You know that your savings account isn’t very full. You want to add more to it, but you don’t exactly want to make any major changes to do so. You don’t want to take on a second job or turn your favorite hobby into a side hustle, just so that you can put some more money into the account. Is there a way that you can boost your savings without putting in a ton of effort?
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Of course! These are some little changes that can help you boost your savings.
Collect Your Change
Do you have a change jar that’s gathering dust on top of your refrigerator? Do you always have a collection of small bills in your jacket pockets? Do you always find coins stuck under couch cushions or piled at the bottom of your laundry hamper? It’s time to pool all of this money together and deposit it into your savings account.
Sure, you might not get a fortune out of this spare change sitting around your house, but you’ll get some money out of it. And that money will do a lot better sitting in your savings than in your kitchen.
Collect Your Digital Change
You can download a round-up app on your smartphone. A round-up app will sync with your bank accounts. So, when you make a transaction with your checking account, the app will round up that transaction to the nearest dollar and transfer the “change” into your savings account. These transfers will be so small that you won’t notice them, but they will help your savings grow a little bit month by month.
You might not even need an app to do this! Some banks will offer automatic savings features for some of their accounts. The feature will analyze the user’s checking account to see if they have some money to spare. That money will be automatically transferred into the user’s savings account. Of course, the user will have the option to cancel that transfer if they feel like they need to keep that money inside their checking account.
Sell Those Gift Cards
Do you have a whole bunch of gift cards that you don’t know what to do with? You’ve received them as gifts from people who didn’t know you very well, and you’re just not sure that you’ll ever get any use out of them. Those gift cards have value. Stop letting them sit in your wallet untouched. Sell your unwanted gift cards online to someone who does! Then, put the profits into your savings account.
Stop Buying Lottery Tickets
Yes, it’s fun to dream of what it would be like to suddenly win millions and millions of dollars, but the chances of winning the jackpot are incredibly small. This is not to say that you should never play the lottery, but you should stop playing it when your savings are in desperate need of some funds. When you feel like you’re in a more financially stable place, then you can feel free to get tickets!
Think about it. If you spend $10 a week on scratch-off tickets, you’ll spend about $40 on the purchase per month. That’s approximately $500 that you could add to your savings by the end of the year. While you can’t guarantee that you’ll win the lottery, you can be sure that you’ll eventually tap into your savings account for something.
Make Your Coffee at Home
Do you always buy a cup of coffee every day — or possibly, more than one coffee every day? You could collect a chunk of savings by cutting down on this purchase and brewing your coffee at home. For instance, if you bought a grande latte from Starbucks ($3.65 each) every single day, you would spend over $900 by the end of the year. If you brewed your coffee at home and skipped the Starbucks latte, you could potentially save about $575 in a year. You could add all of that money into your savings account.
Why You Should Fill Your Savings Account?
It’s essential that you fill up your savings account. Your savings account should be a financial cushion that you can rely on when something goes wrong. If you get hit with an urgent, unplanned expense, you can use your savings to pay for it right away.
Without enough savings, you might not be able to pay for an emergency expense. In that case, you should consider borrowing funds in order to resolve your emergency. How? You can try to apply for an online personal loan — as long as you meet the eligibility requirements, you can submit your application. With an approved personal loan, you can use borrowed funds to cover the expense in a short amount of time and then dedicate your energy toward a repayment plan afterward.
You don’t have to overhaul your entire life to get some money into your savings account. Start by making these small changes and see what a difference they make!
I save all my change and put it into my saving account (which is desperately thin and in need of padding, so this post was perfect timing) — I also have started to make my coffees at home which is much, much cheaper overall. I like all the other tips you’ve included here, and will be looking at what i can do to make some positive financial changes. Thanks!