No matter what kind of job you have—even those paying so well, you’ll still find it hard to save. Most often, you’ll remember to pay the bills in time, but make saving your last priority.
While this (paying your bills first) looks like a safer bet, it isn’t a good idea, especially if you have a target to save $5,000 in three months.
You’ve got to do a lot better, especially with your financial discipline. Develop a plan and stick to it, but don’t do it to the extent that your family begins to feel the heat.
In other words, saving doesn’t have to be a hassle – nor does it mean being the penny pincher in town. You just need to plan better and remain financially disciplined throughout the period you’ll be saving the $5,000.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how you can save $5,000 in three months without living from hand to mouth.
How Much Do You Need to Save Per Month to Save $5,000 in 3 Months?
Saving $5,000 shouldn’t cost you sleepless nights. With a good plan in mind, you can save $5,000 and plough that money into any investment you want.
That said, you’ll need to set aside a minimum of $1.67k every month, but this is easier said than done, so let’s get a bit practical with some tips and examples.
First, you’ll need to open a savings account if you already don’t have one and connect it to your salary bank account.
You are connecting your savings account with your main bank account because you want to automate the $1.67k every month to go straight into your savings account.
Alternatively, and if you work on a contractual basis, the best idea is to channel any money to your savings account every time you are paid.
For example, if you work on projects paying you $1k per week, you can channel $0.42k per week into your savings accounts.
The bottom line is that you want to pay yourself first before you can pay any bills. Most financial advisors like Robert Kiyosaki have embraced this strategy and it works perfectly.
How to Save $5000 in 3 Months? : 8 Tips
Saving money when you barely earn enough to pay your expenses can be challenging. In fact, the majority of Americans don’t save their money, according to tough nickel.
By defining what you’d want to do with your money, you can develop both short and long-term goals that will help you realize your goals.
If you want to save for activities like vacations, emergency funds when you lose your job, a short-term savings plan is a good idea.
However, if you’re saving for a more global perspective, such as a college fund or building a home, a long-term savings plan will be your best bet.
In a nutshell, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to do with your money to keep your goal of $5,000 in three months alive.
That said, let’s get to the nitty-gritty—8 tips on how you can save $5,000 in three months!
1. Do a Money Saving Challenge
If you feel like you’re spending money faster than you make it, you’re not alone. Financial security is becoming a dream in America due to the constant increase in living costs. According to CNBC, fifty percent of Americans admit that an increase in living costs is the biggest combination to financial freedom.
However, you can still save money by doing a money-saving challenge. A money-saving challenge is a plan to keep you focused throughout the period you want to save money. And the best thing about money-saving challenges is that they are relatively straightforward to do—all you have to do is set aside some money, depending on the money-saving rules.
There are many money-saving challenges you can join and make your dream of saving $5,000 in three months come true—bi-weekly savings challenge, no-spend challenge, envelope money saving challenge, 52-week money saving, etc. Let’s look at a few of these example money-saving challenges and see how they work.
The 52-week challenge is viral on Pinterest and you have probably come across it on other social media platforms. The original version of this challenge requires people to save at least $1 every week and by the 52nd week, you’ll have $1,378. But because different people have different savings targets, the challenge has been tweaked many times and you can equally modify it to fit within your $5,000 in three months.
Another popular money-saving challenge is the no-spend challenge. Like the other challenges, it has been modified to fit people’s goals. With this challenge, you’ll need to decide whether you’ll not be spending on specific days, weeks, or months to meet your saving goals. For example, you could choose not to spend three times every week—instead, channel the money you’d have spent to your savings account.
2. Move Spare Change into Savings
You probably have some loose change in your purse, in the car, or on your nightstand—instead of letting them sit like a paperweight, start saving them.
Most people who have used the piggy-bank can attest how important this is when saving—even red cents can accumulate with time. Now, this is what I want you to do next time you’ll be on a cleaning spree—check from your car to sofas and see if you can find any spare change.
