3 Little-Known Ways to Boost Your Savings This March

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These tricks actually work really well. 

It’s fair to say that a lot of people’s finances took a hit in 2022. Last year, a lot of people had to raid their savings accounts or even resort to racking up credit card debt to cope with inflation.

And speaking of inflation, we’re not done with it. You may find that the cost of everything this month, from groceries to apparel to utilities, is more expensive than it used to be. That could make growing your savings a challenge. But here are a few less obvious ways to give your cash reserves a boost this month.

1. Do your food shopping at Aldi

Groceries are an essential expense. And as of January, grocery prices were up 11.3% from a year prior, according to that month’s Consumer Price Index. You can cut your food costs, however, by shopping at discount grocers like Aldi.

Now, if you’re going to insist on loading up on specific brands as you do your food shopping, then Aldi probably won’t work for you. The whole reason Aldi is able to offer such competitive prices on groceries is that it commonly stocks off-brands that don’t spend tons of money on marketing, meaning they don’t pass that expense onto consumers.

But if you don’t care who makes your pasta, rice, or cereal, then shopping at Aldi could result in a much lower credit card tab than your normal supermarket. And who knows? You may even find that you prefer an Aldi brand you’ve never heard of to the one you’ve been buying for years.

2. Stay off Amazon when you’re bored

When you’re not quite ready to hit the sack at night but you’re not in the mood for TV or a book, it can be tempting to scroll through retail sites like Amazon to stay entertained. Don’t do that. What’ll often happen is that you’ll tell yourself you’re simply window shopping, so to speak, only to wind up buying random items that seem like a good idea at the time.

In fact, as a general rule, you shouldn’t shop out of boredom, whether it’s browsing Amazon at night or hitting the mall on a weekend when you don’t have other plans. To put it another way, only visit a store or retail site when there’s a specific item you’re looking to acquire.

3. Take over one home maintenance item you’d normally outsource

Annual home maintenance costs Americans $3,018 on average, according to Angi. That’s roughly $250 a month. But if you’re able to take over some of your maintenance instead of outsourcing it, you might cut that expense quite a bit.

Think about the different services you pay for. Chances are, there are some that don’t require specific tools or skills — perhaps you just don’t want to spend the time tackling them. But if, for example, you’re currently paying a housekeeper $100 a week to do your cleaning for you, that’s a job you’re most likely equipped to do yourself, provided you don’t have a condition that limits your ability to do physical work.

Cutting back on spending substantially is a great way to boost your savings. But that’s also a really tough thing to do — and something that might make you miserable. So rather than go that route, look to these less obvious ways to give your savings a nice lift.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Maurie Backman has positions in Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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