How do you save money? STRESSED!

Question

I am so stressed. I wanted to buy a house around next September and had $5,000 saved. My sons birthday was in June, so that brought me a little lower but then in July I got COVID, I was out for 2 weeks and didn’t get paid. Then my vacation was a week after COVID so that was another check I didn’t get but I had already paid half of the hotel for the trip and they wouldn’t refund. Well I had to dip into my savings for the rest of the vacation, rent and electric in July. Fast forward this month and my first check went to all bills. I am literally so stressed because I now have barely anything saved. I feel like a failure. It’s like EVERYTIME I’m doing good saving some shit has to happen and fuck it up. I have been emotional the last two days because I feel like I’m failing in life and I won’t be able to buy the house as I want to. I need tips!! I’m paid biweekly. How do you all save your money?

Answer

I've just resigned myself to forever renting. Forever hoping I'll still have a home year after year. Forever hoping I don't get priced out of life.

Answer

I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it will be very difficult to save for a down payment on a home in one year when you’re starting from 0. But what I do is have two accounts set up for direct deposit so I have money go straight into a high yield savings account. I don’t look at that account except on occasion to check the balance. I don’t view that account as money I have so I can forget about it and let it build and collect interest. If you can, you can also set up a CD. You put a certain amount and don’t touch it for a year or whatever the term is and it collects a higher interest rate.

Answer

Speak with a lender, we just bought a house and didn’t have anything saved. We qualified for a program in our state that gave us $10k for our down payment. It’s a first time home buyer program and the only requirement we have is we can’t move for 4 years (which we just bought a house, why would we move!?) it had some credit requirements, but the lender was very helpful. I tell everyone about it because it was such an easy process and it’s been so much easier to save since we got the house.

Answer

We treat our savings like a bill and unless there's a threat of not eating or an exteam emergency we don't touch that money at all. It sounds like you're living beyond your means. If you're truely wanting to save you need to scale back, cut things out, go without, and live more simply. If you're truely committed you need to make sacrifices. Let's say you want to buy next September instead of this september and you're really committed. You need to scale back. No eating out, no frozen meals since they're expensive, eat more simply, birthdays and Christmas need to be scaled back and on a budget, no drinking as it's expensive, no vacations, scale back on splurging, cut subscriptions you don't need, rotate subscriptions instead and only do one at a time. 
There are a lot of things you can do to scale back, but there are also things you can do to help prepare for things. For example your emergency fund and savings fund need to be seperate. You could also do with an account for sinking funds. Sinking funds are funds you put money into every single month towards things like birthdays, Christmas, car expenses, ect.

Answer

Talk to lenders  they have different programs

Answer

I have a part time job in addition to my full time job and everything l earn from my part time job goes directly to savings.

Answer

Definitely work on building your credit up if it's low, then just try to budget, cut out anything that's not necessary that you could live without and maybe look into getting apart time job. Give yourself so much a month for grocery's and don't go over the limit, make cheap meals. There are programs out there for people who don't have any down payment or if they have a very small down payment but just make sure you have good credit. My husband and I saved for a down payment on a house by saving every stimulus check we got, we both had to get unemployment fr a while and saved just about all of that, and then saved what we got for a tax return.

How do you save money? STRESSED!

Let's Glow!

The Top Baby Tracker App: Embrace New Beginnings with Tender Care

The Top Fertility Tracker App: Your Path to Achieving Pregnancy

The Top Pregnancy App: Nurturing Your Journey to Motherhood

The Top Period Tracker for Empowering Your Menstrual Health Journey