Find them and start saving them in your piggy-bank.
If you don’t have a piggy-bank yet, find a container or a five-gallon jug where you can keep your spare change. Additionally, collect the spare change you have at the end of the day and throw them in your home savings container or your piggy-bank.
Alternatively, you can join the penny challenge, which is usually popular around the start of a new year. If you remain consistent with putting a penny in your five-gallon jar or piggy bank every day, you’ll have saved a lot by the end of your third month.
But that’s not all—you can use apps to help you move your spare change into your savings account. Below are some of the applications that will help you save more spare change from now moving forward:
- Acorns— Acorns is the first application that comes to people’s minds when you mention anything to do with spare change savings. This app allows you to round off the total cost of your everyday expenses. For example, if coffee costs $2.55 in your favorite coffee shop, this app lets you round off the price to around $3.00, which means you have $.045 left to save.
- Qapital— Qapital works almost the same way as Acorns because it helps you round off your purchases. For example, when you spend $5.25, the app will pull up an additional 75 cents and channel it to your savings accounts.
3. Cancel Monthly Subscriptions
Today, companies are making it easier for you to commit to monthly services with just the tap of a button on your desktop or smartphone—at least to make your life more convenient and less stressful.
However, the disadvantage with these monthly-based subscriptions is that they can add up before you realize it. This can hurt your financial plans, milk your bank accounts dry and interfere with many financial projects you had in place.
Leaving these subscriptions running and failing to check your bank account regularly can shock you when you finally realize your bank account has run dry. That’s why you need to look for any monthly subscriptions that you aren’t using and cancel them immediately.
Fortunately, there are now a couple of services that can help you find and cancel those monthly subscriptions you are not using. The best of all is that some services go the extra mile to negotiate lower recurring monthly expenses.
As I said, there are many services like this, but below are some that are proven and can help you get started immediately:
- Truebill
- BillCutterz
- Trim
These services are free—at least when you are getting started with them. They can negotiate lower recurring bills on your behalf. After all, who wouldn’t mind a service that can negotiate for you and takes a small percentage of the money it helps you to bring back to your kitty?
4. Pick up a Side Hustle
Show of hands—who wouldn’t want to make more money on the side?
Side hustling is the best way to go if you want to add a little more to your bank account to save or achieve your financial goals faster.
A side hustle refers to money you make outside your regular day job (9 to 5 job). And the truth is that most day jobs will not pay your bills and this is why you need to start a side hustle.
Having a side hustle enables you to make more money and have the financial freedom you’ve always wanted—pay all your bills, clear your student loan debt and save.
Fortunately, there are many ways to make money on the side, but depending on your needs, you may want to venture into a side hustle that will take care of all your needs.
Dropshipping, freelance writing, affiliate marketing, blogging, creating and selling digital products are some of the best side hustle ideas you could try out—little to no upfront investment is needed to set up any of these.
Dropshipping, for example, is one of the best side hustles that could get you money in less time if done well. Dropshipping is a business model that allows people to sell products without physically owning the products or a store.
All you need is to set up your online store on any e-commerce platforms ( I recommend starting with Shopify), importing your products with apps like Oberlo and start selling.
Once you’ve done all these, all you have to do is market those products and when a seller makes an order, all the shipping and delivery is done by the supplier.
Another lucrative side hustle is to set up a freelance writing business. With the rise of digital marketing and the suppression of traditional marketing methods like roadshows, content marketing has become a priority among many companies.
And the good news is that setting up your freelance writing business is as simple as setting up your writer’s website, getting your samples ready and getting on a freelance job hunting spree.
Now, depending on your end financial goals, you could choose the best side hustle for you. However, the mentioned side hustle could be your best bet now that you’re on a mission to save $5,000 in three months.
5. Invest Your Money
While many people might think that investing money is so complicated, the truth is that it can be as straightforward as possible if only you choose to make it easy for yourself.
