If you’d like to save more money but find yourself unable to set anything aside after you pay your bills and buy such necessities such as MAD Magazine and lottery tickets, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance editor Janet Bodnar is out to help you. She put together 10 ways to trick yourself into saving.

Here are the top 6:

1) Round Up. When you subtract a check from your account, round up the amount to the next dollar. That way, you’ll always have a slush fund. Your bank may even do this for you. Sounds like small potatoes, but even if it’s only $100 every couple of months, that’s still money in the bank.

2) Know Your Plastic Personality. Disciplined credit-card holders can earn rewards points by using their cards for all their purchases and paying the bills in full each month. Consumers with less self-control may want to use debit cards to make sure that they don’t spend more than they have. In either case, your monthly statement provides a handy record of areas where you’re leaking cash.

3) Bag Savings from Brown-Bag Lunches. Each time you bring your lunch to work or pass up the temptation to buy a latte, take the money you would have spent and put it in your cash jar. It’s an immediate reward for your self-discipline.

4) Pay Yourself After You’ve Paid Off a Debt. Once you finish paying off a loan or credit-card balance, keep writing the check but send it directly to a savings or investment account.

5) Make Savings Account Deposits. Deposit your paycheck and other money to your savings account instead of checking. You’re much less likely to spend the money if you have to transfer it from savings.

6) Limit ATM Withdrawals. Instead of hitting the cash-back button for $35 every time you go to the drugstore or supermarket, limit yourself to one ATM withdrawal per week and make your money last.

For the other four, you’ll have to click on the link below.

What are your favorite ways to sneak some money aside before you can spend it?

10 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Saving [Kiplinger]
(Thanks, Laura!)

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