Ways to Continue Saving when Income is Stretched

Start small.  You don’t have to commit a large amount of money to make saving worth it. Even $10 or $50 a month adds up over time. If you save $50 per month starting now, you could have more than $600 saved by this time next year.

Round it up.  Reach your savings goals even faster with DCU’s Round It Up. When you create a savings goal and opt-in to this program in DCU’s Mobile app, your debit card transactions are rounded up to the nearest dollar, and the extra change is transferred into your savings account to help you work toward your specified savings goal.

Make it automatic.  Set up automatic transfers into your savings account in small amounts so you can continue saving, even when life is unpredictable. You can set up internal transfers as well as external transfers.

Stretch your grocery dollars.  Whether you’re shopping in the store or ordering groceries online, you can get the best deals by planning your menu around what’s on sale. You’ll also save a bundle by chopping and preparing your own meals versus buying prepackaged and ready-to-serve meals.

Trim monthly bills.  Consider downsizing or dropping the features you don’t need for TV, phone, internet and other services. You may not even realize how much recurring subscription service payments add up. Take stock of your planned expenses and see where you can cut and save. You could also put some services on pause to temporarily suspend service for a few months to give your budget a break.

Make electronic payments. If you haven’t already set up Bill Payer, now’s a good time to check it out. You’ll save on postage and could avoid late fees, too!