Real Ways To Save Money in 2023: Financial Tips

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Updated 01/02/2023

Saving money can be challenging for some people due to the fact that they must start the journey of frugal living by reducing all big spending blocks like food, transportation, utility bills, etc.

This is because, people need to have solid money-saving tips to create a good spending habits- avoid unnecessary spending, which can help to find different ways to save money each month.

For this reason, you need to track and monitor your spending habits in order that allows highlighting the biggest spending blocks and creates an effective budget to achieve long-term money goals.

In this article, you will learn the step-by-step guide about money-saving tips, which you may consider applying to your individual situation and achieving long-term saving goals. 

Key Takeaways

• Here is the list of 5 saving tips you may consider applying and finding different ways to save money each month.
• The most effective way is to record your expenses and create a budget based on your income and expenses.
• As you are aware, unnecessary subscription fees may take a big bite at your income.
• You would consider using money-saving apps to become more effective with your saving and save time.
• Google sheet is an alternative to money-saving apps if you prefer to manually record your income and expenses.

Here are additional resources that are relevant to money-saving tips and frugal living: continue to read for more information.

> Steady App Review: How It Helps To Find Side Hustles?

> Trim Review: How Trim App Helps To Save Money on Subscriptions

> Rock Money Review: Save Money & Cancel Subscriptions

Create A Budget

The first and foremost important step of money-saving tips is to create an effective budget based on your monthly income. By monitoring your spending, you will have a general idea of how much you are spending each month.

For example, groceries, transportation, and mortgages are considered your big spending blocks, and you can create a budget based on those expenses.

In addition, you should use Google Docs or Google Sheets to list common unnecessary spending habits such as coffee, Amazon Audible, gym membership, and Netflix subscription fees, just to name a few.

Alternatively, you can use money-saving apps like Rocket Money or Trim– Asktrim, which help you to find different ways to save money each month by lowering your current bills and canceling unnecessary subscriptions.

After determining the amount of money you spend each month, then you can think of some simple ways to save money by listing down the major spending blocks on Google sheets or a piece of paper.

For this reason, it helps you to create a successful budget, which strictly requires the reduction of unnecessary spending and the elimination of other fees that can impact the overall monthly budget.

Track Your Current Spending-Financial Tips

The next step in the saving money plan is to track your expenses, this could be done by either using saving apps or manual saving tips such as creating Google Sheets, Excel, and Google Docs, which help to determine where you are spending.

Money-saving apps are the most trendy and advanced saving money tips that can assist you to track your money habits such as monitoring your budget and alerting if overspend.

This is because the budgeting apps’ main jobs are to monitor your daily expenses, which provides more saving tips based on your monthly budget and you would be able to allocate your spending accordingly.

There are a few budgeting apps you should consider for creating a successful budget:

• You Need A Budget
• Mint
• Personal Capital

Notes: depending on individuals’ situations and needs, you may use the free version or premium subscription to track your daily expenses.

The traditional and manual saving tips are Google Sheets, Excel, or even Google Docs. Those are completely free for all users, but you need to put an effort into recording every transaction in Google Sheets or Excel.

Google budget spreadsheet would be a great resource for anyone, who loves to jot down every single transaction and create a budget based on those records.

This manual saving is considered a valuable money-tracking tool because you can create the budget template by yourself or even find a free template online.

Eliminate Unnecessary Subscription Fees

As mentioned earlier, the only way to reduce your spending habits is to review and reconsider whether you are wasting money on unnecessary spendings such as subscription fees, and other unused subscriptions.

For subscription service fees, you should consider reducing or totally eliminating such as Netflix, Amazon Prime service, Kindle monthly fee, Youtube Premium, and Spotify, just to name a few. You could save a few hundred dollars each month if cancel any unused subscriptions.

Based on my experience, I carefully record every transaction associated with subscription fees like the gym membership fee and Youtube premium fee. Thus, it would allow me to cancel if not necessarily keep them.

For this reason, it allows me to save at least $100 each month on those unnecessary spending because I don’t use those services so often- less than the normal standard use rate.

Alternatively, I search for cheaper options such as using a free Spotify version or watching movies on Youtube, for which I still enjoy the music and movie but pay less.

Set Saving Goals

Creating a saving Goal is considered one of the great saving tips to achieve either short or long-term financial goals. In particular, you may plan to save for a vacation in Euro, get married, save for your kid’s education, and save for retirement. 

You first need to figure out the amount of money you need and how long it will take you to achieve the goals.

Let’s look at both short and long-term saving goals as an example for you to understand and highlight which one is the main priority for you.

• Short-Term Money Goals

According to Bank of America ( 2021), the average saving rate is around 10% to 20% out of your total income for an emergency fund, which means you must save at least 6 to 12 months of the income (Bank Of America, 2021).

Pay off Credit Card: the sooner you pay off your credit debt, the better savings ability you will have. A huge interest fee of around 15%-18% is the main burden to impact your saving goals.

Put aside money for investing: create a buffer zone by putting aside your money into another high-yield interest account, or invest your spare money into a long-term investment account with M1 Finance.

Vacation: if you plan for the vacation within the next 12 months, then you should determine how long it will take to have enough money for achieving a short-term money goal.

• Long-Term Money Goals

Pay off mortgage: perhaps it is the most important long-term financial goal if you are currently owning a home.

 If you are a full-time employee then you may ask your boss to contribute to your overall superannuation for retirement. Or maybe you are a freelancer or a business owner, then you must start saving money right away for your future retirement.

Kids’ Education: you may put aside a small amount of money for your kids’ education such as University, or private college, which they will have the right future later in their adult life.

Review and Track Your Saving Progress

The last step in the list of 5 simple ways to save money is to review and track the progress of your saving plan every 6 months.

This is because you will have opportunities to figure out current problems or issues and be able to fix those issues in due time.

For example, if you are out of your savings track, then reconsider reducing spending in certain areas, which help you to achieve your long-term money goals.

This way will help you to stay on track with your frugal living as part of a saving money plan as you may even find better ways to save money each month, which allow you to achieve your overall short-term and long-term goals.

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By Jiro Nguyen.

The content is only based on the author’s personal opinion and experience. It is for informational purposes only and does not rely on as a comprehensive or substitute for professional advice.