Perhaps you work from home and don’t readily contribute to a retirement fund, or maybe you’re a stay at home mom who doesn’t have her own 401(k). Or maybe you do contribute to a 401(k) at work but want to augment that savings. It’s possible to save an extra $300 a month if you cut back on just a few things. After the initial shock, it may not even be that tough to maintain!
- Cut back on just ONE latte a week. Say that’s $5 per week (and that’s a conservative estimate!), that equals $20 a month you can sock away. Or, instead of getting that expensive frothy coffee every day, cut back to regular coffee at the local fast food joint and spend just $1 a day instead of $5 a day.
- Nix the cleaning lady and do it yourself. Many of us hire a housekeeper to clean our houses each week at great expense. Save yourself an easy $100 or more and do all the cleaning yourself. It’s tough as a working parent to find the time to get this done but you can definitely handle this, especially if you tackle one room a day or get the kids in on the tasks. If you spend $50 every two weeks (again, this is a conservative estimate), that’s $100 a month you can pocket. Or, even cut back to a housekeeper once a month instead of bi-weekly and save that.
- Get frugal about sales: Time your visits to the grocery store and use those buy-one-get-one deals to your advantage. Build your weekly menu around what’s on sale and use that week’s discount ingredients. Stock up and freeze meats if you have to. This is a great way to save at least $20 a week, translating to an extra cool $80 a month.
- Trade a restaurant meal for a pizza: If you just do this once a month, you could save $80 a month. Let’s say you typically spend $100 on dinner out with the family. Decide to stay in once a month and order a pizza for $20. You still don’t have to cook, plus you can eat it in front of a movie for a bonus fun night.
- Re-tool your phone’s data plan: Saving about $60 a month is easy when you take a close look at your current data plan and cut back. Say you pay for 10 GB of data but don’t use more than three on a monthly basis, you could save upwards of $60 depending on the carrier you use. Do your research by looking at old bills to ensure you can indeed swing the change. Switch carriers if you see an unbeatable deal.
If you save $300 a month this way, you could pad your retirement fund by between$650,000 and 970,000! How you invest that money is between you and your stock broker or financial planner. Just be sure to make a securities fraud attorney a part of that equation.
