How To Save Money Each Month - Easy Cost Cutting Solutions

Book Your Free, Virtual Financial Coaching Consultation

Overview

When I first started digging deeper into my finances, one of the first things I wanted to learn was how to save money each month. A budget is a fantastic launching point for figuring this out, because it allows you to see your monthly expenses broken down clearly. If you’re not already using a budget, I’m going to recommend that you head over to our “Building A Budget” series of articles and get that set up ASAP. Once you have your budget in place, it’s time to start looking for places to save each month.

Five of the easiest ways to save money each month include:

Lowering Your Utility Bills
Cutting Your Grocery Expenses
Spending Less When Eating Out
Finding Low-Cost Entertainment Sources
Including Some Planned Discretionary Spending In Your Budget

Let’s take some time and explore each of these ideas individually.

Learn To Build A Budget

How To Save Money Each Month- Idea #1: Lower Your Utility Bills

Once you’ve been working your budget for a few months, you’re bound to notice that utilities are a pretty significant portion of your housing expenses. But, these costs are not set in stone.

By making a few simple adjustments to the way you operate your home, you can cut these bills down fairly significantly. My go-to example on this is the thermostat.

My wife and I learned several years ago that we don’t need to keep out house at 70 just because it’s hot outside. Yes, that initial step through the door is refreshing, but who needs a blanket while watching tv in July? Instead, we choose to keep our home warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. This has lowered our utility bills pretty significantly.

Of course, this is only one example. For more examples of ways to cut down on utility spending, check out our full article here:

How To Save Money On Utilities Easily

How To Save Money Each Month- Idea #2: Cut Your Grocery Expenses

I’ll be honest with you, I struggle with food spending. To get it where it really could be, you’ve got to be willing to plan out your grocery purchases. My wife will tell you that planning a week of eating is not my thing. But, I do it. Why? Because it saves us so much money.

The fact is, it just costs a lot to eat. We’re currently a family of three, and feeding two adults and a toddler is expensive. But, we’ve been able to lower our grocery costs by adhering to a few simple ideas. These include:

Planning Ahead
Ordering Ahead
Buying Generic
Keeping It Simple
Eating What We Buy

You can read more about these ideas in our article on grocery store hacks:

Top 5 Easy Grocery Store Hacks

How To Save Money Each Month- Idea #3: Spend Less When Eating Out

Following right on the heels of our grocery discussion, let’s talk restaurants. I love grabbing some food out. It’s so nice to have someone else do the work while we can kick back and relax. Now, that comes at a price. But, it doesn’t need to be a high price.

When we started trying to flex our budget muscles, it didn’t take us long to realize our “eating at home muscle” was a little under developed. So, we started looking for ways to do better. I mean, we didn’t want to stop eating out all together. Sometimes, you just need that experience of getting out of the house for a family dinner. We came up with a few ideas that seem to work really well for us:

Check Out the Menu Beforehand
Make it One Course
Share a Plate
Avoid Substitutions and Add-ons
Skip the Soda

I elaborate on all of these ideas in our article on saving money when eating out:

Top 5 Ways To Save Money Eating Out

How To Save Money Each Month- Idea #4: Find Low Cost Entertainment Sources

What if I told you that there might be a way to enjoy time as a family without a trip to the movies that ends up costing about as much as a day at Disney?

It’s true.

In fact, there are plenty of ways to trim your entertainment category down and still have plenty of entertainment sources.

I love to talk about cable here. Why? Because I’m convinced it’s a rip off. You’re never going to watch all those channels. You’re going to to watch what you like, and you can probably get all of it through a streaming service. My wife and I have cherry-picked streaming services and built ourselves an awesome, low-cost entertainment package that puts cable to shame.

And that’s only one example. Other low-cost entertainment sources include:

eBooks
Podcasts
YouTube
Streaming Services
Blogs

You can read more about each of these in my full article on cutting entertainment costs here:

Cut Costs In Your Entertainment Budget

How To Save Money Each Month- Idea #5: Include Some Planned Discretionary Spending In Your Budget

The last thing I’ll include on this list is probably not something you’d expect in an article on saving, but I’m convinced it’s critical to success.

You’ve got to give yourself some wiggle room. Plan to blow some money.

If you don’t give yourself some sort of allowance for impulse buys and pleasure spending, chances are you’re going to end up spending outside of your budget. If you do that, what was the point of budgeting in the first place?

Instead, give yourself some play money. Not too much, but enough that you won’t dip into your planned savings when you see something that you just “have to have.”

If you want to read more about some “good” places to splurge in your budget, check out this article:

Good Splurge Expenses To Include In Your Budget

Conclusion

I hope you’ll take the time to dig deeper into the ideas I touched on in this article by checking out the linked posts. If you can implement all 25 ideas contained in those posts, you’ll be well on your way to making some progress in your savings goals!

So, next time you’re looking to save money each month, remember to consider:

Lowering Your Utility Bills
Cutting Your Grocery Expenses
Spending Less When Eating Out
Finding Low-Cost Entertainment Sources
Including Some Planned Discretionary Spending In Your Budget

And, as always, regardless of your money goals, you can “Bank on a Budget” to get you from where you are to where you want to be!

A budget is a fantastic launching point for figuring this out, because it allows you to see your monthly expenses broken down clearly.

Bio
Latest Posts

Alex

Hello, my name is Alex! I'm a public school teacher who has achieved some big financial goals just by getting control of my money using some simple strategies like using a monthly budget. Now I'd like to share what I've learned with you. Welcome to "Bank on a Budget!"