My parents instilled two financial lessons into me from a very young age: Never go into credit card debt and always have a rainy day fund. I took heed to their advice, and I didn’t get my first credit card until after I graduated from college and got into my career. During that same time, I started my rainy day fund. And I soon found out how hard it was to consistently deposit money into the account without removing it at a later date. After some trial and error, I finally found a way always to save money and use it only for its intended purpose. I’m going to share the two tips that helped me save thousands in one year.
Also, check out:
How To Coupon For Beginners
How To Save Money On Your Next Vacation
How To Save Thousands In One Year
Separate Savings Account
The first step that I took was opening a different savings account that’s not linked to my checking account. How did this help me save consistently? Out of sight, out of mind. I started seeing my checking account money as my only available money. The separate account stopped me from transferring money from my savings account instead of budgeting what I had available.
Direct Deposit It
To prevent myself from using my savings or not transferring the money at all, I started depositing part of my paycheck directly into the separate savings account. This way, I didn’t have any excuse for spending the money. I looked at it in the same way that I do my health insurance payments or my 401k. My thought process is, Am I missing something that I never had in my possession?
Don’t Put It All In One Place
If I’m saving up for different things, I never put it all into one account. I’ve had times when I forgot what money I had allotted for what purpose. To prevent that, I stopped grouping all my savings. It’s simple, but it prevents a lot of headaches.
What tips do you have on how to save money?
I don’t know about you, but the worst part of going on a vacation for me is the planning process. Between searching for the best flight prices and trying to find a hotel in the right location, It can become super stressful. If you’re planning a group or family trip, the stress goes up a few notches.
These travel websites have helped me plan almost all of my vacations. I now spend less time planning the actual vacation and more time shopping for my vacation outfits.
SKYSCANNER
Skyscanner scans all travel websites in search of the perfect flight for you. You can sort the flights based on your preference. If you’re looking for the cheapest option sort low to high if you want to get there the fastest time they have you covered. I also use this website for travel ideas. They have an option for you to but “anywhere” as your destination. It will then give you options from your city based on price. I love this site for getting an idea of the cost of a possible trip.
SOUTHWEST VACATIONS
I have used Southwest Vacations to book both my Cancun and Punta Cana trip. They always have discounts when you package your flight and hotel together. I’ve been able to find trips as low as $600 for two people for a week in an all-inclusive resort. By booking all-inclusive resorts as a vacation, they come out hundreds of dollars cheaper.
SKIPLAGGED
Skiplagged is another site that finds cheap flights. The only catch is that you usually can’t have checked bags. Skiplagged will find flights that have your destination, but your destination might be a layover site. If you decide to check bags, your bags will continue to the final destination. It is suitable for light packers.
HOTEL CANARY
Hotel Canary is a Google Chrome Extension for Priceline. Priceline offers express deals on hotels based on their star rating. They conceal the hotels’ name until after you agree to book it. Its a gamble for what hotel you will end up with and they do not offer refunds. That’s where Hotel Canary comes into place. The extension tells you what hotel it most likely will be. If they can’t pinpoint a specific one, they will give you the top three hotels that it will be from and then you can decide if you’re okay with either one.
