Five Not Hurtful Ways to Save $500 per Month

If you are checking your monthly spendings, you can see how much money you have spent on Target’s – $65 purchase, the $45 manicure and your $150 grocery bill. We don’t want to tell you that saving money is impossible and super difficult, but we want to show you some tricks. Smart habits can make it possible to put $500 per month back in your pocket. This is how you do it.

1. Audit your Subscriptions to Save $15

Did you ever sign up for a trial period of premium channels and then forget to cancel it? We know what you are doing, and that you have been paying $15 per month since then. Truebill is an app that checks your account for unneeded subscriptions and helps you cancel them. This can add up quickly.

2. Cash only: Get $45 off

Cash is the best way to control your spending. It helps you not only control your spending but also reduces your temptations to indulge (just this week we were in line behind someone who bought a bunch of flowers and a few bars of fancy chocolates–items that amounted to $45). Set aside a monthly allotment and then put your credit cards away for the month. If you have to purchase something online, place it on your credit card and pay out your cash allotment into a designated piggybank (or Tupperware). The bottom line is that if you don’t have enough money you won’t be able to make the purchase.

3. Take your $5 bills off: You can save $60

You might want to gamify your cash payment by putting aside $5 for every $5 bill you receive. How much change do you receive when you buy a cup of coffee? What about the fiver you have on your dresser? You could be able to put it aside and have tens of thousands in your pocket each month. This was done by a woman from Massachusetts in 2005, and she ended up with an additional $40,000. Let’s suppose you only encounter three $5 bills per week. $60 = saved.

4. Get $90 off by putting your closet to work

You have a closet full of expensive accessories and heels? There are many ways to sell items online. Consider cleaning out your closet and looking into consignment sales for gently worn or new items. You can even sell items on Facebook Marketplace. We found a Madewell bag that was barely worn on Ebay for $90–and others are even more expensive.

5. Plan a Savings Sprint and Save $300+

Farnoosh Turabi, a money expert, recommends a savings sprint. This involves looking at your finances once per month and focusing on areas where you feel you have been too frugal. Say, you use too many Lyfts and rely on babysitters far too often. After you have identified the cost, you can make a wager with yourself that you will cut it in half for a certain amount of time (say, one week). What is the result? It can vary, according to Torabi, but it should be at least $300. Three $100 monthly dinner bills? You get the idea …