Setting aside money to put into savings may seem impossible when trying to make ends meet, but it can be done. Not only is it possible, but you can save as much as $10,000 by making a few strategic money moves.
With 2025 fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to set yourself up for financial success in the new year. If you can use an extra $10,000 in your pocket, and who doesn’t, follow these money-saving tips and you may find yourself with a nice nest egg to start 2026.
1. Earn More Money
Bringing in additional cash is great for getting caught up on bills. Landing a part-time job or a side gig is an excellent way to boost your savings. Getting or starting a side hustle isn’t difficult and is quite profitable when it's managed correctly.
The income brought in from a second job or side hustle can be split into different priorities. Some of it can go towards paying bills and other necessities, and some should be put into a savings account. The rest you can use for your own purposes.
2. Assess Your Finances
To get a clear idea of where you stand financially, you have to undertake a thorough review of your finances. You won’t be able to effectively change your spending habits or save money without knowing the full picture.
Start by gathering all of your bills and outgoing payments, including memberships, subscriptions, donations, purchases, etc. Next, collect all the information of your incoming money to see where it's going.
3. Create a Budget
One of the key elements of getting your financial house in order is to set a budget. Having a budget is a good reminder of how much money you’re bringing in versus how much you’re spending each month.
You can use different tools to keep track of your earnings and expenses. You can use a paper ledger or notebook, a software program like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, or a free budgeting app, whatever works best for you.
3. Identify Your Necessities
As you’re creating your budget, look at your outgoing expenses and identify which ones are essential to your daily life. You may think everything you spend money on is a necessity, but if you look closely and honestly at your expenses, you’ll see there’s room to reduce them.
Some expenses are absolute necessities, like housing and shelter, utilities, groceries, and transportation costs. Other expenses aren’t required for your survival and can be reduced or totally removed from your budget.
4. Eliminate Unnecessities
Once you’ve determined which monthly expenses you need to pay, it’s time to look at the nonessential items you pay for. Which of these can you downsize? Which ones should you get rid of? Which should you keep?
These vary from person to person, but ask yourself which subscriptions and memberships can you eliminate because you hardly use them, if at all? Which ones can you reduce by subscribing to a lower cost or annual plan?
5. Low Cost Entertainment
Living on a budget doesn’t mean depriving yourself of fun activities. You just have to take a different approach to them. If you enjoy live performances, check out community theaters and local music venues for lower cost shows.
Go to matinees of movies you want to see instead of paying more for evening tickets. If you like going out for dinner after work, happy hours typically offer discounted prices on food and beverages. You can also dine out when a restaurant is offering cost-saving meal specials.
6. Cut Your Grocery Bill
Saving money on essentials like groceries is possible if you incorporate a few changes in how you shop. Find and use paper and online coupons as much as possible, and go on store websites to compare prices.
When comparing prices, don’t forget your local chain drug stores. They may have weekly specials or coupons that offer a better bargain than grocery stores. Buying generic over name brand grocery products also saves money.
7. Reduce Food Waste
Whether you’re cooking for one person or an entire family, it’s easy to cook too much food that you can’t eat and end up throwing away. According to the USDA, between 30-40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. is wasted.
Planning your meals helps reduce the amount of food waste that’s generated. With meal planning, you can determine how many portions to make that will realistically be eaten. This way you can have leftovers that you’ll eat and less food you’ll throw away.
8. Adjust Spending on Gifts
Gift giving is incredibly enjoyable, especially seeing the delight on the recipient’s faces. Buying gifts for different milestones and celebrations can get costly. Luckily, there are gifts that show how much you care without straining your budget.
Handmade gifts are thoughtful and can be personalized for each receiver. Small store-bought gifts are also excellent to give. Know someone who enjoys writing? Buy them a journal. A cocoa drinker would like a mug filled with packets of cocoa.
9. Use Money-Saving Apps
When shopping online, using apps like Honey, Rakuten, and Capital One Shopping offer discounts on purchases or cash back. If you shop at certain online stores, the apps will automatically compare prices and find coupon codes, giving you the best deals.
These apps are free to use and easy to download. Once you’ve created an account, all you have to do is start shopping and let the app take care of the rest. The savings are quite good especially if you do much of your shopping online.
10. Cut the Cord
Paying for cable and home internet services from the same provider is convenient, but doesn’t necessarily offer the best deal available. Even if your cable and internet aren’t bundled, you’re still probably paying too much.
Contact your cable and internet provider to ask if they could apply a promotional deal to your account for the next six months or year. If they can’t, look into other providers offering one or both services at a cheaper rate.
11. Change Cell Phone Plans
If your cell phone bill is higher than you’d like it to be, then it’s time to look into changing to a lower cost plan or finding a new provider. Check the benefits that come with your current plan. Do you need all the bells and whistles it comes with? If not, switch to a cheaper plan.
Compare cell phone plans offered by different providers with your existing plan. If any of them are similar to yours but cheaper, then consider switching carriers. Another option is changing to a prepaid cell phone plan. That way you can avoid surprise charges.
12. Consolidate Credit Card Debt
Carrying a balance on high interest credit cards makes it hard to set aside money for savings. Instead of giving that money to the credit card companies, try consolidating your credit card debt as much as possible.
Transfer the balances from high interest credit cards to ones with a 0% rate. This rate is usually promotional and may only last one or two years. It’ll give you a chance to pay off that debt without the additional interest charges.
13. Don’t Use Store Credit Cards
Unlike major credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, store cards can only be used with the retailer that issues them. These cards may offer you discounts when you first open them, but they can be costly over time.
Store cards are convenient, but the interest rates are generally higher than those of major credit cards. As of 2024, the average APR for store cards is 28.93 percent. Bring those store card balances to zero as quickly as you can.
14. Save On Gas
The days of gasoline costing 50 cents a gallon are long gone, but you can still find ways to save on your next fill up. Minimize the number of trips you take to run errands; try to do them all at once to reduce the amount of gas used.
Some retailers and grocers offer gas points for every dollar you spend at their stores. Depending on how much you shop, you can add up enough points to save upwards of a dollar off per gallon. Apps identifying the lowest priced gas stations near you are also helpful.
Following these tips will put money in your pocket. Instead of spending it, take that extra money and deposit it into a savings account. Before you know it, you’ll have $10,000 saved, maybe even more.
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