Our Favorite Savings Hack {Plus 5 Tools That Will Do It For You}

You’ve come up with your goals for the year, worked through your budget, challenged every single line of that budget, and created an action plan for making 2016 your best year yet.

In a single week, you’ve come unbelievably far when it comes to setting your hopes & dreams for 2016 in motion!

And you should be proud!

{Get your free 2016 goals planner here, or my favorite budget workbook here}

Think back to your last family vacation. Did you save up for it in advance?

How about your property tax bill. Did you save for that expense monthly?

Our daughter just turned two, and as such we haven’t really taken a true family vacation yet. We’ve gone camping, taken a few weekend trips, and completed a staycation, but no flights, long hotels stays our beaches have made an appearance at our family vacations yet.

That is all going to chance in 2016, though.

We have 2, possibly 3, big trips planned: Disney in August, FinCon in September, and possibly a cruise in the fall as well.

We certainly won’t be putting these trips on credit.

5 years ago, we would have. Instead of saving for large expenses like vacations, taxes, insurance, and any other large expense {say, a car purchase}, we would have continued to spend too much, and then panicked when the time for the expense came around.

Have you ever done this?

I think we all have at some point.

Today, I’ve taken vacations and paid bills both ways: one credit and off, and I’m sure you know what I’m going to say: vacations are much more fun when they’re already paid for.

Vacations are much more fun when you’ve saved for them. Here’s how to do it painlessly:

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So, I’m going to let you in on my favorite savings hack:

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My Best Saving Hack: Start Saving For Big Expenses Now

Christmas, vacations, insurance, taxes, birthdays, car purchase, down payment on a home, remodel, or any other big expensive you and your family have coming up in 2016 can be saved for starting right now.

Have you factored these into your budget yet?

{Learn how to set up a budget that works, including saving for Christmas now!}

Our budget accounts for ALL of these things:

We’re saving $115/month for our Disney trip
An additional $115/month for FinCon (but that comes out of the blog’s earnings)
$135/month for auto insurance (so we can pay in full when the next bill comes due)
$67/month for Personal Property Taxes
$110/month for Property Taxes
About $1,800/month for a down payment on a new home.

All of these “extra” expenses add up to $2,345/month that we’re putting in savings, and it is easy to look at these expenses as extra, not necessary, or unimportant.

If you look at them this way, I encourage you to change your viewpoint. View them as completely necessary – even more important than some bills, like entertainment or eating out spending, because if you start saving for them now, your entire year will go smoother.

{Get the budget planner that makes saving for big expenses an integral part of your budget}

With that being said, factoring the savings into your budget, and actually, physically, saving the money are two completely different things to do.

I know how it feels to have trouble hitting the “submit’ button on a bank account transfer to savings.

You’ve been there – we’ve all been there.

We would all rather spend the month on the fun stuff rather than being practical, but can I let you in on a little secret?

We would all rather spend money on the fun stuff rather than the practical. But, can I let you in on a little secret?

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Take care of the practical, and the fun stuff will fall into place on its own.

Fun {Easier} Ways To Take Care of The Practical Stuff

Digit

Do you miss money when you save it?

Digit will solve that problem for you.

It’s a {free} app that links up to your bank account and analyzes your spending habits and patterns. Then, based on its algorithm, it saves money for you in a Digit savings account when you won’t notice it. You can withdraw money from your Digit savings account at any time without penalty, as well as maintain control over when and where Digit saves.

It’s free, easy to use, and ingenious.

So far this year, Digit has saved us over $1,200 that we didn’t even miss, and were able to save for the down payment on our new home.

{Sign up for Digit. It’s free.}

Acorns

Buy a cup of coffee for $3.74.

Acorns rounds that purchase up to $4.00 and invest the $0.26 for you – automatically, and for free!

Racking up the change with Acorns seems like such a small way to save, but its saved me more than $1oo in less than a year.

{Sign up for Acorns. Round up purchases.}

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Capital One 360

You save for more than one goal. If your budget is like most people’s, you have categories like: vacation, Christmas, car repairs, new car, down payment +/- others that apply to you.

Capital One 360 savings accounts are free, easy to use, and you can have up to 26 nicknamed savings accounts based on your savings goals for the year. Plus, they have automatic savings options that will put your savings goals on autopilot.

Pair the flexibility of the account with their competitive interest rate, and you’ll see why I use Capital One 360.

{Sign up for Capital One 360. Start saving smartly.}

Betterment

Investing should be a 4-letter word. Just the word makes it sound hard, boring, and not a great topic for conversation.

Betterment changes all of that.

With low fees, incredible flexibilty, and the easiest-to-use interface I’ve ever found, Betterment allows you to set up investment accounts for different savings goals and earn a better rate of return than a savings account (based on market fluctuations).

{Join Betterment and make investing painless}

Personal Capital

Having trouble keeping track of all of these savings vehicles?

Personal Capital is my tool of choice to track my progress, returns, and accounts on a daily, monthly, weekly, and even yearly basis.

It’s free, and allows you to link to bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, loans, and more. You can read about why I use Personal Capital here, or check them out at their website.

{Learn more about Personal Capital}

Do you have a plan to save for big expenses in 2016?

If not, now is the time to think about it!

Start from scratch building your budget {it’s easier than it sounds!}, or revamp last year’s budget with my Marriage & Money Book + Workbook that makes working monthly saving for big expenses integral to your financial plan!