Save Money Every Day

January 20, 2007 at 9:37 am · Filed under Psychology, Shopping

Dayana Yochim at Yahoo! Finance writes that you should forget making a list of financial New Years Resolutions.

Make things even simpler: How about instituting just one new money habit for ‘07? My suggestion is this: Save money every day.

By making “save money every day” your vow, you bring mindfulness to your spending. Mindfulness is the practice of being aware your thoughts and actions. This may seem obvious, but it can be a powerful tool.

How often do you grab a pack of gum or a candy bar or a magazine while in line at the grocery store? Is this a conscious act? Is it an actual decision? Or is it a reflex? Yochim writes that three habits will help you save money every day:

  1. Make more conscious cash decisions.
  2. Keep the bigger picture in constant view.
  3. Always shop with a list.

Make “save money every day” your resolution for the coming year!

[Yahoo! Finance: Forget resolutions: pick one good money habit in 2007]


4 Comments »

  1. Liz Pulliam Weston said,

    January 20, 2007 @ 2:58 pm

    So glad to see this site up and running! I wrote about some of my favorite money hacks here:

    http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/ConsumerActionGuide/12CoolMoneyTricks.aspx

    If any strike your fancy, feel free to include ‘em.

  2. jdroth said,

    January 21, 2007 @ 3:21 pm

    Thanks, Liz — I’ll do that. It was actually your article that goaded me into reviving this site. I’d been worried that doing this and Get Rich Slowly at the same time would spread me too thin, but I’m beginning to get a feel for the kinds of things that belong here and not at the main site.

  3. k34h2qf9vy2 said,

    February 1, 2007 @ 4:29 pm

    The best way to save money is to keep track of every penny you spend. Save your reciepts etc and enter them into software like quicken. There is no other way to understand how quickly all the little things add up. When you see where your money is going you can more easily cut your spending on things that are less important and use the money for investing or spending on things that are more important to you.

    I call this reverse budgeting. I found that I could never stick to a budget but I could resist the impulse to buy something when I knew I was spending too much on it and would rather spend that money on something else. When you understand that buying the little do-dads are why you cant afford the thingamabob you really want, you begin to detest the do-dads as an obsticle to happiness rather than craving them for a source of gratification.

    Once you get started you can drill down into as much detail as you need. For example instead of just tracking your grocery bill, keep track of how much you spend on each item. This will make you a lot healthier too because real food is much less expensive than processed, prepared, chemically manufactured pap.

  4. Frame Hacker said,

    February 4, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

    I couldn’t agree more on this tip… While in the grand scheme of things I save quite a bit (max out retirement accounts etc.) I do spend money on stupid little things– mostly magazines I barely have time to leaf through, and snacks I don’t need. I’d probably put away another $1K a year (or be able to afford better vacations) if I didn’t do this, not to mention that I’d lose weight. :)

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