How To Save $5000 in 3 Months: The Ultimate Checklist

Here is the ultimate checklist to teach you how to save $5000 in 3 months!

Is your bank account running on empty? Are you behind on bills and know you need to save, but you aren’t sure where to start? Do you wish there was an easy way to save money and make more of it at the same time? Do you know that you need to save extra money for an emergency fund but don’t know where to begin?

If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, then this blog post is for you. In it, we’re giving you a simple checklist to help you save money even if your bank account is in the red so you can save $5,000 in three months.

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How to Save $5000 in 3 Months

Here are some of our favorite ways to save thousands of dollars every year.

Get a Side Hustle

The easiest way to make more money is by getting a side hustle. You can work from home, take on part-time hours at your regular job or even start an online business. There are plenty of part-time online side hustles you can do like freelance writing, teaching online English classes, affiliate marketing, starting a Cricut business, and many more.

Some of the best side hustles allow you to take your natural talents, career skills, and/or interests and turn them into services you can offer online. You can also work part-time delivering food or groceries with companies like Doordash, Grub Hub, or Instacart. You can make decent money delivering food even if you work for pizza places. Or turn your love of something into cash! For example, check out this article that shares 7 legit ways to turn a love for Disney into a genius side hustle!

The best way to reach a savings goal is to make more money.

Renegotiate Your Interest Rates

If you have credit cards, the interest rates may be too high. While paying off debt can be a long process, interest charges make it even harder.

According to Nerd Wallet, the most common APR for credit cards that accrue interest is about 15.91 percent. Many rates are even higher than that. Your credit score greatly affects your credit card interest rates.

But you can use a company like Credible to find better interest rates for your credit cards or get a personal loan to pay off your bills and credit cards.

Credible can help you lower your credit card bills and other expenses and allow you to save more money. Credit card companies want you to pay interest and fees, so just beware of them when you apply for new credit cards.

Save Money on Groceries

If you want to save money on groceries, start by using the grocery store’s coupon app and looking for weekly specials. You can also purchase food in bulk from wholesalers like Sam’s Club which offer lower prices than traditional stores but high-quality products.

Another way is to shop at Aldi instead of more expensive grocery stores. Aldi is a discount grocery store, and it’s usually more affordable than its competitors like Kroger, Wegmans, or Publix. And don’t let the word discount fool you. Aldi has high-quality products but at a huge discount.

Creating a grocery budget is huge because this is often the easiest place to save money in a household budget. If you start creating a weekly or monthly meal plan, it’s easier to manage your grocery budget.

Here are a few of our most popular articles that will help you save money on groceries:

Jar of peanut butter for ways to save 5000 in 3 months

If you need to stick with your current grocery store but want to save money on food, there are plenty of ways:

Buy in bulk when items go on sale
Clip coupons and use them at the store
Meal prep! Meal prepping lets you follow your grocery budget easier. Cook a week’s worth of meals on Sunday night with leftovers for lunch during the workweek.

The average cost of groceries is different depending on where you live, but you can usually save the most money by reducing your grocery budget. Don’t worry, you can still eat well if you slash your grocery bill. Grocery budgeting is about saving money by choosing lower-priced alternatives or shopping sales.

You can even make it a game or challenge where you look for ways to save more money each month. Get the family involved too!

Start Using a Round-Up Savings App

Using a round-up savings app is a smart money-saving trick. They allow you to save change that you won’t even miss. It simply rounds up to the next dollar on all your purposes and sneaks it out of your bank account before you even know it.

One of our favorite round-up savings apps that can help you save hundreds of dollars is Acorns. They also have other helpful features that can help you monitor your spending habits and create a savings plan.

Get a Financial Coach

Sometimes you need help on your savings journey, and that’s okay. A financial coach can help you sit down with your bank statement, credit card statements, and other financial accounts and help you save extra cash wherever you can.

A coach can also help you learn how to manage your finances better and give you tips you never would think of on your own.

Save Using the Envelope Challenge

One of the newest trends is the envelope challenge, and it’s a great way to save money when you’re learning how to save $5,000 in 3 months.

You start with a set number of envelopes, like 7 or 30, if you want to do a monthly or weekly challenge. You can even do a 100-day envelope challenge. Then you write the numbers for each day of the challenge on the envelopes so you would have 7 envelopes for a 7-day challenge and 30 for a 30-day challenge.

You can just add the numbered envelopes to a basket and draw one each day. Whatever number you draw, you have to put that amount of money into it and seal it. After the 100-day envelope challenge, you would have saved $5,050.

Go here to order some of the most popular budget envelopes for establishing a cash system!

Money-saving challenges make saving money fun.

