If your savings could use a serious boost, but you don’t want to pick up any extra hours at work, it’s time to get creative. Saving or bringing in more money isn’t impossible – in fact, it’s downright easy to do sometimes.

Here are a few methods you can use to improve your bottom line.

Use Cashback Credit Card Rewards

If you’re going to use a credit card, you might as well use one that benefits you. Cashback credit cards offer the most bang for your buck.

If you use these credit cards for purchases, you can receive anywhere from 1 to 5 percent of your purchases back in cash. You get that for doing nothing more than shopping! How’s that for a deal?

To truly benefit from these types of credit cards though, you want to make sure you’re paying your balance off in full each month. If you’re carrying debt on that credit card from month to month, any savings you earn would be eaten away by the interest you’ll have to pay to your credit card company.

So use your card for groceries, gas, and anything else you would normally debit or pay cash for. And then when your bill comes around, pay it off.

Don’t Make Your Grocery List Until After You Review the Sales

If you prepare a menu each week to cut your grocery costs, congratulations! You’re already taking one of the most important steps you can to save money. But with a little more effort, you can take your savings to the next level.

Check out the weekly sales flyer before you prepare your menu. Try to use the most steeply discounted foods to make up the bulk of your menu. That will lock in even more savings for you.

Asking For Generics

If you’re on any medication at all, you should ask your doctor or pharmacist if there is a generic alternative you could be using. By taking generic medication, you could save hundreds of dollars a year.

But prescriptions aren’t the only place where you can save on generic medications. It will also work with over-the-counter medications. Even brand names like Tylenol can be a dollar or two more than the generic medications that contain the same active ingredient.

Shopping Out Your Insurance

From time to time, you need to review your insurance needs. They don’t always stay the same year after year. Maybe you could get by with decreasing your life insurance a little as you get older, particularly if you’re starting to build up a sizeable amount of money in a 401k.

If you’re reviewing your insurance needs anyway, it’s a great time to shop around to see if you can find lower rates. Instead of just going with brick and mortar insurance companies in your city or town, you might want to consider purchasing your insurance online.

Are you saving for a big goal that’s rapidly approaching? Haven’t gotten as far on your savings as you’d hoped by now?

It’s not too late. There are always cost-saving measures you can take that can help you out of a jam quickly. Whether you have a vacation coming up or a big bill you’re worried you won’t be able to pay, try to cut corners using these methods.

Use a Coupon

If you’re going grocery shopping, look for any coupons that go with what you want to buy. Even if it saves you 50 cents per item, it can add up. Take that money you saved and set it aside for your goal.

Live Off the Pantry

When money is really tight and you’re trying to reach a short-term goal, live off the food you already have in the freezer or the pantry. It might not be your top pick, but you won’t spend anything extra to have your meals.

You may have to get creative to make all the ingredients come together, but it could be a fun challenge.

Use Your Feet

Try to avoid driving or taking public transportation as much as you can. Walk to your destinations instead. It’ll save you on fare money or on burning up gas.

Sell Something

If it’s been a while since you looked through your closet, take stock of what you have and what you no longer need. Then get busy trying to sell it online.

Take On Extra Hours

Ask your employer if there is any way you can pick up an extra shift at work for the week. Explain that money is really tight and you could use the overtime. The answer might be no, but you should at least explore that option.

Eat at Home for One Week

If you’re a fan of having meals out, try to eat all your meals at home for a week. You’ll be able to save a significant chunk of change.

Look for Free Entertainment

Make a vow you’re not going to spend any money on entertainment until you reach your short-term savings goal. There is always free entertainment you can find if you look hard enough.

Only Use Cash

You can be tempted to overspend when you carry your credit cards around. It can feel like you’re not spending real money and it’s easy to lose track of how much you’ve spent. Carry cash instead so you don’t get carried away. It’s a lot harder to part with cash.

Look At Your Budget

If you’re trying to cut corners, take a hard look at your budget. You might want to drop some extras, like Netflix or your gym membership. Be ruthless and think of your savings goal while you’re making decisions.

Skip the Booze

If you’re an occasional drinker or you like to hit the bottle almost every day, you can save a chunk of change by stopping, even just for a week.

Money adds up quickly when you’re buying alcohol. If you drink in clubs or bars, it can get expensive after your first drink. Even if you buy a cheap bottle of wine to enjoy at home, you can still save by skipping it for a while.

