How do you guys save money?

[n8ball2013]

I do the change jar but trump that. I also put my ones and once in awhile throw 5s and 10s in there. I started this about three months ago and its probably got about 500 or 600 in it. Granted I make a bit more where a 5 or 10 doesnt bother me as much as some will.

Oh and I'm a cheap fucker. And a home body I spent 150 bucks on clothes last weekend and almost had a stroke.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

I have to have a plan and MAKE myself save.

Doing a budget sucks, but It is what I have to do. Write down what you will get paid in one column, and write down what you HAVE to pay for in another column (gas, food, school, power, water, cell phone, so on...) When you are done with that, then hopefully your income is bigger than your outgo side. If not, you have to cut something and / or get more work. But if it isn't- take another $25, $50, $100 (whatever you can pull out and have enough to have some "fun money") out of the HAVE to pay for side and then pay YOURSELF with it. Take that money and put it into a savings account at your bank (don't link it to your debit card or else you will use it). I actually had to put mine in a small credit union to keep myself from spending it. It is a pain to go to that credit union, find parking, get there during working business hours.... so on.

Pay yourself FIRST. What money is left over is your "fun money" or overage money. And don't set your savings goals too high at first- if you do, you will be broke by your next check, get pissed at yourself and spend some more money to make yourself feel better (that is what I would do at least....). It really doesn't matter if all you can save is $10 the first week. The point is to do it on a regular basis. This way you will be making progress and you will feel accomplished, no mater how little you put in at first. Then work your way up to more and more money. This is called Bank on Yourself, Pay yourself, a Sunk Cost analysis, etc....

And no credit cards either.... imagine- instead of you paying other people interest, they pay you! You are making money instead of loosing it. The "rich get richer" isn't by some evil power or by accident.

http://www.daveramsey.com

For food check this out:

http://www.e-mealz.com (saves me and the wife a fortune in eating $$ and we eat way better)

Don't impulse buy.

Cook instead of eating out (once in a while is ok as long as it is budgeted for)

Stick to your budget.

Go easy on the gas.

Ebay old stuff you don't use or need.

Put any EXTRA income you generate into your savings, and live off of what you making were before.

Don't take financial windfalls (extra cash) as a reason to go buy something. SAVE and Pay yourself first.

There are only two sides to a financial equation: income and expense

Income must go up, expense must go down, or both. That is the only way to have more $ in hand.

Sorry so long winded. Just a few things I have found to be very true in my life that I wish I had started a while back.

[Rainman215]

set goals for yourself .... my goal is to have 100K by the day i turn 26 ... which would mean id have to save 1200 a month ... im 18 ... work 2 jobs ... one at my dads auto shop during the day ... the other as a cashier at a market at night. i make 400-500 a week. starting at the end of the year i will start saving the 1200 a month to reach my goal. i have direct deposit at my job so i put all the money right into the bank ... i have a debit card but when i need to save i just keep it in my room and out of my wallet unleses i need gas. i dont eat out much. i dont drive randomly like i used to. whenever i do have money i take it directly to the bank. i think the best way is to set goals for yourself .... like every few months or so my GF raises her bank account by 1,000 and swears not to go below it .... shese been doing it for the 3 years ive known her.... yea ... thats what i do lol. also it doesn not hurt to shop around ... saving that 2 dollars from one site over another might not seem like emuch ... but its 2 dollars you saved lol.

what i used to do was save a certain amount of money each week ... if i was in my "need more money stage" i would save 50% ... if i just needed some extra cash i would save 75% ... make goals. make routines. hopee something i said works for you. as far as making extra moneyy .... ebays your friend.

when i turn 26 im gonna come back to this thread and post a screenshot of my bank account lmao.

[Rainman215]

also i "hustle" people out of their hours lmaooooooo or my boss asks me if i want extra hours because im the best cashier at thee store/

ill be like damn isnt that party you were talking about tonight? that shit is probably gonna pop. if you want ill stay the extra hour or so for you since i dont have shit to do. if you do it right it works. in the past weeks i got 5-10 extra hours each week. and do a good job at your ... job .... it will be noticed. when the other cashiers sit on their drawers and text i pick up trash or clean or someting ..... ima fast cashier also... so if your boss needs somebody to stay or needs a shift filleed they will come to you because they know you will do a good job and wont slack off just because you got some extra hours. a few weeks ago some night crew guys called out so i was likee shit let me stay ... i had already worked 4-10:15 (sunday pay) then i worked night crew from 10:15-7:30 ... so i was paid sunday pay,night crew rate, and overtime ... that was my biggeest check ever also. but yes .... snag whatever hours you can. even if its 1 more hour .... its something. and more money you have

[Gotloud555]

It seem like most of the answers are here. UHmm, i figure out that if you have a good paying jobs then you wouldn't have that big money problem. I can tell you no matters how hard you try to save money, eventually you will end of spending it. Like someone said you got to set goal in life. IF you do own a car the insurance take half of out money.. Damn!!

[arnold1992]

one thing you got to remember is you still in school...of course money would be tight but listen to these guys and save your mone. focus on your college,so when you get out and find a real paying job,...you can have some money to buy what you want and have headroom in the bank.

[Loudcav]

since I cant save money on my own last year I started putting $50 a pay into a stock account at work I probably have $1600 or more in there and it will get better once the economy is straight plus to get money out of it is a bit of a pain and Id have to wait a couple days for a check

[n8ball2013]

also i "hustle" people out of their hours lmaooooooo or my boss asks me if i want extra hours because im the best cashier at thee store/

ill be like damn isnt that party you were talking about tonight? that shit is probably gonna pop. if you want ill stay the extra hour or so for you since i dont have shit to do. if you do it right it works. in the past weeks i got 5-10 extra hours each week. and do a good job at your ... job .... it will be noticed. when the other cashiers sit on their drawers and text i pick up trash or clean or someting ..... ima fast cashier also... so if your boss needs somebody to stay or needs a shift filleed they will come to you because they know you will do a good job and wont slack off just because you got some extra hours. a few weeks ago some night crew guys called out so i was likee shit let me stay ... i had already worked 4-10:15 (sunday pay) then i worked night crew from 10:15-7:30 ... so i was paid sunday pay,night crew rate, and overtime ... that was my biggeest check ever also. but yes .... snag whatever hours you can. even if its 1 more hour .... its something. and more money you have

now im going to spin this on you. At what point is the extra income worth the added stress and risk of burnout it has on your life? I work at minimum 55 hrs a week at an extremely high stress job. Ive gone through marital problems friendship issues and was not enjoying my life because I was chasing the dollar sign. My goal was to clear 100k this year and I would think I'm pretty close to it right now. But was the money worth the issues I was having in my personal life? Not a chance in hell. Take the time to stop and smell the roses. That 100k isnt that much in the grand scheme of life my man.

[Rainman215]

i never came across that thought. but nowthat you say it ... i can see it happening. lately ive been ditching my friends for work lol.

[ArtemCRV]

now im going to spin this on you. At what point is the extra income worth the added stress and risk of burnout it has on your life? I work at minimum 55 hrs a week at an extremely high stress job. Ive gone through marital problems friendship issues and was not enjoying my life because I was chasing the dollar sign. My goal was to clear 100k this year and I would think I'm pretty close to it right now. But was the money worth the issues I was having in my personal life? Not a chance in hell. Take the time to stop and smell the roses. That 100k isnt that much in the grand scheme of life my man.

You have a good point. I've gone through it many times till finally learned my lesson but there are two major differences between being avaricious and greedy, counting every penny making your and friends/relatives lives hell AND saving some bucks on sh*t you don't really need.