Renegotiate Your Bills

Often you can call service providers like cable or phone companies and tell them you can no longer pay your bill. Sometimes they will send you to a department tasked with giving you a discount to keep you as a customer.

Some companies are going away from this practice, but it doesn’t hurt to call and ask. At the very least, your current provider often has ways that they can work with you. If not, switch to a less expensive service provider. Cut cable and go to a less expensive streaming service or get something like Netflix or Hulu which are cheaper options.

Renegotiating your monthly bills can help you reach your financial goals.

Save the Extra Paychecks in the Months with 5 Weeks

Every couple of months, there are times when you get three paychecks if you’re paid biweekly or every five weeks if you get paid weekly. As part of your savings plan, you could save the extra paycheck and put it in your savings account.

Saving that additional paycheck is an easy way to save extra cash when you’re learning how to save $5,000 in 3 months. In 2021 the months with extra paychecks are January, April, July, October, and December. In 2022 they are April, July, September, and December.

That’s four or five paychecks you could save each year!

Stop Your Subscriptions

One way to save money is to stop your subscriptions like Netflix, magazines, newspapers, games, Apple Music, Pandora, or others. You can also stop subscription boxes like Hello Fresh or others like clothing and makeup subscriptions temporarily.

Make sure you remember to direct those subscription fees into a savings account, and you’ll never miss them since they were already being deducted anyway. You’ll just get extra money you can put towards living expenses instead of products. After a while, you may not miss those subscriptions and continue to save more money.

Adjust the Tax Amount Withheld from Your Paychecks

Another way to increase your cash flow is to change the amount of tax withheld from your paycheck. Depending on your circumstances, you may be taking more money out and getting a return at the end of the year. Instead, you can just change your withholding to get more money throughout the year.

Get Cash Back with Fetch

Fetch is a great app to use to get money back on purchases you would make anyway. It’s nice to see that you can rack up points on purchases you made which can then be cashed in for gift cards to places like Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, and more!

You can get cash back on just about everything you buy, though the percentage varies. Just simply scan your receipts via the app and/or link your accounts from popular stores to start earning! It’s another way to save money when you’re figuring out how to save $5,000 in 3 months. Sign-up for Fetch here.

Create a Budget

Creating and sticking to a budget can seem overwhelming, but it is the best way to identify your spending habits. You can start by tracking your monthly expenses for a couple of months in an app like Mint or Calendar Budget to identify where your money goes. Then set a realistic budget that helps you save money and reduces all your expenses.

And zero-based budgeting is even better because you’re telling your money where to go down to every last penny. Surveys from people taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University have shown that people save 18% more money and pay off 19% more debt with zero-based budgeting.

So, give it a try because budgeting is the best way to save more money and pay off debt quicker. Check out our article Easy 4-Step Plan to Budget on an Unpredictable Income for more guidance!

We know sticking to a budget may seem overwhelming and too structured. Keep your eye on the big picture. By saving all that money, you’ll find it’s the easiest way to rein in your household spending and the key to financial security.

Use Less Common Discounts

Did you know there may be discounts out there that you aren’t using? If you or your partner work for a big company, they may offer discounts you never knew about.

Ask your HR department for a list of benefits and discounts employees get. Sometimes you can get lower rates from insurance companies and cellphone providers. You may even get some discounts at local businesses.

FAQs

Can I save $5000 in 3 months?

Yes, you can, depending on how motivated you are to make serious changes and save money. The best way to save $5,000 in three months is to set out a certain amount of money you want to save each month, like $1,800.

Is it possible to save $5000 in 6 months?

Yes, it’s even easier to save money in six months than in three months. You just want to set a goal and make a plan to save a certain amount of money each month. In this instance, you could save $1,000 a month and have $6,000 in six months.

What can I do for extra money?

There are plenty of this you can do for extra money like:

Sell things you don’t need on Facebook
Start a side hustle
Deliver food or groceries
Rent out a room
Start a blog
Drive for Lyft or Uber
Start an online business
Pet sit
Babysit
Advertise on your car

If you’re trying to raise money for a good cause, consider having a Chinese Auction fundraiser to earn extra money!

Final Thoughts on How to Save $5000 in 3 Months

Saving money is incredibly important for many reasons. You always want to have an emergency fund for unexpected expenses like a medical emergency or home or car repair.

You may also want to save money for a vacation such as Disney World or to save money for a downpayment on a home. Or just having the extra dollars can help you break the cycle of living paycheck-to-paycheck. Whatever your reason is, you can figure out how to save $5,000 in 3 months even if you don’t make a lot of money.

It’s all about living below your means for a better financial future.

How To Save $5000 in 3 Months: The Ultimate Checklist