How to Find Yourself with a Little Extra Money

Saving money can be difficult, but it's made easier when you train yourself to engage in a few seemingly unimportant routines.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Piggy bank
• Cash
• Change purse or compartment
• Internet
• ATM card
• Microsoft Excel

1. Map out a monthly budget in Excel, including living expenses, monthly bills, groceries, transportation needs. Deduct these expenses from your monthly income.
2. Calculate how much money is left over after all those deductions.
3. Establish how much of this left-ver money will be put toward your savings and how much can be used for entertainment purposes, such as eating out, seeing movies, going bowling etc.
4. Place the money you've establish that you can save directly into your savings account. Divide the "entertainment purposes" money in half.
5. On the first week of the month, deduct whatever your entertainment purposes sum was from your bank or an ATM machine. Do the same thing on the 15th of the month.
6. Use only this cash for your entertainment or unforeseen fees expenditures.
7. Keep the change you receive from clerks (i.e., quarters, dimes - not dollar bills) in a separate compartment of your wallet, away from dollar bills.
8. Place this money in a piggy bank at the end of every day (or every two days or so, depending on how often you spend money).
9. Use this money toward whatever type of purpose you like: paying down credit cards, buying a new item you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford, gambling in Vegas or taking a small weekend getaway.

Tips & Warnings

• Though saving your change will obviously make your entertainment purposes fund a bit smaller, that's okay. The amount of change will never add up to more than 99 cents per transaction, therefore it's a minimal hit to your fund. If you do feel it a bit then you can modify a few behaviors (i.e., buying coffee only three days a week instead of five) and you'll be fine
• Don't cheat! Once you commit to putting money in your piggy bank don't ever dip into that fund or decide to keep that change for a parking meter or vending machine. You'll only be cheating yourself out of future savings, extra treats and less stressful payments
• This system is based on the assumption that one is paid every two weeks. If your paycheck schedule is different, base the above activities off of how often you receive a pay check

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