When You Can't Save More Cash, What About Making More?

Here’s a tip that works well with one-off purchases coming up. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, I’m sure you’re a Smart Spender, with a balanced budget and tons of compliments on how good looking you are. Beyond that, I’m sure you’ve trimmed up your budget and cut out all the unnecessary pieces.

That doesn’t mean you’re finished!

Since you’ve been so great at cutting out the costs in your life, it’s time to think about earning some extra bucks. Now, I’m not saying you should go out and start working 22 hours/day, 8 days/week, but if you’re really saving up for something, it can be worth it to take on some extra tasks.

Let’s pretend that you’ve got a great summer planned. You want to spend one or two weekends away, you’ll have some ‘stay-cations’ to cut costs, and you’re even on track to make all your bill payments. Then, out of nowhere, some friends call you up to invite you to a great music festival. The problem is, that’s $150 you don’t currently have – and it’s not worked into your budget. What’s a girl to do?!

It’s time to go to your skill set and see what you can do. Are there extra shifts to pick up at work? Services you could offer on weekends (cleaning, tailoring, yardwork).

A friend of mine recently ran into this exact issue and decided that she would tackle the problem by earning some extra money and offering her services as a tax accountant. Now, I know this isn’t something anyone could do, but it IS something that people want to pay for. My friend filed simple tax-returns for clients she found while advertising on Craigslist and in her apartment building. Her price was reasonable, but less than one of the big chain tax services, so she found some business pretty quickly.

She was able to earn enough for the concert within two weeks, and even took on some extra clients! She put that money right into her savings account, and even kept the contact information with the people she provided tax services for – so next year she can do it again.

So think hard about what else you can offer, or short term work you can pick up, and earn your way to what you want. If being extra-busy for a few weeks makes you able to do something that you love, I think you’ll find that it’s worth it – and it sure beats going into debt.

As a bonus, the more work you’re doing, the less chance you have to spend that hard earned money. So that’s a double-savings opportunity!

We’re not saying you should work yourself into the ground, but by picking up some extra opportunities to make money you can worry less about saving money.

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