How to Save $10,000 in a Year

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Want to save $10,000 in a year? It’s not as hard as it sounds. Get started today and reach your goals before you know it.

What would an extra $10,000 mean to you? Would you save for a house, go on a nice vacation, or use it as a down payment on a car?

Maybe it would just add financial security for your family. Having $10,000 saved can make a big difference in helping get rid of financial stress.

No matter what you would use the $10,000 for it is a doable goal to build up in about a year. You’ll just need to be smart and have a plan.

How to Save $10,000 in a Year

You may be thinking that your income is barely covering your bills so how are you going to actually save money?

The truth is sometimes you will need to work on finding ways to add to your income. An easy side hustle can help and many require no expertise and minimal time. You can find a list of some of the best side hustles here on the site to help you get started.

You can also find wiggle room with a lot of these steps. You can start with the steps outlined in this post and if that still doesn’t leave you with much to save consider adding a side hustle to bring in more income to save faster.

Start Small

It’s a good idea to have an emergency fund of $1000 saved to start. You never know what could pop-up. In just the last few months we’ve had a hailstorm that totaled our roof, a burst waterline, and a flat tire that couldn’t be repaired. That’s why an emergency fund is good to have available.

Once you have that $1000 you want to make sure to pay down your debt. You don’t want to be stashing away money while paying the minimum on your debt.

This doesn’t need to include your house or car payments, as long as you are making those on time, but you do want to pay off credit cards and small loans.

Create a Budget and Use It

This may sound like a no brainer but too often we create a budget and never look at it again. Or we forget to adjust our budget as things in our life change.

An easy place to start is by getting the In Harmony With Money Budget Planner. It’s an instant download that you can print and start using right away.

Look at your current budget and get serious about what you can cut out. Do you still streaming services you aren’t using? Maybe a gym membership you haven’t used in months? Those little cuts can end up saving you a lot of money over time.

Once you figure out your budget you need to stick to it so if possible add a bit of wiggle room and make sure the family is on board with the budget.

Do a No-Spend Challenge

There are many different no-spend challenges you can try. They are a great way to take some time to skip any extra spending and save as much as you can.

Most of these kinds of challenges last about a month and allow for necessary expenses but they cut out those little extra expenses that add up.

Trying to do a “no spend” challenge a few times a year can add up to big savings. Many find they can save $500-$1000 a month doing this kind of challenge.

Reduce Your Monthly Bills

We talked in the budgeting section about reducing some bills but let’s look more at that because there are likely a lot of places where you can save. Here are some examples of things you can get rid of or at least reduce the bill

• Get Rid of Streaming Services: Cut back on how many you have. My husband and I like to rotate some of them. Not only does this make sure we don’t have ones sitting there that we aren’t using, but streaming services will sometimes offer a special deal for you to come back saving you even more.
• Check for Duplicate Costs: Take a good look at credit card and bank statements and list all your monthly bills. Are any overlapping? Another streaming example, we found that we were paying for Peacock when we could get it free with our Instacart+ membership.
• Conserve Energy: Electric costs can be a huge part of your monthly expenses. Turning your A/C up a degree or two, turning things off when not in use, and just small steps can help you reduce your costs. Some energy companies will even do free energy audits to help you see how you can improve the efficiency of your home.
• Look for Cheaper Plans on Services: Did you get higher speed internet while everyone was home and now you don’t need as big of a plan? See if you can cut back. Spending on a lot on cell phones, see if there is a cheaper plan that still works for you. Maybe switch streaming services to plans with ads. There are a lot of opportunities out there.

The goal is to just look for anything you are paying for that can be eliminated or at least reduced.

Reduce Food Bill

This one is tough these days. But there are some things you can do to save some money. First eat out less often, especially if you are getting food delivered you are likely spending a lot on food.

Instead, learn how to cook budget-friendly meals your family enjoys and leave food out for special occasions. Make sure you are also meal planning because that keeps you from spending too much on food you won’t use.

A great way to save at the grocery store and make meal planning easy is with my friend Crystal Paine’s (Money Saving Mom) 10 Weeks of Money Saving Menus. She made the menus for you complete with grocery lists and she is very mindful of the costs of each meal.

Don’t forget to also use coupons, check sales, eat less meat, and buy less pre-packaged food to reduce those grocery costs.

Save During Special Occasions and Holidays

Holidays and special occasions can break the bank if you aren’t careful but there are many ways to make them more affordable.

Making your own decorations and food, choosing free or cheap activities, and of course shopping sales. The best way to do all of this is by planning ahead. Have lists for supplies you need for any upcoming special occasion or holiday, if you see an item you need on sale go ahead and get it if possible. Waiting until the last minute won’t allow you much time to watch for a good deal.

Don’t be afraid to share either. See if a friend has some party supplies they aren’t using and make sure they know what things you have that they can borrow in the future as well. Recently my niece wanted a heart-shaped cake, my mom bought a cake pan for it and we agreed for speciality baking things like this we need a list so we can just share instead of spending the extra money to buy something else we will rarely use.

Learn How to Fix Things

My husband and I are working on updating some of our home and learning how to do a lot of it ourselves has been great. I grew up with a dad who can fix and build anything so this felt pretty natural.

You likely can’t fix everything yourself but every time you can avoid having to hire someone can save you a lot of money and it’s nice to learn new skills.

You can learn a lot for free on YouTube. I’ve watched countless YouTube videos to learn how to do little projects around the house and it’s been so hopeful.

Our dishwasher broke a couple of years ago and I watched videos and read the manual and between me and my husband we bought the part and got it fixed.

Earn Extra Money

If you are already doing these things or want to hit your goal faster it’s time to look at ways to earn more money.

There are ways to make money at home for all skill levels and amount of time. You can start simple and use cash back apps to earn money on things you are already buying, Rakuten is a good option for your desktop browser and Fetch Rewards (use referral code TN8EW to get bonus points for signing up) is great for on your phone.

You can also start an actual side hustle. There are endless options both with online side hustles and local side hustles. For most you can decide how much time you want to put into them. You can even make money with a side hustle using your backyard.

Quick Saving $10,000 Overview

This is a quick overview of the things you want to start doing if you want to save $10,000 in a year.

• Start small and make sure you set yourself up for success.
• Create and use a budget.
• Try a no-spend challenge.
• Reduce your monthly bills.
• Reduce your food bill.
• Plan and save on special occasions and holidays.
• Learn how to fix things yourself.
• And last but not least, earn extra money.

Following these steps will help you reach your goal of $10,000 in a year and keep reaching other financial goals. Stay on top of these things and remember what you are working towards!