20 Ways to Save Money in the New Year

Written by: Segun Akomolafe

Everything is quite expensive right now—like it’s nuts out there. So I wanted to share with you some real-life tips to not only save thousands of dollars but to change your mindset about money. These 20 ways to save money in the new year can transform your financial situation completely.

I completely transformed my finances, and the truth is it had nothing to do with earning more money. That’s what I always thought—like you have to earn more money to have more money—but that was totally a financial lie. So I want to talk about the truth: what is really the difference between people who have financial freedom and people who are living paycheck to paycheck?

Major Ways to Save Money in the New Year

1. Change Your Mindset About Money

The first and most important thing you can do to transform your financial situation is change your mindset about money. You might think money is something you earn to buy stuff, and while you do have to pay rent and buy food, money is actually a tool to make you more money. That mindset shift—to look at a dollar as the potential for that being $1.50 or $2 or $2.50 instead of what you could buy for a dollar—changes everything.

2. Be Determined to Control Interest Payment

The second thing that can transform your financial future is getting really mad about paying interest. If you’re in debt with credit card debt and consumer debt, you’re paying a monthly payment which isn’t even covering the interest. You may not get ahead—they just increase your credit card limit, and you’re never catching up.

Before you know it, your minimum monthly payments equal what you make in a month. You’re paying every month for stuff you bought a year ago, and you’re paying 10 times more than you actually bought the thing for because you’re giving big fat bankers interest. It’s disgusting and should be illegal. When you really see it and get mad about it, you’ll refuse to ever pay interest again.

3. Pay Yourself First

Probably the most important thing you can ever do is pay yourself first—10% of your paycheck. Even if you don’t have a lot, even if there was a point where you were making $45 a day babysitting, put $10 away into a savings account.

You might be broke and need that $10, but just go without it. Eat craft dinner or whatever it is. Make it a priority and have it automatically go into a savings account that you can’t touch unless you go to the bank. For emergencies it’s there, but there’s no impulse being able to touch it. Saving 10% of your money off the bat is something you have to do to change your financial status.

4. Save Bonus Money

Any bonus money you get, put it into savings. You might get a $5,000 bonus check from your job when you’re newly parents, broke, with no furniture and a beat-up old minivan. That $5,000 could change your life, but if you put it in the bank and don’t spend one dime, you’re saving that bonus money—which is life-changing. You didn’t anticipate you were going to have it anyway, so you’re not going without by not spending it.

Read more: How to Pay Off Debt Quickly

5. Invest Your Nest Egg

Here’s where the magic really happens. Once you have a little bit of a nest egg, you can invest that money and your money starts making you money. We’re not talking gambling here—we’re talking about a high-interest savings account where you can get like 5% right now, or an index-linked account, something super safe.

You can take your little nest egg and put it in so your money starts making you money. Compound interest is your friend. Just like before you were paying interest on interest on interest and always broke to credit card companies, now those guys are paying you interest on interest on interest. You just sit it there and let it grow and keep adding to it.

6. Make a Budget

Obviously, make a budget if you don’t have one. Know exactly what’s coming in versus what expenses are going out. What works well is having an app on your phone that tracks your spending and alerts you when you’re spending too much. You can get an alert anytime you spend money or if you’re going over certain budgets—super handy to keep you on track and make sure you’re not overspending.

7. Live Off Cash

You can also live off cash, which is something a lot of people do. Try not to use your card always. Collect some budgeted cash for food and fun and maybe clothing each week. Have the cash, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. The tip here is you should try to save the money in your account.

8. Educate Yourself About Finance

Something to definitely try is reading finance books, listening to finance podcasts and watching finance YouTube videos. It shifts something in your brain. It helps you break that scarcity cycle and helps you be educated about money. Shifting how you think about money—thinking about it like people who have money think about money—changes the game.

9. Consider Buying an Imported Secondhand Product

The final mindset shift when it comes to stuff is looking at buying bigger purchases or even smaller purchases secondhand. Do you know that as soon as you drive a brand-new car off the lot you lose like $5,000? That money is gone. Always buy vehicles that are maybe coming off a year or a two-year lease—you’re saving so much money.

Anything like even clothes—shop at Goodwill. Anytime you can buy secondhand and not look at it as “oh I have to buy secondhand” but look at it like “I’m saving so much money,” that mindset shift puts money in your pocket.

10. Try a 7-Day No-Spend Challenge

These 20 ways to save money in the new year continue with a 7-day no-spend challenge. This is fun. We can all say we want to do better and save more money, but doing a no-spend—where you are not allowed to spend money for 7 days—will instantly save you a ton of cash.