If you’re tired of using complicated methods to see how much money you could save over the long term if you cut cable or stopped some other monthly reoccurring fee, you’re in luck. You can figure it out with a simpler method than you have been using. It’s called the Rule of 184 and it can help you quickly determine whether a reoccurring payment will be worth it to you in the future.

How the Rule of 184 Works

With the Rule of 1984, you’ll take the monthly payment you’re contemplating and multiply it by 184 to see how much that expense would cost you over a 10-year period.

For instance, let’s say you want to put an addition onto your house. But in order to do, you’re going to have to agree to a payment of $220 for a period of 10 years. To see the true cost of how much that will set you back, you’ll multiply that monthly figure by 184.

That number takes into account the interest you could make, set at 8 percent, over the next 10 years if you had invested that monthly figure instead of spending it.

So let’s see how much that home renovation could potentially cost you. It would rob you of $40,480 over a 10-year period. Once you see that figure, you might decide that backyard oasis isn’t worth the money. Or maybe you’ll decide to spring for it anyway. That’s up to you. But at least with the Rule of 184, you’ll make a more informed decision.

How It Can Benefit You

When you start thinking in terms of how much each purchase is costing you, it can be a powerful motivating factor.

While you might not decide to forgo every purchase, even if you opt not to do some of them you’re going to have an improved financial picture.

Maybe you’ll decide that $100 cable bill isn’t worth the $18,400 that could be sitting in a bank account for you in 10 years’ time. And maybe you’ll realize that gym membership isn’t worth it if you only go there once a week.

You might start looking for a cheaper route to go with your purchases. Instead of the sports car that might cost you $400 a month, maybe you’ll go for a less flashy but much cheaper model.

If you find a few places to cut back on and take the action of investing the money instead, you might end up with six figures more for your retirement than you would have if you didn’t know the Rule of 184.

It’s rare to find a financial rule that is as straightforward and simple as the Rule of 184. So when you stumble across one, you should make sure to put it to work for you.

If you’re struggling to make ends meet and you’ve slashed all you can from your budget, you have to find a way to bring in more money. Even if you can devote a few hours a week to doing a side gig, you’ll be better off.

You may not want to work this second job forever though. So remember, start paying off debt with the extra money instead of inflating your spending habits.

Collect Metal

If you’re the type of person who always likes to be on the move, collecting cans you see alongside the road might be a good odd job for you. While you won’t get rich from doing it, you can gather up a lot of cans to turn in.

And as a side perk, you’ll be getting exercise while you do it.

Be a Housesitter

Are you a trustworthy sort of person? Do you have one of those faces that people just seem to like and trust right away?

If so, housesitting might be for you.

When people go on vacation and don’t want to let their houses sit vacant the whole time they’re gone, they hire housesitters.

Walk Dogs

If you love animals and exercise, dog walking might be an option to explore. A lot of people don’t have the time to take their pets on long walks or they aren’t in good enough health to do it.

That’s where you can come in. You can earn a nice chunk of money just for walking Fido around the neighborhood a few times.

Take Online Surveys

Before you become a survey taker, you need to realize you won’t make a killing at it. At best, you can earn enough to give yourself a little spending cash for the week. If you need to earn several hundred dollars a month, this won’t be the right fit for you.

Be a Friend For Hire

If you make instant friends with almost anyone you meet, you could become a professional friend. This service is used a lot by people who are visiting strange towns and want to have someone to hang out with in a city full of unfamiliar faces.

Tutor Someone

Were you a math whiz in school? Are you great at explaining things to people who need a little extra guidance? If so, tutoring might be in your future.

You can charge a considerable amount of money per hour for your help tutoring grade school and high school students. If you’re a teacher, work with children in another capacity, or have other similar qualifications, it will be much easier for you to find clients.

Host a Sports Camp or Give One-on-One Lessons

If you were a star athlete in school and you’ve kept in reasonable good shape, get ready to make a killing. You can put out the word you’ll be willing to help kids learn the basics of the sport you excelled in. Or you might let parents know you can help take their child’s sport skills to another level.

School sports have become so competitive that students routinely are enrolled in sports camps and parents often pay for tutors.

