Money. It seems like such a taboo subject. Yet the more we talk about it, the more we realize we all have doubts about it and are all trying to learn how to better manage it. I seriously wish high schools and colleges had a required class in learning how to manage your personal finances, but alas, that’s not the case, so hopefully, you’re trying to do so on your own.

I have a loooong way to go when it comes to money – I have lots of goals and things I want to learn about it, but in the last couple of years I’ve focused on what I can: saving money to have as an emergency fund. Turns out this was harder than I expected. Every time I saved some money, I quickly transferred it to my checking account for an impromptu trip or something similar, and then became discouraged and stopped saving. But last year I did a couple of things that got us that emergency fund REAL quick and helped us pay our CC down, and even more recently I found an even better way to save faster!

Let me start with saying that you don’t have to have a huge income, but you do have to make a little more than what you have to pay every month in order save. It seems obvious, I know, but there were many years I literally made just enough to cover my bills and I felt terrible about not being to save. But that’s ok – if you’re in that boat, your focus is figuring out a way to increase your income. Once there, you can follow the next steps to start saving:

So without further ado, here the three quick and easy ways to save money:

1. Cash is king. I don’t really use cash for anything, in fact, a lot of the places I frequent don’t even accept cash anymore, only card. But because cash is the best way I’ve learned to save fast, I still do this: every time I go to the grocery store (about once a week) I ask for cash back, and then I put it away in an envelope at home and I pretend that the money in it doesn’t exist. Date the envelope when you start it and promise yourself not to touch the money in it for 3 months. At the end of 3 months check the total – this tangible aspect of saving does something to you psychologically – it’s like tasting the reward, letting you know you CAN do it, and encouraging to do it even more.
   • If you work in the service industry go an extra step and save alllll the cash tips. I was able to save $700 like this when I was a barista. If you’re a server and you need to have cash with you for shifts keep a “bank” of $x in your wallet but everything else goes in that envelope.
2. Qapital is queen. I’m a millennial, and I love using technology to make my life easier. Recently I discovered this little app called Qapital and it increased my ability to save exponentially. Basically, the app connects to your bank account and you can set goals and rules that’ll help you save – it takes the money you approve through rules, from your bank and holds on to it for you (you can transfer back to your account at any time though…. it’s YOUR money). Some examples of these rules:
   • Round up every time you use your card (I do this, and round up to $2 every time I swipe my card)
   • Put away a percentage of every paycheck
   • Take out $x every Monday (or any day of the week)
   • 52 week rule: Transfer $1 on week 1, $2 on week 2, $3 on week 3, etc… at the end of one year you’ll have $1,378 saved!
   • Etc.: you can come up with your own rules

You can do just one rule, combine them, or use different rules for different goals. And just to give you an idea of how gooood it is, here’s what I did:

• I started using Qapital on January 29
• I only created one goal
• I only created one rule: round up $2 every time I swipe my card
• RESULT: in 77 days I’ve saved $399.54.

You may still have some questions – that’s ok, I did too – so here’s what I asked before I signed up, along with the answers:

• Does it cost you anything? Yes. But it’s only $3 a month for just the savings plans, which is what I use. They have other plans that cost more – in those you can invest and do other stuff with your money, but I’ve never used those. I think the savings plan is worth that and more. For the almost 3 months I’ve used it I’ve spent only $9 and saved $399.54…. WORTH IT!
• Is it safe? Yes. Your funds are “protected by FDIC insurance for $250,000 per user” so yes, your money is safe. FDIC is the same thing banks use.
• Will it ever overdraft you? Nope. If your account is low on funds, the transfers will be paused automatically. And you can also pause them whenever you so desire. Again, your money, your rules.

SO! If you’re interested in trying this out, sign up through my referral link and get a $20 credit. You only have a few days to do so (until the end of April), so don’t wait too long. I wouldn’t recommend this if I didn’t LOVE it and used it every day.

If you have any more questions, hop on to Instagram and ask away on the most recent post or DM me! I’ve realized the more I learn about money, the more confident I’ve become in managing it!

AND if you have friends who you think could benefit from this, share away!!! Let’s get better at managing our money together, because the better we are, the more we can influence our world towards good things!

SHARE IT: