10 Things Women Can Do To Save $15,000 in a Year!

Save $15,000 In A Year

Did you know you could save $10,000 in a calendar year with ease?

Well, how about we add another 5K just for kicks? Yes, you CAN save $15,000 in a year. It’s good to be aggressive with your goals.

I’ve picked up a few side hustles to increase my income by $7K part-time. We’ll get to that later on, though.

Just a heads up, these tips will work better for women who are debt-free (or close to it) and earn at least $45K a Year.

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Here’s how to save $15,000 in one year:

1. Get a Cash Back Credit Card

Do you know you can earn cash by spending with your credit card/s?

What if I told you, you could earn up to $20 per month by changing only one thing in your routine. That one thing would be using a Cash Back Credit Card.

Let’s say, you spend $500 on groceries every month (with 3% cashback). You’re more likely to spend over $600 or more for groceries if you’ve got more than 2 people in your household. According to The Simple Dollar, the average family grocery bill for a family of 4 is $731.00.

And $150 in gas (with 2% cashback). Yes! You did the math right! That’s $240 a year, and that’s being generous.

I have an American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card that offers 3% cashback at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, 2% at U.S. gas stations & select U.S. department stores, and 1% cashback on other purchases.

So that means if you use the American Express Blue Cash card like I do, you’d get $263 dollars cash back just for buying groceries.

Just imagine if you put everything on your credit card AND paid your statement off in full every month (that’s the only way this works), you could easily earn $600 just for spending your own money.

When you get your American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card, you’ll earn $150 back after you spend $1,000 in purchases in your first 3 months of Card Membership as a statement credit.

How do I feel about my American Express Blue Cash Everyday Credit Card? I LOVE IT!!!

I love AMEX because I’m rewarded multiple times a year and can cash out whenever I want. If you want the Blue Cash Everyday Card, you can apply here.

Not only am I awarded with Cash, but they have other great benefits for travel and entertainment.

2. Open a High Yield Savings Account

Did you know you could earn up to 2.05% APY with a savings account with Citi?

There offer varies depending on your location, but you can learn more by clicking here. 2.05% could earn you a lot of money with little effort and it’s much better than the general saving dividend of around .05%.

I’ve earned over $30.00 in the last 6 months by doing absolutely NOTHING to my account. You can’t beat this.

American Express has a really great tool I like to use to calculate my potential earnings with my High Yield Savings Account. Here’s a link to the calculator.

So, let’s say you initially invest $1,500 in your High Yield savings account at 1.75% and make a monthly deposit of $350.00. At the end of the year, you’ve saved $5,410.

3. Create a Budget that Actually Works

One of the main steps of creating your budget is to maintain it. I recommend checking in on it weekly or every time you get paid to make sure you’re still on track.

That’s why it’s important to Create a Budget that Actually Works.

Reevaluate to see if you’re able to cut costs on cable, phone bill, car insurance, etc. Call every place you have one of these bills and see if they’re able to reduce the monthly rate. In some cases, you can threaten to cancel and they will magically find a promotion for you.

However, if you choose not to do this yourself, use Trim.

Trim acts as your personal finance assistant and negotiates your cable bill, insurance, and more. It’s a free tool but they do get a 25% cut of whatever they save you so you can rest assure they are trying to squeeze out every penny for you.

This could help you save hundreds per month.

Which brings me to my next point… aggregating all of your money into one view with this Annual Budget Template.

I love seeing all my money in one place! All you need to do it put in your information and you will see a full snapshot of your financial situation.

You’ll quickly see where your money is going and where you can save.

4. Pick Up A Side Hustle

Picking up a side hustle earned me over $7,000 in profit in less than a year doing it part-time and within a year.

Yes, I said over $7,000!!!

It’s much easier to save when you have more money to play with. Picking up a side hustle outside of your everyday job is a great way to get to that $15,000 mark.

Below are 5 side hustles that are helping me add $1000 to my monthly income and you can do this too.

1. Amazon
2. eBay
3. Mercari
4. Poshmark
5. Blogging

The great part about this side hustle is that you can do it too! You could earn much more than I did as long as you stay consistent and motivated.

If you’re considering selling on Amazon, be sure to check out 5 Best Tips: How To Sell on Amazon FBA For Beginners.

5. (Temporarily) Cut Out Paid-Grooming, Subscriptions, & Gym Membership

I know it’s hard, but you can do this!

If you get your nails done 2 times per month, that’s around $80 (if you get shellac or powder) but that’s $960 per year that you could have saved.

If you have friends or sisters, they are your new nail tech for a while. This can literally save you about $1,000 a year AND will give you bonding time you wouldn’t have had. I promise you, it’s the little things that matter.

Do you have Netflix, Audible, or some other subscription-based entertainment fee? Most people do nowadays, But the question is, should you?

Is it really worth the monthly fee when you think about how much that is per year? Do you really need to watch the latest Dave Chappelle Special that was exclusive to Netflix? Or does this sound like a date-night when you go to a friend’s house and watch THEIR Netflix?

