Five Ways to Save More of Your Paycheck

You know you should spend less and save more. Most women readily conquer the former. They clip coupons, look for the best deals when making purchases, and willingly forgo a soda at lunch or coffee in the afternoon to save money each month. These are all great practices, for saving pennies today. Cutting expenses today is a fraction of the financial big picture. Despite pinching their pennies, many women do not save and invest enough to build themselves a solid financial foundation for the future.

Unsplurge
The Unsplurge App for Smartphones will change the way you save forever. When you feel the urge to make an emotion-driven, impulse purchase, UnSplurge can help you overcome it. Put down the adorable Prada bag and slowly walk away from the counter. Tell the kind sales associate that you want to think about it, and then laugh all the way to the bank. A motivational community of like-minded friends will cheer you on as you deposit the money you would have spent on a splurge into your savings account. You can log and track your savings progress and learn additional inspiring ways to save money from the UnSplurge community.

Pay Your Savings Bill
If you easily master obligations but ignore “dreams” of money piling up in your savings account or 401K, make your savings goal a “bill” you owe each month. Create an obligation to pay the “bill” to yourself each month when you pay your other expenses.  Even if you can only pay yourself $20 per paycheck into your savings, that small “bill” you pay adds up to a cool $500 annually if your employer pays bi-weekly. There are plenty of money management Apps to help you track your bills, savings, and investments all in one place. Try PowerWallet or Mint.

Round Up
You might remember your parents balancing the checkbook this way–or maybe you still do if you balance your checkbook by hand—by rounding up purchase amounts to the nearest dollar. A $50.29 purchase becomes $51.00 in the register. Your account becomes 71 cents richer and without you noticing. At the end of the month, transfer the difference between the actual purchases and the number in your register (the money you already didn’t think you had) into your savings account.

Bank of America makes it easy to round up electronically and without having to think about it. With their Keep the Change® program, they round up every debit card transaction to the nearest dollar and deposit the change into your savings account for you.

Save Your Raise
You might complain less about the size of your raise each year if you saw it piling up in your savings account. A two-percent raise in your paycheck each week might feel like a slap in the face, but added to your savings each week, with interest, that tiny raise will snowball into something much more substantial. If your expenses dictate you pay bills with your additional income, saving even half of your raise will go far to building your emergency fund.

Tax refunds, yard sale cash, and checks from Grandma all fall into this found money category, too. They were not part of your budget; they are unexpected windfalls. Even though you could spend them on a nice dinner out or those amazing pumps in shop around the corner, the reward for saving the money will be far greater.

Stop Saving to Invest
Do you save to invest? In other words, do you tell yourself that you have to save up ‘x’ amount of money before you can invest in your future? Although it is sound advice to build an emergency fund in your savings account, you should not miss investing in your future because you believe you cannot save and invest simultaneously.

With many investment plans, you do not need to make a large initial investment to start protecting your financial future. There are investment options available that do not require a substantial initial investment, provided you pledge to contribute small amounts regularly. Find a discount brokerage or an online discount broker to assist you in starting your investment account today.

Treat yourself to a savings spree this week, this month, and all year long! Instead of feeling like a miser, enjoy every last penny contributed to your savings and investments as a treat for all your hard work. Savings success tastes delicious. Who knows, in a few years when you want to start that business you have always dreamed about, you might just have the seed money to get started.