When you’re supporting a family on only one income, it can be tricky to feel like you’re making any financial progress at all. And because you only are bringing home one salary, it’s essential you pay close attention to what your financial goals are and how you’re going to get there.

Here are some of the things you should be looking at when you’re trying to support a household on just one income.

Saving as Much In Your 401k as Possible

You need to sock away as much as you can for retirement because you’ll only have one 401k or pension to count on in your golden years since your partner isn’t working. Unless they play to join the workforce later, you need to be aggressive with your savings.

Most 401ks have an option for an automatic increase of 1 percent per year. That means that every year, your 401k contribution will go up by 1 percent, usually until you reach a certain percentage, like 20 percent.

Because that’s such a small amount at a time, it’s doable for you. You may not even miss that amount too much, especially if you get an annual raise too.

Watch Your Food Costs

This is where the stay-at-home partner can really contribute, by cutting corners on groceries whenever possible.

Because they’ll have a little more time on their hands to do the grocery shopping, they may be able to clip coupons or use digital coupons to lock in more savings. They should also prioritize putting together a menu so they don’t overspend on food, particularly fresh produce that might end up getting thrown out before it is used.

One great way to ensure there is no overspending on groceries is by using cash every time you go shopping. Plus, you should never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Everything in the store will look tempting to buy.

Be Sensible With Your Big Purchases

While little things do add up, those big-ticket items are still the ones that can impact your budget the most.

When house shopping, you should opt for one that still leaves plenty of room in your budget after you make the monthly payment. The same applies for car shopping, particularly since you may need two cars for your household and you only have one income to buy them with.

Have Your Own Spending Money

While you may only be bringing in one salary, the unpaid person in the relationship is still making a contribution. They may be raising children or taking care of the household and all the finances. They shouldn’t be made to feel like they aren’t entitled to spend any money just because what they’re doing isn’t compensated with a paycheck.

One way to work around this is to have both partners get an allowance at the beginning of the month. Whether it’s $100 a month or more, this is money that is just theirs to do with as they please. That can make everyone feel as if they don’t have to justify the little purchases they want to make that will make them happy.

An increasing number of people are entering the freelance world instead of a typical 9 to 5 job. The perks can be intoxicating – the flexibility to set your own hours and work from anywhere in the world. But there are some downsides too, including a lack of benefits and a fluctuating salary that makes budgeting a challenge.

But just because you don’t know how much to plan for each month in your budget, it doesn’t mean you can’t rock your finances as a freelancer. Here are some tips to get you started.

Try to Budget Within the Lowest Amount You Could Bring In

If there are months where you earn $2,000 and months where you’ve doubled that, budgeting can be tricky. One way to work around that is by budgeting as close to your lowest earning month as possible. If you do better, it’s like you’re winning a mini lottery each month.

Then if you get extra money, you’re not counting on it for anything – you can use it for extra debt repayment, to bulk up your emergency savings, or to throw into an IRA.

Don’t Forget to Make a Line Item for Retirement

While drafting your budget, you have to include an amount for an IRA. You won’t be getting a 401k from an employer and you won’t be earning a pension. That means you won’t have a dime saved for retirement unless you make it a priority in your budget.

You can start off small if your budget is already tight. Or you can throw any extra money you get in big-earning months straight into an IRA account you already have set up.

That Emergency Fund is More Important Than Ever

Emergency funds are the cornerstone of any solid financial plan. But when you’re a freelancer with a fluctuating salary, they are even more important.

As a freelancer, you won’t get paid sick days or vacation days. That means if you are working, you aren’t earning any money. So a bad bacterial or viral illness could cost you days in lost wages. You have to have money set aside to help you cover that.

It’s really not a matter of if you’ll face that situation, it’s a matter of when. It’s best to be prepared for when it happens than to try to scramble and modify your budget when it does.

List Your Expenses From Most Important to Least Important

On your budget, start by listing your most important expense, which will likely be your house payment or rent. You need a place to live after all.

Keep ranking their importance down to the last bill. Things like gym memberships and cable television service will be at the bottom of this list.

Pay Things Off In That Order

Your first check of the month should go to the most important item. You’ll use that check, setting a small amount aside for essential gas or groceries to get you by for the time being. But any meals out shouldn’t be planned until closer to the end of the month when you have a better idea of whether you can afford them.

After that first check is gone, use your next check of the month to pick up where you left off on your list. By the time the month is done, ideally, you’ll have worked hard enough to have extra.

