Yahoo Finance 3 simple hacks to save an extra $1,500 each year
There are plenty of tips and tricks to saving a little extra cash each year, and with Christmas just around the corner, you’re probably wishing you adopted some earlier.
But while some saving tips can have you groaning (‘stop buying coffee,’ or ‘bring your lunch’), there are three simple ways to pocket over $1,000 each year that will instead have you laughing.
Also read: 8 money tips people hate that could actually save you $23,260 a year
Also read: How to save $100,000 in 3 years
1. The $5 challenge
This is exactly how it sounds: any $5 note you receive as change, pop it in a money box. Do this every time you receive one for a whole year.
One mum in the Australian Facebook group Mums Who Budget & Save started in January this year, and with three weeks left until Christmas, she's saved $1,520.
"So glad I saw the $5 note challenge! Started in January and counted today $1520 towards Christmas,” she said.
"I paid cash with almost everything, even if I got $30 in one day there was no cheating."
And if you’re quietly thinking this can’t be done because you don’t pay in cash, perhaps you should change your ways.
Experts say credit and debit cards encourage you to spend more than you intend to because it’s easier to access your cash. You can’t see it, so often you don’t feel it.
And it’s a tip some Aussie mums have adopted just for the purposes of the challenge: “I used to be a card only. Now I get cash out to use and even if I got $35 worth in a day I put it away”
2. The 52-week challenge
This savings hack will see you put away an extra $1,378 each year just by saving an amount equivalent to the week of the year.
For example, in week one, you only have to save $1.00. In week two, you’ll save $2.00, in week 21, you’ll save $21 and so on.
Here’s the deal:
3. The coke bottle challenge
The coke bottle challenge is a little fiddly, but can see you saving up to $1,830 each year.
The challenge involves putting your $2 coins in a coke bottle until its full.
In a 250mL coke bottle you can save $350, according to the Mums Who Budget & Save group, and in a 600mL you can save $880.
Filling up a 1L coke bottle with $2 coins would equate to $1,510 and a 1.25L bottle would equate to $1,830.
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