Use This Money Saving Tracker to Keep Your Budget Light
If you have trouble saving, you’re not alone.
Surveys have found 38% of American households are struggling to achieve saving goals, and as many as 27% of survey takers feel they haven’t started working towards those goals at all.
If you’re looking for a fun, simple, and practical way to save up for your financial goals, money-saving trackers might help you kick-start new financial habits.
What is a money-saving tracker?
Managing money may seem challenging because it’s not always taught to us explicitly in school or at home. But, in reality, all it takes is getting into the swing of a few habits.
Using different tricks to help kick start those habits can be extremely helpful. That’s where money-saving trackers come in.
They’re roadmaps for future savings goals, helping you determine how much you want to save day-to-day as you work towards a goal.
They’re an easy way to save up for big and large purchases—kind of like a financial advent calendar. It helps keep behavior consistent so that you can keep your finances consistent with your objectives.
Because a money-saving tracker makes saving more exciting than traditional budgeting methods, you may be more likely to reach your goal.
Keeping up with saving can be difficult, especially when life throws unexpected changes your way. Birthdays, medical expenses, or eating out a couple of extra nights a week can feel like side rails to saving, but using something consistent allows you to spend reasonably and even plan for what lies ahead.
Why should I save?
According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, “having a savings cushion or a habit of saving can help consumers feel more in control of their finances and allow them to weather financial shocks more easily.”
Saving is the first step on the journey to financial independence and living a debt-free life.
For example, research has shown that having just $250 in the bank significantly increases financial satisfaction.
Households that maintain a balance of $100 or more are better able to sustain needs and avoid predatory loans which charge significant interest rates and high penalties.
Is a saving tracker hard to use?
No, simply create a calendar of your own or use one that’s premade. You can determine how much you want to strive to save and how much you’d like to put aside each day.
Remember that the goal is to build a habit, so it should be simple and sustainable.
There are free templates and apps that are easy to use and customize online. Or, you can use programs like SaverLife to help you save from your phone.
Plus, you win cash prizes as you save.
How is this different from using a savings account?
While having a savings account is a great way to save, it doesn’t tell you how much to save and when.
On the other hand, a money-saving tracker tells you how much you should strive to put away each week if you want to achieve a specific financial objective.
Even though a money-saving tracker is super simple to use, its success depends on your ability to get into the habit of keeping yourself accountable to your goals.
Though savings accounts and saving trackers are not the same, you can always use them at the same time to keep your money put away somewhere secure. Otherwise, safely kept envelopes or locked boxes are also okay to use as you save cash.
How to use a money-saving tracker
Try to create a money-saving tracker for one of your savings goals.
For example, if you have a goal to beef up your general savings account, keep a calendar with different values on each date to tell you how much to set aside.
Or, if you’d like to save for a vacation, work backward by determining when you’d like to travel. Then, decide how much you would like to have saved, and split the total amount across the time you have.
From there, decorate envelopes for each day, and use a spreadsheet or reminders on your phone to help you set aside according to your plan.
For example, even setting aside just $25 a week for two years will allow you to save a total of $2,600.
These savings can be used for anything you’d like including vacations, paying off debt, or buying a car– picking something you are excited to work towards is all the better!
Make sure you keep the process light and fun.
Get creative! Use colored pencils, glitter, crayons, and everything else you can think of to create a powerful visual representation of both your savings goal and a way to track it.
Getting your entire family involved as you make a game out of saving money adds to the fun. Teach your kids and partner this savings method so they can contribute their ideas on how best to save money towards family goals.
Use a money tracker to help you complete a saving challenge
Using old-fashioned systems such as a budget book to save money can be SO boring. By combining a money-saving tracker with a savings challenge, you’ll transform an activity that used to be lackluster into something fun and exciting.
For example, you can do a 52-week savings challenge, which allows you to gradually increase the amount you save over 52 weeks. At the end of the challenge, you should have $1,378 tucked away.
While saving this amount might sound super hard (especially if you’re not used to saving), using a tracker makes it more manageable.
Start out by saving $1 the first week. The second week, save $2, the week after that, $3, and so on. When you get to the last week where you’re setting aside $52, saving money will become a piece of cake.
This is based on a guideline many financial experts recommend—the 1% rule. This means incrementally increasing the amount of money you save, so it feels less challenging, sort of like dipping your toes in the water.
The concept is to find the sweet spot where you don’t really notice the change and then boost that by 1% every few months. This lets you effortlessly adjust to tiny changes while still making a big dent in your savings objectives over time.
You can spice things up by trying different money-saving challenges every so often. For example, try to do a no-spend challenge, in which you don’t spend money outside of what’s necessary for a specific period, such as one or three weeks.
Keep track of what you would have spent by comparing statements, and save it for a rainy day.
SaverLife members can participate in monthly challenges like the monthly Race to $100. If you save $100 in one month, you can win $100 to boost your savings even more. Sign up for SaverLife to start your first challenge!
Reward yourself as you save
Never underestimate the power of small rewards to reinforce good habits.
That’s because having something to look forward to makes it easier to stick with a habit, particularly if you’re not feeling that motivated to begin with.
Here are a few low-cost ways to reward yourself:
- Do a fun activity with your kids, such as a backyard movie night
- Get a free museum pass at your local library
- Enjoy a few laughs at your local comedy club
- Enjoy an evening of binge-watching your favorite show
- Go for a picnic in a picturesque spot
- Enjoy a game night with friends
- See a flick in the middle of the day when the theater’s not full and the prices are lower
- Buy something sweet from your favorite bakery
Or use SaverLife—did you know that we offer people the opportunity to win cash prizes if they’re able to save money?
Saving doesn’t have to be hard
At SaverLife, we’re committed to the idea that anyone can save, whether it’s an old habit or a new one. Our mission is to make the process easier and more rewarding, so you can keep working towards your goals. We’ll be your cheerleaders every step of the way.
We motivate you to save by giving you the opportunity to win cash rewards whenever you take steps in the direction of building your financial muscles.
Check us out today!