Now, I don’t know about you, but $1,000 feels like a lot of money these days. The cost of living is higher, and groceries have never felt so expensive.
But what if I could show you you could save $1,000 this month without living like a monk and without eating just beans and rice? In fact, I would argue that most people are missing out on saving hundreds of dollars every single month without giving up very much at all.
So, I’m going to give you 10 practical strategies, real proven ways of keeping more of your income and giving you hundreds of dollars extra every month. It’s going to be anywhere between $500 and $1,000 every single month. And for some of you, it’s going to be even more. And don’t skip a point. Each one of these has a valuable part to play to keep your bank account fuller and give you more money back.
10 Ways to Save $1,000 Every Month
1. Automate The Savings
When you wait till the end of the month to see what’s left, you rarely save anything, and often there’s nothing there at all.
I mean, when you think about it, we’re surrounded by temptation. Everybody’s trying to get you to spend money. You’re going to see something you want, and if you got a few dollars in your account, they’re going to go.
By setting up an automatic transfer from your bank account to your savings account, you’re paying yourself first, right on payday to ensure that money goes to your savings account.
And this is a proven strategy. Behavioral studies have shown that people that do this save significantly more money than people that try and do it at the end of the month.
You’re removing all the decision-making and by automating it, you’re removing your cloudy judgment.
And by keeping that savings account separate from your checking account, your savings will grow in the background without any interference from you.
This was an absolute game changer for me. For someone that had a bad consumer habit and love going shopping, I highly recommend you do this.
2. Negotiate or Lower Your Bills
Your monthly expenses are often set and forget, but these can be some of your quickest wins. Call your internet and TV service provider. Call your cell phone provider. Even call the bank. Ask for customer retention and see if you can negotiate a better plan.
You can even mention a special offer at the competition and quite often they’ll match it for you and give you free money back.
The thing is, these days everything’s an app or a sub. We have more money going out of our bank accounts for services than ever before. And it’s a great way of saving some money and clawing some of that back.
You can even extend this to property insurance and car insurance by calling all these companies that you’re sending money to on a monthly basis. You can save hundreds of dollars.
Just this summer, we managed to get two TV services completely free. We got $60 off our cell phone plan and our car insurance was dropped by $100. That’s every single month.
Go through your credit cards. Go for your bank account. List all the apps and stuff you pay money to and claw some of that back.
3. Embrace Cash Only Weekends
This was another great strategy that I used and it saved me a lot of money.
Basically, for the whole weekend, you leave your credit cards and your debit cards at home and you take cash only.
You work out what you need for food, entertainment, maybe a little bit of shopping, but by taking a cash, you set limits on what you spend. And guess what? By the end of the weekend with no credit cards, you don’t go over that limit.
Now, it sounds really simple, but for me, a big consumer that loves spending money, it worked fantastically. And it’s not about restriction. It’s about awareness. You become aware of what you’re spending by using physical money.
I know from years of being a heavy consumer, going out with my credit card, I’m going to spend double what I wanted to spend. It’s because it makes it so easy. All you have to do is swipe.
But with hard cash in my hand, it was a psychological change. And it made me really think how I was going to spend that.
Now, although my spending habits have changed drastically since then, I’m no longer a heavy consumer. Cash only weekends must have saved me $300 to $400 every single month.
Do yourself a favor, do an exercise, and compare how much money you save from a cash only weekend to the previous one when you had your credit cards.
I’m willing to bet it’s going to be a bit of an eye opener, but at the very least, I guarantee you’re going to save a bit of money.
4. Meal Prep and Buy Smart for Groceries
Now, the grocery bill in most households is one of the biggest bills that they have. Now, one of the great things about meal prep, is you know exactly what you need to get from the grocery store.
By its very nature, you have to compile a list and that in itself will save you money. And buying good wholesome food, preparing at home, making nutritional meals, you’re going to save a small fortune.
There’s less expensive restaurant bills, less takeout, and less wasted groceries. And for anybody in your 40s and 50s, this is great for your health, especially when there’s more focus as you’re getting older.
In our house, doing meal prep and eating out less, I would say we’re saving at least $300 a month.
5. Take Advantage of Discounts and Apps
Loyalty cards, cashback apps, and even coupons can save you a lot of money in the long run.
These are small but consistent savings. And if you’re going to buy the product anyway, why not get a little bonus on the side?
And if like me, you’re buying fresh food and going grocery shopping two or three times a week, take advantage of those reduced items.
If you’re going to use it and prepare it, why not take advantage? As I said before, our food shopping bill is one of our biggest monthly expenses. So, we take advantage of any savings we get, and they all add up.
6. The 30-Day Rule
Okay, this saved me a ton of money, especially when I was out consumer shopping.
The deal here is simple. If you see something on a shopping trip that you would normally buy as an impulse purchase, then take a break for 30 days.
If after that time you still want it and it fits into your budget, then go ahead and buy it. Now, I found nearly every time I did this, I didn’t go back to buy the item.
And it just goes to show these impulse items are just wants and they’re not needs. Now, you can put a spin in that even further and have some fun with it.
For example, if the item’s on sale and it’s reduced by 20%, then you can put that 20% into your savings account.
So, not only you getting the item, but you’re putting a bit of money into your account. It doesn’t have to always be boring. Saving money, you can have fun with it and with yourself.
7. Slash Your Entertainment Costs
Now, I don’t know about you, but I could spend hundreds of dollars a month on having fun and entertainment.
Now, this could be anything from going out with friends, going to the movies, even having extensive hobbies.
Now, the idea here is to keep the fun, keep the downtime, but find the cheap alternative to what you’re doing now.
So, if like me, you like going to the movies, instead of going on Saturday night, I would go on a Tuesday night on discount night and I’d bring my popcorn with me.
And instead of renting a movie at home on premium digital, I would wait a few weeks and the price would come down as much as $25.
And instead of meeting friends at a restaurant or apartment, you can take turns and hosting dinner parties. It could be a lot more fun and it will save you a small fortune.
The idea here is to be creative and don’t accept the way things are. If you’re serious about saving $1,000, there are alternatives and the same amount of fun. They’re just not as expensive.
8. Do It Yourself Before You Pay for Services
We live in a high convenient society. There’s a service out there for everything you need done for a price.
The thing is, all these little conveniences add up and it can make a serious impact on your income.
We need to get off these conveniences. They’re making us broke. And if these services are taking less than an hour and they’re done at home, maybe we can earn those skills ourselves.
Now, I understand where this high dependency and convenient services come from. We’re all very busy. We’re more busy now than ever before. And some days we’re just struggling to keep things together.
But if there’s things at home that we’re paying for, like washing windows, cutting the grass, or even small repairs that we can do ourselves, then you’re going to save that money. That’s cash in your pocket.
Even if you just save yourself $100 to $150 a month, that’s over $1,200 a year. That’s a significant amount. Next time you attempted to use a service or a convenience, ask yourself honestly, can you do it yourself and can you save the money?
9. Join a Savings Challenge
These have exploded with popularity over the past two years and you can find them anywhere on the internet.
These challenges orientate around saving a bit of money each day, sometimes as little as a dollar, and seeing how much you can accumulate over a number of months or even a year.
The thing about these challenges I love is they add a dimension of fun and take the seriousness of saving money.
They’re usually centered on getting you saving a small amount each day until it snowballs into a large amount.
But the great thing about it is it sets new habits, new saving habits. After all, saving money and budgeting can often be seen as boring and restrictive.
So, this adds a nice new fun layer, and it helps develop good financial habits.
10. Build Passive Income and Reinvest it
This is a fantastic one. Passive income isn’t just for investors and the wealthy. It’s for everybody.
And once you work out how you can make a few dollars while you’re sleeping, you’re well on your way to being wealthy.
Now, this could be anything from dividends from stocks and ETFs, from cash flow from a rental property, or even selling digital products online.
The key here is once you make a little passive income is reinvest it and compound those dollars.
So rather than spending it, you’re actually reinvesting that money and creating a self-feeding loop.
As you continue with your life, your passive income is growing in the background, slowly growing and compounding over time.
A great example of this is dividend stocks where a company will pay their investors dividends.
Rather than spend that money, the investor will reinvest that dividends and buy more stock and so on and so on.
Dividend investing is very popular and over time you could be generating far more than $1,000. You could actually be generating enough money to cover your lifestyle.
I love growth investing and the majority of our portfolio reflects that. But we also have some dividend stock and it’s nice to watch that grow in the background.
Conclusion
So saving $1,000 a month is all about being intentional and not about going without.
And combining some of the things we talked about today, you’re going to see results faster than you realize.
And like always, don’t rush in. Start with two strategies and track your progress. You’ll see your savings and your confidence grow.
Once you’ve done that, adopt two more strategies and start taking control back of your salary.
Think of it this way. If you’re going to start building wealth for you and your family, if you’re truly going to change your financial health, you need to fix the fundamentals.
You need to get control of your bank account. And when you start seeing results and saving money, use it for credit paydown or investing. It will start to change your life.
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