If you have a bunch of outstanding debts and you have no idea how to begin to pay them off, the debt snowball method might be your best bet.

This method, made popular by financial guru Dave Ramsey, gives you a way to put momentum to work for you. If you can feel your efforts snowballing, you’re much more likely to stick with them.

Let’s take a look at how the debt snowball system works.

What Should I Do First?

The first thing you should do is get a complete list of all the debts you owe and what the minimum payments are for each one. Go old school and write it down in a notebook if you want. Or you can create a spreadsheet on the computer with that information where you can track your progress.

You should put every kind of debt you owe on this list – even the “good” kind like your mortgage. Put your car payment, personal loan, credit cards, and student loans on this list.

When making your list, put a star by the one you owe the least amount of money to – not the one with the highest interest rates on the debt. That’s the bill you’re going to start to pay off first.

How Do I Do It?

Once you’ve identified the debt you owe the least amount of money to, you can start to pay it off. Pay just the minimum payments on all your other debts and not a dollar more. The idea is to aggressively target your lowest bill because it will be paid off the fastest. That will make you feel great because you’ll see an immediate payoff for your efforts.

So while you’re paying only the minimum on your other debts, put every single dime you can toward your lowest debt. Any spare money you find should only go toward paying this bill off. You can cash in your spare change, sell some clothes you no longer wear, or only shop the grocery sales at the store for a few weeks.

You need to dive right in and pay that bill off as fast as you can.

Then What?

Once that debt is out of your way, you should start to focus on your others. Pick the debt with the lowest balance out of those remaining on your list. Then take all the money you were putting toward your first debt before paying it off and put it toward your new target.

When that debt is paid off – whether it takes months or years – you move onto the next one.

You keep targeting new debts as you pay off the old ones. When you get to the final debt, which may be quite sizeable if it’s a car, student loan, or mortgage, just remember it may take a while. Try not to get discouraged about how far you still have to go. Instead, think about how far you’ve come and how good you feel about what you’ve managed to accomplish with your finances.

Sometimes you have to spend a little money to save a bigger amount down the road. You don’t want a minor problem to spiral out of control. Suddenly you can find that a problem which would have taken you a couple hundred to fix will now set you back thousands.

Inactivity can be a terrible money habit. Even though you’re not actively spending money, it can wreak havoc on your finances.

Let’s take a look at how this applies to your dental needs and how ditching your dentist might put more sting in your pocketbook than it ever would have in your mouth.

Carry Dental Insurance

If you have a job with benefits, dental insurance is probably one of them. If you have any major dental needs, like needing a crown or braces, that dental insurance can save you a lot of money up front. Many dental plans cap out after $1,000 a year. But the premiums are so low for that insurance that even one cleaning may make up for the cost of carrying insurance for the year.

With most dental plans, you can get a cleaning every six months for free. That can help your dentist spot any pending problems they may be able to reverse, like gingivitis.

If left over the long term without any treatment or regular cleanings, gingivitis could eventually lead to tooth loss. That can become super expensive if you have to buy dentures to make up for the teeth you’ve let go.

But dental insurance only benefits you if you decide to use it. If you don’t, problems can get out of control quickly. A small cavity may cost you a tooth in the long run, not to mention a lot of pain.

Having a poor set of teeth can cost you in another way too. It can hold you back in job interviews. You can be so self-conscious about bad teeth that you end up not smiling at all.

Find a Dentist You Like

Some people realize the importance of keeping up with their dental care but they don’t do it anyway. That can happen because of a busy schedule. But it can also be the result of having a phobia about dentists. Some people are deeply terrified to step foot in a dentist’s office.

If you’re scared of going to the dentist because of some bad childhood experience, you need to remember that the dentist who caused you pain is the exception rather than the rule. Dentistry has come a long way in the past couple of decades and there are ways to avoid feeling any discomfort while you’re sitting in that dental chair.

Do Your Home Care Too

While you’re at the dentist, he’ll give you instructions as to what more you can be doing to protect your dental health. You should listen to him. You’re paying for that advice so make sure you heed it.

He’ll tell you to floss daily and to brush twice a day. That’s all good advice that can give you a great return on your investment.

Debt is a common problem for most Americans, but it turns out it’s more than just a way of life – it’s something that can negatively affect your health.

