Why Can’t I Save Any Money

If you’re asking yourself, “Why can’t I save any money?” I have bad news for you. Saving money is a habit.  Unfortunately, so is being broke.  Now, I’m not going to say that if you’re broke, you don’t save money. Nor am I going to say that if you are broke, you have bad money management skills. After all, life happens, and you may have had an unfortunate event that drained your savings. For the most part, however, people that don’t have money aren’t in the habit of saving it.

There are hundreds, thousands, probably millions of articles, books, and podcasts that will show you a myriad of ways to spend less money at the store, buying a car, on electricity, and anything else you can think of, but for some of us spending less does not equate saving. We’re left wondering, “Why can’t I save any money?”

Let me tell you about Sue, a colleague of mine.  She has this problem.

Why Can’t I Save Any Money

A few days ago I was talking to Sue. She said she thought she did all the right things but just couldn’t save money. “I just don’t understand why nothing works for me. I use coupons when I shop. Instead of driving everywhere, I walk when I can. I turn off the lights when I leave a room, and I use a budget, but it doesn’t seem to work for me.” She described in great detail how she was handling every aspect of her finances and how she was attempting to save money. Then, she reiterated that nothing works for her.  For some reason she just can’t save any money.

Sue Was Doing Something Wrong

This is Sue’s MO.  She’ll go to the grocery store with a shopping list, buy wisely using coupons, and purchase generic when possible.  When she is not in a room or leaves the house she makes sure the lights are all off.  If she is going to be gone from home for hours, she adjusts the heating or air conditioning to be cost efficient.  Sometimes she’ll ride the bus to work to avoid using gasoline.

Those are all good money-saving practices (habits). She’s reducing her cost of living, but “money-saving” isn’t the same as “saving money.” Sue’s problem is that she can’t say no to herself or her friends. (That’s the main reason she’s always asking, “Why can’t I save any money?”

Anytime Sue’s has an opportunity to go out with her friends—girl’s night out, lunch, mini vacation—she’s “ready.” Most of these events are spur-of-the-moment ideas, so she hasn’t planned for them. She hasn’t set any money aside. She doesn’t have the funds on hand that she needs for these adventures. But…there’s always her credit card.

Sue goes. She has a good time. Maybe not as great as it could be, because she’s conscious of the fact that she’s spending money she doesn’t have and “doesn’t want to get into too much trouble,” but still, she doesn’t pinch pennies.

Then…

When the fun is over…Sue spends a while digging herself out of debt. Of course, that cuts down on the possibility of saving money. And, it’s made even

worse when a new event comes along before she’s paid off the last one. (Remember, Sue isn’t in the habit of saying “no.”)

Note: I’m not picking on Sue; we all have our weaknesses. I will give Sue this: she’s never dug herself so deeply into debt that getting out looked hopeless. But…what will she do if she has a disaster? I mean, no one is 100% sure they’ll have their job next year, next month, next week, and there’s always a chance the car will need a major repair. (I’m sure you can come up any number of things that could go wrong.)

Problem

Even though Sue has a budget (sort of) her financial planning is not thorough. She has allotments for immediate necessities like food and daily transportation, but literally treats all funds beyond that as money for play.

Answer

Sue needs to turn her weakness into a strength.

Sue’s budget is a farce. Among others she needs to include a category for savings and another recreation. An emergency fund should also be high on the list. After Sue has a real budget, she needs to live within it.

If you max out the funds in a budgeted category, stop spending money from that category. Don’t rob other categories and don’t borrow or make charges.

When Sue goes out with her friends, she needs to know exactly how much she can spend, and she needs to stop spending before she hits that limit.  I’m saying before she hits her limit because you’ll rarely ever hit the limit to the penny, and going over your budget in any category should be considered a huge “NO WAY.”

Another thing Sue needs to do is start paying herself first—preparing not only for emergencies but for her future. Since Sue tends to treat most of the funds she can access as money for play, she needs to put money for financial security purposes somewhere that takes some effort to retrieve it.  A savings account that doesn’t have a debit card or ATM access might be what Sue needs to start with. After she’s in the habit of saving, she’ll probably want to look into investment accounts.

One more thing: Sue understands that when it comes to fun, she’s not in the habit of controlling her spending. So, when she’s involved in any particular event, she shouldn’t carry more money with her than she’s allotted for it. And, she needs to leave her credit card at home! That should drastically cut back on her need to say, “Why can’t I save any money?”

Then There’s Me

I said earlier that saving money is a habit. As with any other routine we either practice it or we don’t, and new (or lapsed) habits may be difficult to start. That’s a “no duh”—Right? To make saving money a habit we have to practice saving money. It’s really simple; you do it by doing it. Eventually, you get in the habit. (And, then there’s that old saying: Practice make perfect…)

Like most people, when I decided to start saving money, I had challenges. The problem wasn’t saving money; it was hanging on to the money after I had “saved it.” Every time I thought I’d keep a little buffer in my checking account it seemed something would come up and I’d need to cash out my so-called savings.

The answer was simple: I was putting some money aside, but I wasn’t really committed to saving it. In fact, it sat in my account on an average of about three days before one thing or another came along to claim it. When I look back at those things, they seem pretty trivial now or maybe not trivial: Let’s head for the beach after work and rent jet skis: Honey, I know I could wear flats, but I just found the perfect pair of heels for the dress I’m wearing to Anne’s wedding next weekend. (That was my wife): Hey, Doug, do you guys want to get together Friday night for pizza at Papillion’s? And uh, could you buy? We’ll pay you back on the 30^th (Payday for the military…you know how that turned out.) OK, so maybe it wasn’t all that trivial. Fun, friends, and family are important, aren’t they? Hmm, sounds similar to Sue’s take on things doesn’t it? Anyway, I was the guy asking, “Why can’t I save any money?” Eventually, I got tired of doing that.  instead of asking why can’t i save any money i decided i can save money. But there needed to be some changes.

I Needed To Change Something

Eventually, I realized I was too lenient with myself and I needed a real budget not just a nebulous idea about saving money.

At that time, I was in the Navy and—fortunately—worked with some people who turned out to be good financial counselors. Living by a budget was an evolving thing for me, but when I complained about not being able to save money, someone suggested making the money I wanted to save harder to get to.

Note:

The proverbial light bulb went on! I opened a saving account.

I Realized, If I Can’t Save Money It’s Do To The Lack Of Comment.

Back then debit cards and ATM were not very common.  At that time the bank I picked for my savings account offered neither. The bank about 30 miles from where I lived and had no branches. It took me about 30 minutes to get there and I had to go through the lobby to gain access to a teller—(no drive-thru either). And one more thing, that bank had no Saturday hours. That means my money was only available to me Monday thru Friday from 9-5. There were no impulse withdrawals from this account. (Getting money to the account wasn’t a problem. I could drive it over or mail a check.) Finally, I had a savings plan that was safe from me.

You may think this was a radical move. So did I, but I knew if I didn’t do something different I would never be able to save any money. Now I had a savings account and money was accumulating in it. Eventually, I got into the habit of saving.

I want to note that all this happened back in the 1980s and I was twenty-something. Sue is forty-something, and it’s not too late for her to make some changes. It’s still available to refuse to take a debit card tied to your bank account. Also, if service fees are repulsive, you can open an account that requires keeping a substantial balance to avoid them.

Conclusion

Money saving practices may be a precursor to saving money but you have to press into actually saving if you don’t want to constantly ask, “Why can’t I save any money.” The truth is you have to make a habit of saving.