Cutting costs by a dollar here and there is a good way to start saving when setting aside hundreds of dollars at once doesn’t seem doable. And people who are already saving can enjoy faster progress if they also make a few easy changes to their lives. The money saving tips that can help with this are as easy as making your own coffee in the morning instead of buying it. Actions like making your own coffee may seem small and unimportant, but if you stick with them your savings will add up.
Make Your Own Coffee and Lunch
Picking up coffee on the way to work is a regular habit for most people. What you need to know when you’re trying to save money is that the cost of that habit is high. The Christian Science Monitor reports that each time you make coffee at home, you save $1 or more compared with buying it from a coffee shop. If you used to buy coffee five days a week, making your own saves you $5 a week or more. All you have to do to get that savings is to spend a minute or two setting up and filling a coffee pot and a couple minutes cleaning it.
The same principle applies to lunches. If you can spend a few minutes in the morning preparing a salad and sandwich, you don’t have to pay a premium for a restaurant employee to do that.
Collect Spare Change
Most money saving tips require you to give something up, like the few minutes you spend making coffee. The following tip is different in that it doesn’t impose any inconvenience on you. Here it is: Collect coins and $1 bills in a piggy bank or jar. You already have spare change, so you don’t have to do anything new to make some quarters appear. And collecting them all in one place ensures that you don’t drop or lose them. When the change jar is full, bring it to the bank and deposit the money.
Adjust Your Thermostat
There are some times, like at night or when you’re away from home, that you don’t need the heating or air conditioning to be on very high. Adjusting your thermostat for those times can save you a lot of money. The U.S. Department of Energy explains that if you turn down your heat by 10 to 15 degrees and leave it there for eight hours each day, you save between 5 and 15 percent on your annual heating bill. Some people are afraid that turning the thermostat down and then back up makes the furnace work too hard and negates the savings, but this is actually not true. Houses are better able to conserve heat at lower temperatures in the winter and to stay cool at higher temperatures in the summer, so turning down the heating or air conditioning is always beneficial.
Buy Store Brands
Store brands usually offer similar quality to brand-name products. And as Time notes, they frequently cost 25 to 30 percent less than their pricier counterparts. Trim your expenses by choosing store brands when you shop for groceries or household items.
After you’ve taken these steps to save money, put your savings together so you can achieve your financial goals. Are you trying to build an emergency fund or save for a down payment on a car? Deposit the money you save in a bank account for that purpose.
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