Saving money is hard. Saving money for yourself, your children, and your future, does not have to be painful or a chore, however. There are some great tips to save money that make it fun and even feel like a game.
The best household money saving tips make it feel as if you are not saving at all. In other words, it is not painful to watch the money go away. One of my personal favorites is when you set up a punishment jar. Like your standard swear jar. Every swear nets a dollar. And then, once the jar is full, it gets dumped into savings. Or you use that money if you want to go out to eat at some point. You cannot go out to eat until it is full, and cannot go over budget.
And it does not have to be limited to swears. When I lived in an apartment with some roommates, we had a passive aggressive jar. A dollar went in any time anyone was passive aggressive, and the money went to apartment related expenses. A way to kick the savings up a notch is to put a dollar into your savings every time you have to put a dollar in the jar. That way you are saving money, and when you do feel the urge to go out, you are not charging anything, the money is accounted for.
Another regular favorite of the household money saving tips is movie night. Instead of going out and dropping $50 on two tickets, two popcorns, and a five gallon bucket of slurpy, consider another option. Buy a bag of popcorn the next time you are out grocery shopping. It costs maybe two dollars. Pop your own corn, and pick a movie of your own. One that you have not watched in a long time, but really should go back and revisit. Everyone has those. This way you get to share a classic with your date, get to dress your popcorn anyway you want (I like cinnamon, cocoa powder and cayenne pepper), and can save a significant amount of money in the process.
Those are just two tips that could save you a decent chunk every month. Take it one more step and every time you decide to stay in instead of going out, put the money that you would have spent into your savings. You would have spent it anyway, right?