Go grocery shopping on a Sunday, and then Monday to the next Sunday, you are not allowed to spend even one dime. Make sure you fill up your car with gas before, but this is fun and challenging. If you do this one week out of every month, you will save thousands of dollars this year.

11. Meal Plan and Reduce Food Waste

The next thing you can do is really look at your food budget, because over 25% of your income goes to food. Meal planning—just writing out your meals for the week, making sure you’re not getting fast food or overbuying and having things rot—saves you a ton of money.

12. Eat from Your Freezer

Do this thing anytime you go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of meat on sale. Stick it in the freezer. Pulling that out and meal planning around your frozen food will save you a ton of money.

13. Have Meatless Mondays; Eat Eggs Instead.

Just having meatless Mondays will save you $10 every Monday. Cutting out meat and having eggs, pasta, fish, or beans—just not eating meat—that’s like 40 or 50 bucks a month you’re going to save having one day of no meat.

14. Make Your Own Snacks

Taking one day a week to make Rice Krispie squares, cookies, or kids’ snacks will save you hundreds of dollars on your monthly grocery bill.

15. Evaluate Your Subscriptions

Go into your Apple Store to see what you’re buying every month. It might be all these apps you didn’t know you had signed up for, or you had signed up for a trial and didn’t realize. You might have two Disney Plus subscriptions for some reason.

You’d be surprised—evaluate your subscriptions. You may be secretly spending money that you don’t even know you are.

16. Ask Service Providers to Lower Your Bills

Did you know you could ask your service providers to save you money? Call your cell phone company and just ask if there’s anything they can do. They might drop you down to a lower plan with nothing changed—you still have the same amount of gigabytes.

Calling and being nice to your service providers and just asking if there’s any way they could help you save a little bit of money—you’re going to be shocked at how many of them are like, “Yeah, here, let’s lower your plan or let’s help you out.” Some people are nice; you just got to ask.

17. Wash Clothes in Cold Water

You can instantly lower your electricity bill just by washing your clothes in the cold water. That’s where most of the energy goes—it’s heating the water. Wash your towels on cold. You can use the same towel for days, wear the same pajamas for days. Hoodies, jeans—all of those types of things you don’t have to wash. You can wear them multiple times, especially kids’ clothes.

18. Fix Things Yourself

Instead of calling a plumber every week, just fill up some buckets with water, add baking soda to them to wash off debris and try flushing your water closet yourself. You can learn how to fix roombas, vacuums, dryers—all of this yourself. YouTube is like a University that can teach you to do things that you would otherwise have to pay thousands of dollars for:), and it’s easier than you think.

19. Reuse Towels and Reduce Laundry

Installing hooks and telling your kids they have to use that towel for days has saved so much money on the washer and the dryer. Kids will have a shower and just leave the towel on the floor—teaching them to reuse it reduces your laundry loads significantly.

20. Stay Committed to Your Financial Goals

These 20 ways to save money in the new year require willpower and discipline, and it’s going to be challenging. But if you can stick with this for a month, two months, or a year, you’re going to look back and be amazed at how far you’ve come. You will change your financial situation. You will have money that will start making you money, and that is what financial freedom is all about.

Taking Control of Your Financial Future

Considering these 20 ways to save money in the new year is the foundation of financial wellness. It transforms money from an abstract concern into concrete data you can analyze and improve. Here’s what’s really the difference between people who have financial freedom and people who are living paycheck to paycheck: it’s not about earning more money—it’s about managing what you have intentionally.

Start small. Choose one method and commit to using it consistently for one month. Review your spending patterns, identify one area to improve and implement a specific change. Build from there.

The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress. Each month of trying out these 20 ways to save money in the new year provides insights that inform better decisions. Over time, these habits become automatic, requiring less active effort while providing greater financial clarity and control.

Your financial future isn’t determined by how much you earn but by how intentionally you manage what you have. These strategies are the tools that make intentional management possible.

FAQs About Saving Money in the New Year

Here are some frequently asked questions about saving money in the new year. Check them out for better understanding:

How long does it take to see results from these money-saving strategies?

You can see immediate results from strategies like the 7-day no-spend challenge, evaluating subscriptions, and calling service providers. Longer-term strategies like paying yourself first and investing your nest egg will show significant results within 3-6 months of consistent implementation.

What if I can’t afford to save 10% of my paycheck right now?

Start with whatever you can—even 1% or 2%. The important thing is building the habit of paying yourself first. As you implement other money-saving strategies and reduce expenses, you can gradually increase your savings percentage until you reach 10% or more.

How do I stay motivated when money-saving feels difficult?

Track your progress visually—whether through a savings app, spreadsheet, or even a chart on your wall. Celebrate small wins along the way. Remember that each dollar saved today has the potential to grow into much more through compound interest over time.

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