Saving for Big-Ticket Items

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When you need to save for a big-ticket item, like a trip to London, or a really cool new camera, or something equally cool that you wouldn’t normally get a loan for like a new car, how do you save the money for it? I do all sorts of things, whatever it takes really, if the goal is truly important to me, so I will share some ideas below.

The very first thing I would do is to set up a separate account to put the money into so you can be motivated by the act of saving and watching the account balance grow. Once you’ve done that, try any or all of these ideas to help you meet your goal.

• Save all pocket change, roll, and deposit. I saved pennies in one 16.9 oz Ice Mountain water bottle and nickels and dimes in another. I am told if you fill one with just dimes, it will hold about $100. We deposited over $130 in rolled coins to start our account this way, though admittedly, it was mostly quarters and we had been saving them a long time.
• Choose NOT to do something, then transfer the money you would have spent on the thing you chose NOT to do, into the account for the big-ticket item. In our case, this was going to a cabin in a state park over New Year’s weekend.
• Cook at home instead of eating out. Watch your food budget get lower and save the difference. Note that you pay extra for convenience foods, so make as much from scratch as you can, or buy extra to stock up when you find a good sale price on something you use.
• If you really want to eat out, use a 2 for 1 coupon and save the difference, or if you are eating out alone get the second meal to take for lunch or eat for dinner later in the week.
• Make your own iced tea, coffee, hot tea or whatever your beverage of choice is. Save the money you would have spent and put it into the big ticket account.
• Give up paying for drinks if and when you go out to eat. We all need to drink more water. This can save anywhere from a dollar to several dollars per person, and let’s not even think about buying alcohol out, get it from the liquor store and drink at home you will save so much this way.
• Save all overtime pay or freelancing money in the big-ticket account.
• If you pay off a debt, take the amount you used to pay toward that debt and save it for the big ticket item or pay that amount extra toward the next debt so it gets paid off earlier and when the debts are paid, ALL the money formerly used to pay these debts can go toward the big-ticket item. Dave Ramsey calls this the debt snowball.

 

It kind of depends on how soon you must save the money as to how focused you need to be on the goal. If you have a little longer these ideas might work too.

• Gather up books from around the house and take them to Half-Price Books ask them to let you know which books they are willing to pay for and keep the others they would be willing to take, but not willing to pay for. You can always donate the books you take back to charity for the tax write off or maybe sell them online or at another location.
• If you NEED to buy a book for a class or because your library doesn’t own it, consider buying it used at Half-Price Books or another used bookstore.
  It goes without saying that if the library has it you shouldn’t be spending money on it. Put the cost of the book into the big ticket account, add extra if you were going to pay to have it shipped to you.
• Consider bartering with a friend or neighbor for things you would normally pay for. Can you trade babysitting to save money?
• Look for odd jobs that people near you are willing to pay for perhaps this would be a way to earn a little extra.
• If you shop at Aldi, don’t ignore those carts others have abandoned in the parking lot, get some extra steps and put them back to retrieve the quarter they left by not putting them back. This can add up fast. It will boost your step count too. I used to take the time to let the kids do this and then they got to keep the quarters. I’m not sure if other stores have the unlock the cart by inserting a quarter coin system, but if you know of any, please post them in the comments below.
• Need to buy a gift for an upcoming birthday or special occasion? Is there something you could make for that person cheaper than what you had planned to spend on the gift? Could you make service or quality time type coupons they could redeem at their convenience with you? Most people don’t need one more item in their lives but would welcome the chance to spend time with you instead.
• When the winter gift-giving holidays draw near, consider suggesting drawing names or setting gift cost limits to cut back on some of the expense. You could also give family themed gift baskets or memberships for favorite museums as a clutter-free gift option and perhaps save a little money in the process of encouraging them to spend quality time together.
• Declare no spend months and record what you would have spent the money on and, you guessed it, save that amount toward the big ticket. This can be a great way to rotate shelf items in your pantry and use up some of those things you haven’t gotten around to making before thew expire.
• Set a limit on what you are willing to pay for meat an only buy it if it is under that limit. I used to have a $2/pound limit on meat and while it is next to impossible to stick to that limit now, you can bet if I see meat on sale that I know we will use at or below that price I will buy a bunch and stock the freezer. I do actually get boneless skinless chicken breasts and whole boneless pork loins for this price fairly regularly still and that makes it so much harder to buy other cuts of meat for $4/pound or higher.
• Go longer between haircuts. If you usually go every eight weeks, stretch it to nine weeks and save the cost of a haircut a year. Results will be even better if you go more often. You might also consider not getting the perm or dye you’ve been considering and saving that cost also.
• You can also declutter your own things and find ways to sell some of them either online or at consignment shops. Trade video games in at places like GameStop.
• Consider buying new wardrobe items “new to you” from second-hand stores or consignment stores. Our local Goodwill stores even have a 50% off everything day the first Saturday of each month so the savings are even greater.
• There are several YouTubers that apparently buy brand name clothing and other items second-hand and then resell it on eBay for a profit, but it appears you must really know the merchandise and the market for the items you want to sell. (That reminds me of the scene from The Music Man where the salesmen are all on the train and discuss how you have to know the territory to sell the merchandise.)

Song Lyrics: https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/themusicman/rockisland.htm
Scene video:

If you have any other ideas of how to save money for big-ticket items without actually getting a second or third job, we would love it if you would share them in the comments below.

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