Saving Advice - Financial experts recommend a $1000 rainy day fund to get into the habit of saving money and provide a financial cushion. While $1000 won’t cover a large car or home repair, it is a relatively easily achieved goal that can give you the confidence to continue your money management journey. If saving $1000 seems overwhelming, rest assured that you’ll have the money in no time by cutting the budget and earning extra money.
12 Ways to Save for a Rainy-Day Fund
If you’re determined to build up the money, try these tactics to save money. Then, take the money you save and put it in an account reserved solely for your emergency fund.
Cut Unnecessary Spending We all, even the most frugal, have some places to cut the budget to reduce our expenses. Remembering that these cuts aren’t permanent makes being ruthless easier. Look at streaming services, subscriptions, clothes, and your groceries. Yes, you can buy more frugal foods temporarily until you accrue the money you need.
Have a Pantry Challenge For one month, have a pantry challenge. The goal is to slash your grocery budget by 70 to 80 percent. For example, let’s say you spend $600 a month in groceries. During your pantry challenge, commit to spending no more than $100 to $150 for food, mainly to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and other perishables; what you eat the rest of the month comes from the food you already have in the house. At the end of the pantry challenge, you will have saved $450 to $500, which will go a long way to establishing your rainy-day fund.
Have a No Spend Month Likewise, have a no-spend month. For one month, stop all extraneous spending. Of course, you’ll pay your bills, but say no to things like going to the movies, buying a coffee, or buying any groceries that aren’t on your grocery list. When you say no to the extraneous for a month, you can save a few hundred dollars or more, depending on your currently spending.
Ways to Earn To make $1000 for a rainy-day fund in a month, you’ll likely need to cut expenses and increase earnings. Try these strategies:
Work Overtime If your employer allows it, work some overtime. Choose this route to make extra money so you don’t have to search for a second job. Instead, you get to work and earn time and a half or double time, which helps you make money quickly.
Donate Plasma
When you donate plasma, you not only help others but you also are compensated for your time. The first time you donate plasma, expect to get a small physical. Then, if you pass, you can donate as frequently as twice a week. In the first month, with bonuses, you could make approximately $500, according to CSL Plasma.
Sell Items You No Longer Need Look through your house and find items you no longer need and sell them. Take used clothing to the consignment shop; sell furniture, tools, etc. on Facebook (NASDAQ:META) market place.
If you still have items with the tags on and have the receipts, consider returning them to recoup some of your money.
Cash Out Credit Card Rewards Does your credit card offer rewards? If it does, check your rewards points. If they’ve been accruing for some time, you may be able to cash them out for $50 or more. Even better, you may have several hundred dollars available if you have several credit cards.
Deliver Food Since the pandemic, food delivery is a popular way to make money. Look into delivering for Instacart, DoorDash (NYSE:DASH), or Uber Eats. You can expect to earn approximately $20 an hour. Some people even bring their kids when making deliveries, so you may not have to pay extra for childcare while you work.
Mow Lawns/Shovel Snow In most neighborhoods, you’ll have people who are too busy or old to care for their yards. You can offer a service to mow lawns and shovel snow. My mom found a retired man from her church who likes to keep busy. He mows her lawn for half the cost a lawn service was willing to do it for. He’s so busy; he mows six to eight lawns every day!
Babysit If you have experience working with children, consider babysitting. You can find jobs on sites like Care.com and Sittercity.com. Depending on the area of the country you live in and the number of children you care for, you could make $20 or more per hour.
Rent Out Your Vehicle Have a large vehicle, such as a truck or a van? Consider renting it out to people who need to transport large items. You could drive and be compensated for your time and vehicle if you understandably don’t want someone else driving your truck.
Clean Houses
People are busy, and as much as they want a clean house, they may have trouble keeping up. If you do an excellent job cleaning someone’s house, the person will likely recommend you to their friends and family, resulting in more jobs and more money.
A specialty field of house cleaning is move-out cleaning. If you can connect with a realtor and are an efficient cleaner, you will likely have several jobs from people moving out of houses and apartments. These cleaners can make $300 to $600 per move out job, depending on the property size and how dirty it was.
Final Thoughts
If you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, building a $1000 rainy day fund can feel overwhelming and impossible. However, using several tactics to save money and to earn more, you’ll find that growing your emergency fund is not difficult and may happen quicker than you thought possible.
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