8 People Share How They Trick Themselves Into Saving Money

If I can save money on autopilot, then I will. I think finding ways to trick yourself into saving more money every single month is such a fun way to get ahead.

And whether you’re gamifying your savings or just using a system to make yourself save, it really doesn’t have to be complicated.

Below, I found some great tips from real people (on Reddit) who are finding ways to trick themselves into saving money. They’re super helpful and intelligent ideas you can start this month. So take a few notes and see what works best for you!

1. Make Yourself Feel Like Your Making Money Every Day

“I have a little game I play with myself to help save money. When I get paid I pay all my bills that are due and check the balance of what’s left. Then I divide the leftover amount by the days until my next pay. I am only allowed to spend the amount I have for that day. If I don’t spend the full amount it gets recycled into the full amount and recalculated the next day, bringing the daily totals up. I try to do as many no spend days in a row as i can. If I haven’t spent the full amount by the next pay I put it into savings.

“It makes my brain feel like I’m making money every day and my bank account is going up. It also makes me think about whether a purchase is worth it or not before spending. It’s quite the dopamine hit.

“For example I have $140 left over and it’s 14 days to the next pay so $10/day. I don’t spend any money on day 1 so amount per day gets changed to $140/13 = $10.77 per day. $140/12 = $11.67 etc. Let’s say day 3 I have to spend $6. One the 4th day it would be 140-6= 134/11 = $12.18. The closer you are to the next pay, the faster it feels like it accumulates.” – Sprinqqueen

2. Treat Each Savings Account Like a Video Game

“One trick I use is setting up multiple savings accounts for specific goals (vacation, emergency fund, etc.) and treating it like a game to ‘level up’ each one. It’s amazing how much more motivated I feel to save when it’s visual and goal-oriented” – AdditionalParsnip794

3. Use the YNAB App

You should try YNAB. It’s a budgeting app. You give every dollar a job. It works kind of the same. You can create “buckets” of money. When you go to buy something you check how much “bucket”. I’ve saved so much with the app. You can make as many buckets as you wish, so you could technically create daily buckets to spend from, and move them to your category. Then you can see how much you spend on all your expenses.” – Independent_Guava545

“I use ynab too. It means that you can save for a bunch of things like yearly vet bills, keep a car repair fund, etc, so that your spending money can be just for spending. I think buckets per day might get difficult to deal with, but you could certainly have a spending category and a reserved category and every day, money is transferred in. And if your car breaks down you can fix it without pulling from the main savings and still have some spending money till the next paycheck.” – Purple_Anywhere

4. Use Rocket Money’s Spending Report

“I’ve been liking the spending reports Rocket Money sends me each week. 30% more this week, 60% less this week etc. Makes me strive for a better score.” – thebagel264

5. Gamify Your Savings With Habitica

“I’d like to pitch Habitica. It’s a game-ified habit tracker/to-do list, where you can earn experience and gold for maintaining those habits/completing those tasks. You’re also able to set customized rewards that you can redeem for a certain amount of gold. For me, I have a simple $1=5Gold system. So, for example, if I wanted to buy a $10 trinket, I need to spend 50G in the app. If I don’t have the gold, I don’t buy it. It helps to curb unnecessary spending and rewards me for doing the things I need to do.” – AntKneeWasHere

6. The “Smallest Bill” Trick

“Use cash for everything, and throw any single bills away into a piggy bank. Pretend a $5 bill is the smallest currency. Depending on situation that may not be possible. I usually cant play that game but theres been a few lucky months I could and it was fun! If youre really up to it, prerend $10 is the smallest and throw the fivers in oiker also!”

7. Don’t Overlook the Pennies

“I save all my change and have a system. Put it in a jar, 1981 and earlier pennies go in a separate jar as they are actual copper and currently worth 1.2 cents as melt. The rest gets rolled when the jar is like half full. Those rolls go into a box in the closet. I turn it into cash once a year. Last year it was $450. That goes into savings.” – fuhnetically

8. Save on Autopilot With the Acorns App

My husband and I used this app and saved a few thousand dollars over the course of a few years without even thinking about it.

You hook up your credit or debit card to the app, and Acorns rounds up each purchase to the nearest dollar. Once it does this, it then automatically invests that spare change for you.