Here are some of the ways debt may be impacting you physically and mentally.

It’s Stressing Out Your Relationships

Whether you’re fighting with your spouse constantly about money or you’ve caused a rift in your family by not paying your parents back some money they’ve loaned you, finances are a sure-fire way to get between even the closest of relationships.

If you notice a strain in one or more of your relationships because of money, it’s time to take a hard look at your priorities. Figuring out a workable way to pay off your debt, such as the debt snowball method, will help you create better relationships with the people in your life.

It’s Causing Anxiety

If you’re worried it’s a bill collector every time your phone rings, you’re putting yourself through a crazy amount of anxiety you don’t need in your life. Anxiety creates stress and constantly elevated stress levels can contribute to illness.

Squaring those accounts away so you don’t face that anxiety and stress anymore would be in your best interest.

It Can Increase Your Blood Pressure

Your blood pressure level is a good indicator of your heart health. High blood pressure shows you might be at an elevated chance of having a stroke or a cardiac event, like a heart attack.

A study has shown that, even among younger Americans, people with high debt, especially those with few assets, had higher blood pressure.

It Can Contribute to Depression

No matter what your age, feeling your finances are out of control can quickly lead to depression. There are things that influence depression that are sometimes completely out of your control, such as your overall health, the health of your loved ones, and all the conflict in the world.

But your finances are one area you can control if you work hard enough. Instead of allowing the depression to overtake you, you can try to come up with a workable solution to your finances.

If you’re older and your children have already moved out of your house, you can downsize to potentially pay off debts or at least decrease your house or rent payments each month. If you don’t feel you can handle your financial issues by yourself, you can ask a family member to help you sort them out or consult with a debt consolidator.

It Can Prevent You From Seeking Medical Care

Many people skip doctor appointments because they can’t afford to go to them. It’s hard to justify the cost when you already owe what feels like an insurmountable amount of money. But skipping a doctor’s appointment could prove deadly – a treatable condition may spiral into something life-threatening.

Some people also opt not to fill needed prescriptions because they don’t feel they have the money to pay for their medicine. That can also have dire consequences on their health.

Kids learn a lot in school, but to say it completely prepares them for life would be stretching it. A school does little to teach children about their finances or how to handle them.

If you want your child to have a healthy relationship with money and to have their best start at a bright future, you should pencil in a night to talk to them about how to manage their finances.

Here are some of the lessons you should incorporate.

Avoiding Credit Card Debt

Credit cards can submarine your child’s financial future in the blink of an eye. A month or two of irresponsible spending might take years for them to pay off – if they don’t try to sucker you into doing it for them.

Before they apply for their first credit card, which could be the day they arrive at college because credit card companies will start sending them offers at an alarming rate, you need to have a heart-to-heart talk with them. Go over the dangers of credit cards with them and spare no details. If you’ve had awful credit card debt in the past, tell them about it. Let them know it can sneak up on you quickly.

Investing for their Golden Years

Teenagers aren’t known for thinking about the future. Retirement can seem a lifetime away – and it is. But as adults, we know how quickly those years will sneak by. And before they know it, your kids will have missed out on the best investing years of their lives.

Urge them to join a 401k or start an IRA as soon as they can. Show them what the magic of compound interest will do. They’ll be intrigued to see they could be a millionaire with very little effort.

How to Pay for College

If your child is college bound, let them know how much you can afford to chip in. You don’t want them thinking you’re going to bankroll the whole thing if you’re not. And you don’t want them learning about it after they get into the school of their dreams and realize they don’t have enough money to attend.

Start talking with them about college and finances in their early high school years. They might realize a job would be in their best interest so they can start saving. Or maybe they’ll buckle down and work on their grades in the hope of getting a scholarship. The point is, they need time to come up with a workable plan.

The Dangers of Peer Pressure

Trying to keep up with their friends’ spending habits may lead to a lifetime of debt and misery for your child. Let them know that material objects won’t make them happy or make people think they’re any cooler.

What’s really cool is staying out of debt and having plenty of money for travel and a home eventually.

Why They Should Have an Emergency Fund

Don’t let your child forget about the importance of saving for a rainy day. That’s different from their retirement accounts and they need to realize it.

They should aim to save up somewhere between three to six months of expenses to handle any emergencies they could face.