I thought I would share something a little bit different than I usually do with you today. But I know most of you are home with young children, and in that stage of life I thought you might also be trying to pinch a few pennies, as we are. So today I wanted to share one awesome, and ridiculously simple money saving tip.
We live quite frugally. I really like to practice ‘mindful spending’. I want to be sure that what I spend money on, I really want to spend money on. For example, a family trip or a barn for our animals. Or smaller things, like dinner out with my husband. I don’t want to be spending money on little things that are not important to me – like drive-thru food. Of course, I have not mastered this yet.
I like reading books about money saving and listening to financial podcasts too (bet you didn’t know that about me! I am a woman of mystery friends) And one tip I read that really resonated me I implemented last year. The results? We saved over $6000!!! I mean truly saved it – that amount was in our bank account as EXTRA money at the end of 2018.
This tip sounds ridiculously simple, which is actually why I decided to give it a go. I just had NO IDEA how much money I would actually save!
Ready for it?
My best money saving tip is this: When you save money on something or in some way, actually save the money.
Here is what I mean. Let’s say you decide to grab a coffee when you are out with some friends. You consider getting a desert to go with your coffee, but opt not to, so you save $6. The reality is though, that six dollars will simply be spent on something else later in the week and you haven’t truly saved anything! Instead, transfer that $6 to a different account – actually saving it. Super simple, but goodness does it add up!
I do this at the end of each day. I make a mental note throughout the day of any money I have saved: purchasing a shirt that was on sale for $8 off, or using coupons at the grocery store or buying sale priced items. Then I quickly transfer all those savings that night online to my savings account.
Right now, we are using cloth diapers with our little one. This means that we are saving about $50 every month that we would otherwise be spending on disposable diapers. They cost me $200, so after 4 months (to recoup the cost of the cloth diapers) that $50 a month goes into our savings account too!
I tell you friends, you won’t believe how much money you can actually save in a year using this simple money saving tip.
Having a young family can be expensive, I understand that perfectly – but this tip has helped us to save a bunch, meaning we can mindfully spend that savings in a way that we truly want to spend it. We saved it up for a whole year and now get to decide what we want to do with our “extra” money. How awesome is that?!
I hope this tip is helpful to you friends! If you decide to try it, pop back in a month and let us know how much you have saved so far. I bet you will be shocked.
Thank you so much for reading,
xo
Sarah
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