It doesn’t matter whether you are just getting started with investing or you’ve been practicing it for decades. What matters is how you can develop a strategy to help you invest your money and give you a positive return quickly.
Fortunately, the internet has made the whole process of investing a lot simpler than you can imagine. Like I had earlier mentioned, apps like Acorns can automatically invest your spare change.
The best of all is that there are now a couple of ways to invest your money and get a positive ROI as fast as possible—volatile stocks, day training, rental properties with tenants already are some of the best investment ideas you should look at.
Volatile stocks, for example, are an investment strategy in which an investor foresees that a market will rise sharply within a short period. You, therefore, need to find a company with a strong financial position and invest your money.
However, investing in volatile markets can be dangerous and that is why you need to work with a professional who can plan, recommend investments and re balance your portfolio.
Another brilliant investment idea is to look for a real estate property with tenants already and buy it. With this, you’ll not have to start from scratch because you already have the building and tenants who’ll start paying the rent as soon as you acquire the property.
6. Sell Your Stuff
Sure, ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’ There are items you probably don’t need anymore, but there are people who can make good use of them. Besides, if you want to raise more money and channel it to your savings account, selling items you no longer need is the best way to go.
However, before you go on a selling spree, you need to identify those items you no longer need and determine their prices. While your main goal should be to get rid of anything you don’t use, you should also ensure that you’re getting enough money for the item you are selling.
Once you have figured that out, your next step is to find the best selling platforms. There are many selling platforms, thanks to the advancement of the internet. Today, you can sell anywhere and online is the most popular destination.
Facebook groups, e-commerce platforms like eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, among others, are some of the best destinations you’ll probably look at. Once you have sold your items, channel the earnings to your savings account.
7. Use Budgeting Apps
I’m sure you wish there were an easier way you could spend less. However, as usual, we always have daily commitments that put us down.
However, the advancement in technology has made it simpler for you to budget your money and ensure that you’re only spending what you had earlier budgeted for.
Below are some of the best budgeting apps that’ll help you budget your money and ensure you never have money to burn:
- Truebill—Truebill allows you to set budgets for each category of spending (i.e., food & drinks) and notifies you when I’m halfway to my budget. It also tracks your debt to income ratio and how much you spend per month.
- Acorns—Acorns help people save without even realizing it. This app will automatically keep your change any time you swipe your card while shopping. For example, if you purchase something worth $7.25, the app will automatically save you $0.75 as it usually rounds off to the nearest whole number.
- PocketGuard—This app is a little bit different from the others we have discussed. It boils everything down, including how much you can spend. You can connect your accounts – credit, savings and any other account and this app will crunch the numbers to show you the amount you usually spend.
8. Perform a Money Audit
Controlling your personal finances involves meticulous tracking. Look, the reality is that money is scarce and you should spend each penny well. This is why you need a money audit if you are serious about achieving your goal of saving $5,000 in three months.
Examine your spending in one to three months and identify any expenses that weren’t necessary, after all. Develop a strategy not to spend money on the things you have identified in the coming weeks and months. Additionally, establish the non-negotiable—these are the things you can choose not to spend on, such as Netflix subscriptions, Starbucks coffee, among others.
But because you’re on a mission to save $5,000 in three months, hiring a financial auditor to help you audit your money may not be a good idea. You are trying to trim down your costs and spending more on services you can do makes no sense.
However, hiring a one-time financial auditor could make a lot of sense if you have no idea how to audit your money. Besides securing a professional’s services, you’ll have more time to concentrate on your side hustles that will generate more money to save.
Conclusion
Saving $5,000 in three months is easy as long as you implement any or all of the eight tips discussed in this post. With this breakdown, you can now start organizing your finances while implementing these strategies to achieve your goal of saving $5,000 in three months.
Saving is one of the best financial virtues I know but can be pretty challenging without financial guidance and discipline. However, you can turn this around by implementing some, if not all, of the eight tips we have discussed above.
You can do this by starting today—now!
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