10 unusual ways to save money

Everyone wants to save more money for a comfortable life, but not everyone knows how to do it right. Edition Reader's Digest collected 10 effective strategies that will help increase your savings.

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Find places where extra money is left

You can find a few dollars even in the glove compartment of your car. Do you have gift cards, a cashback account that you ignore, or an overloaded payment card that you forgot about? Perhaps you are allowing you to increase your PayPal or Venmo account balance whenever you sell something on eBay. These are precisely the places where substantial sums are gradually collected.

Choose an inconvenient bank

It is great to do all your banking operations in one place, especially if you carry out banking operations via the Internet. But when the money saved is just a few keystrokes, even decisive investors may be tempted to make a quick transfer to cover their accounts or withdraw their savings from the ATM “just once”. Make your savings in another institution, not where your daily bills are. Destroy the ATM card so that you have to carry out banking operations in person. Choose the bank that is far from your home or work. Choose a bank that charges large withdrawal fees. Better yet, open a 401 (k) tax retirement plan or an Individual Retirement Account, where withdrawals up to age 59 entail severe fines.

Pay but keep paying

If you finally make the last payment for a car or pay a credit card or student loan, avoid the temptation to increase your expenses or accumulate new debt. Instead, spend on the savings the same amount that you paid all these months. Such tips on saving money will not change your standard of living, so you will not notice any difference in your budget, but you will pay yourself, not the lender.

Set aside a portion of each contingent income

You got a bonus or a big tax refund or a check from a relative - that's not a reason to spend it all. Use the rule of thirds: put one third into savings, one third to reduce your mortgage debt, and the last third to do something nice for yourself. This plan gives you balance—you allocate some of your windfall to the past (paying off debt), some to the future (savings), and the rest to gifting yourself.

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Open a consolidated savings account

Realizing that people need encouragement to save, the financial industry has come up with a smart and painless way to do it: automatic savings. Each time you use your debit card to make a purchase or pay an invoice, these accounts round the purchase amount to the nearest dollar, translate the difference from checks into savings and keep track of how much you save. It’s like a can, only virtual.

Use the application as a digital piggy bank

Acorns application works as a consolidated account, but with a twist it sends a percentage of each transaction, up to the dollar, to the investment account. The good part: you give your cash extra chances of growth in one of the five portfolios of exchange-traded funds. Other apps offer a combination of stocks or bonds, depending on how aggressive or conservative you want to be. The hard part: since this is an investment account, the money saved in this way is not insured at the federal level, as it would be in a bank.

Turn the accumulation process into a game

Here's a fun fact: Put 5 cents in a jar today. Put in ten cents tomorrow, then 15 cents the next day, 20 the next day, and so on. If you continue to do this for a whole year, the most you will have to put in the jar in one day, on day 365, is $18,25, and you will have collected $3. A less regulated, but more profitable and economical tip is: every time you receive a $339,75 bill, put it aside. College professor Marie Franklin says she made $5 in 40 years.

Play on your smartphone

If you enjoy buying lottery tickets or playing slot machines, a couple of new applications combine consolidated savings with online games. Long Game works in the same way as other summary reviews, but allows you to play online cash games and prizes with credits that you accrue based on the money you deposit. Although the prizes are real, your deposited money is never at risk: the more your real balance, the more game credits you get. Another free banking application, Qapital, encourages its users to set savings goals, so you put your savings in the “travel to Mexico” goal, not just in savings.

Do not be fooled by the coin counter

Some banks still consider coins free, and almost all provide paper coin wrappers. The ubiquitous CoinStar kiosks will quickly turn your pile of pennies into cash, donations, or gift vouchers, but be warned—there's an 11,9% fee for using cash (which may vary by location).

On the subject: 69% of Americans Have Less Than $ 1000 Savings: How to Save More for the Future

No commission is charged if you take the cost of coins in eGift cards from national brands, including Starbucks, Amazon, iTunes, Lowe's and Southwest Airlines.

Reduce your running costs to save money

A quick overview of your expenses will show you gym memberships that you never use, monthly charitable contributions, and subscriptions to magazines or music streaming services that you can do without. Then take a few hours to call providers of insurance, cable television, internet, and mobile. If you have been a customer for a long time, your bets could jump without your knowledge. Communication companies and insurers know that luring a new client is much more expensive than keeping the old one, so a few minutes of talking on the phone asking for discounts will help you lower tariffs and save hundreds of dollars.

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69% of Americans Have Less Than $ 1000 Savings: How to Save More for the Future

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