6 Lazy Ways to Save Money

I’ve got a confession: when it comes to money I’ve gotten pretty lazy.

It wasn’t always like this though. I was 20 when I first took an interest in personal finance. Tracking my spending, pinching pennies, and transferring every extra $5 I could into savings energized me. I read every personal finance book I could find and wrote out a budget every week.

Fast forward eight years later and the thought of tracking every penny exhausts me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still manage my money well. However, I let everything run on autopilot. I don’t worry about spending an extra fifty cents on something and I rarely write out a budget.

Yet, I’m 100 percent debt free and put money into savings and retirement every month.

I finally realized you don’t have to be thinking about your budget 24/7 in order to be financially successful.

Here are ways lazy people can save money too!

Don’t Take Out Debt

As long as you bring in enough income to cover your basic living expenses this should be easy.

I mean if you’re lazy why go through the extra trouble of taking out loans for things that you don’t need in the first place?

Don’t take out debt. You’ll save yourself a TON of money. By doing just this one thing you’ll be so far ahead of the game.

Drive Your Car ‘Til She Dies

Cars are one of the fastest depreciating assets. In fact, I don’t even consider my car an asset and I would never calculate a car into my net worth. (Well unless I had a super expensive car but that would pretty much defeat the purpose of driving your car until she dies!)

I’ve had my current car for six years and she’s still going strong. I plan on driving it until it no longer runs. I think this will be at least another 5-10 years.

Automate Your Savings & Retirement

If you’re working on a savings goal then have money automatically taken out of your paycheck or have a withdrawal from checking into savings. I have a specific source of my income deposited into my savings account each month.

And you really, really need to automate your retirement.

Skip Most Deals

Excessively looking into deals, using coupons, and buying in bulk are all ways you subconsciously spend more money. Your brain tricks you. You get a high from finding an awesome deal and therefore think you’re saving money when you’re actually buying stuff you never really needed in the first place.

Do yourself a favor, only look for deals after you’ve made the list of what you actually need. Don’t buy anything else. There’s no need to be a constant deal seeker.

Use Budgeting Software

If you don’t like the idea of tracking your spending then let some free financial software do the heavy lifting for you.

You can sign up with a company like Mint.com, link up your bank accounts and Mint will track your spending. All you have to do is log on and see where all of your money is going. Make adjustments as you see fit.

Focus on the Big Wins

Don’t buy into the hype – you don’t have to stop buying lattes in order to be financially successful. That is just hypocritical advice we hear from “financial gurus” who are living in multi-million dollar mansions. We aren’t supposed to drink coffee but they can spend $4 million on a house? What is wrong with that picture?

Focus on the big wins. Stay out of debt. Live within your means. You don’t have to go on a coupon clipping binge or dumpster dive to save money. Just use a little common sense.

What else would you add to the list?