shit, what are we going to eat!?” nights that we end up running out and ordering pizza.
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8. Make a written budget
“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
― Dave Ramsey
If you want to save money, you need to make a plan to save money. Truly, the math is simple…it’s following through and sticking to that math, am I right?
Want to save an extra $100? Work it backwards in your budget.
Make a line item for savings and write $100. Then deduct that $100 from the total amount you have to budget for the month, and tell the rest of the dollars where to go.
Then, most importantly, stick to that budget (this is the hard part…).
“Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge. What to do isn’t the problem; doing it is. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it. If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich.”
― Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
9. Use cash envelopes
This was the biggest game changer for me.
There is something psychologically different about handing over cold hard cash and a plastic card.
Not to mention, when you hand over the cash, it goes away. When you hand over the card, you get it back and tuck it away neatly in your wallet.
That does not create the same level of pain in your brain that exchanging goods for money does. It hurts to lose money (Aka, you life energy…because you traded your life energy for that money!).
At the beginning of the month, I have 6 envelopes that I stuff with cash (you can use cash envelopes for whatever categories of spending you want. I use cash for groceries, personal care, entertainment, bulk meat purchase, restaurants, and childcare).
Once the money is gone in those envelopes…that’s it!
Another benefit is that I have made it into a fun game for myself on how exactly I can make that money stretch the most. That is so much easier to do with cash because it is tangible, and something you can psychically see is running out.
The first month we used cash envelopes, I shaved $600 out of our budget that I would probably have blown through if we weren’t using cash.
Try cash for a month and see how much you save!
10. Add a side hustle
“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”
— Dave Ramsey
“Hustle and grind”, “rise and grind”. I don’t know about you, but I do get a bit sick of hearing these overused statements being passed around the internet.
However, sometimes getting out of debt, or saving money isn’t as much of a budgeting problem (maybe you have shaved everything imaginable from your budget already!)…
…but rather, an income problem.
Or maybe you have a great income, but you want to get the heck out of debt as fast as you possibly can!…
This is where a side hustle can be a game changer. There are so many amazing options for side hustles in the age we live in. You can do so much from the comfort of your own home (or car…hello Uber, I see you).
Here are a few options to get your brain whirling…but don’t stop with this list!:
- Drive for Uber or Lyft
- Deliver pizzas
- Start a blog
- Babysit
- Pet sit
- Pet walker
- Transcriber
- Personal trainer
- Sell items on Craigslist or Ebay
- Rent out a room on AirBnB
- Sell your services on Fiverr or UpWork
- Clean houses
- Sell your items on Etsy
- Detail cars
- Become a freelance writer
- Groom pets
- Teach music lessons
- and on and on…
Which of these 10 action items do you feel you could implement immediately this month?
Do you know anyone who would like to save a little extra money this month? If so, please share with the buttons below!