I used to be a member of Lifetime Fitness but quit when they raised the monthly fee to a whopping $79.00 per month. I now use our complimentary gym in our neighborhood. Do I miss Lifetime? Heck Yes!! But there is NO WAY I’m paying $79.00 per month when I have something I can use for free.

6. Don’t Impulse Buy

Wait! STOP!

Before you impulse buy, do you really need it??

When I’m really struggling to decide whether to buy something because it’s a good deal or if it’s something I really need, I have to evaluate my decision based on the chart below.

This helps me stay in my lane.

Did you really need that bag of chips sitting nicely in the middle aisle? Was it on your list?

Grocery shopping is one of the easiest places to impulse buy. Try eating before you go so you can stick to what you only need.

7. Use Rakuten

Did you know you can earn money from shopping?! Rakuten has paid me over $200 this year alone just from shopping online through their site.

The only thing you’re required to do is go to Rakuten or enable the plugin through your browser. It will display as shown below. Make sure you click on “Activate % Cash Back” and you’re good to go.

Do your normal shopping and SAVE!

You can sign up for Rakuten here.

8. Cook vs. Eat Out

FYI: I’m never as happy in the kitchen as the woman pictured above is… But my bank account is smiling!!

When you create your budget and see how much you spent last month on groceries, once you make that comparison you may have a different perspective. If not, please let me know!

I previously did my primary grocery shopping at specialty stores.  But then I created a budget and realized I was spending WAY too much on food and household needs. Now I shop at places like Aldi, Meijer, and CVS. Those extra care bucks can go a long way!

If you go out to a restaurant for lunch your meal will likely cost $8-$9 + the drink which is usually an extra $2. If you go out 3 times a week for lunch that’s $33. That’s $132 per month. Which is $1,584 per year!!

So, what about those dinner meals your friends invite you to twice a month? Dinner meals can range from $25 – $75 depending on where you go. So that’s $50 – $150 per month. Which is $600 – 1800 per year!!!

Encourage your friends to join you for dinner at home instead and host a game night. That’d be more fun anyways.

Meal Plan

Shopping with a plan helps to prevent impulse purchases and purchasing products just because they are on sale. We don’t buy junk food (it’s unhealthy anyways), we no longer buy name brand (I’ve realized most products still have the same ingredients), and we meal plan like it’s nobody’s business!

Use this Weekly Meal Planner and Grocery List to easily create quick and healthy meals for your family. Spend less and eat better. Get your printable and editable Grocery List and Meal Planner today!

Evaluating my budget also made me realize how much coffee I was drinking and how much money I was spending on it. I can’t tell you how much I love coffee.

Hi, My name is Annie, and I’m a coffeeholic.

But the cons of coffee outweigh the pros… If you’re struggling like I am to quit, here’s a great article to break the addiction: Caffeine Detox: How to Quit Caffeine and Break the Addiction.

9. Deposit your Change Weekly

If you’re the type of person to carry cash… GREAT! Because whether your change is from tolls, coffee, drive-thru restaurants, or shopping, you can compile all of it and deposit it into your bank at the end of each week.

If you’re like me and don’t carry cash, you can still save your change. 

How? I’m glad you asked! You can save your change with Acorns.

With Acorns, you can set aside the leftover change from everyday purchases by turning on automatic Round-Ups. It’s the only micro-investing account that allows you to invest spare change. It only takes 5 minutes to sign up and automatically add money to your diversified portfolio.
I know it may seem small, but even small things add up.

You can sign up with Acorns here.

10. Sell your unwanted items

Yup, that’s right, your junk may be another person’s treasure!

Did you know that you can sell your stuff on platforms like eBay, Amazon, LetitGo, Mercari, Poshmark, etc?

Reselling items on eBay has earned me over $1,000 in profit this year, and I’m a beginner. I share tips for selling on eBay here 10 Best Tips How To Sell on eBay for Beginners. 

Let’s recap!

1. You’re getting a cashback credit card that will help you earn around $720 per year.
2. You’re opening a High Yield Savings Account that can save you about $5,500 a year or more.
3. You’re Creating a Budget that actually works that should help you save at least $200 or more per month.
4. You’re getting the Annual Budget Template to aggregate all of your money in one place.
5. You’re cutting out mani’s and pedi’s, Netflix’s, Audile, gym memberships, and maybe even eyebrows. That should save you over $2,500 per year.
6. You’re not going to impulse buy.
7. You’re going to shop with eBates Rakuten to earn cashback.
8. You’re going to cook vs. eat out that will save you potentially $2,500 per year.
9. You’re going to deposit your change weekly.
10. You’re going to sell your unwanted items on eBay!

With these 10 steps on how to save $15,000 in a year, which ones are you going to commit to?

If you liked this article, there’s more. I’m working on some more ways to save money and make money on the side. If you’d like to stay in the know, you’ll have to join my mailing list. Click here to subscribe to my list.

Is there anything else you’d like to add? Let us know in the comment section.

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10 Things Women Can Do To Save $15,000 in a Year!