Here’s something I don’t think we’ve discussed in years: what changes do you make when you want to save money? (Have you tried to kick your savings up a notch recently?)

{related: not sure what to do first/next in your personal finance journey? here’s our money roadmap}

Changes I Make When I Want to Save Money

Some of the things I do when I want to save more money (or at least stop spending quite so much) include the following ideas…

Use what we have. We eat down the fridge, freezer, and pantry, and if I’ve been lazy about looking for something (a pair of my eldest son’s shoes that I’ve saved to hand down to my youngest son, or a book I need to return to the library or risk paying for the entire book), then I do what I can do look for it.

Return what we don’t need. I tend to base my shopping heavily at spots with great return policies, and then stuff tends to collect… so if there are things that I’m not sure of that still have tags on them, then I look at them with new eyes and return a lot of them.

Limit shopping opportunities. There are certain stores where it seems like it’s a $50 entrance fee because I just never get out of there without spending at least $50, largely on stuff that I really don’t need. So I’ll avoid those stores, or the aisles that are the most tempting for me. Where possible I’ll order something online for delivery or curbside pickup rather than going to the store because I tend to stick to my list better when I order.

Choose the budget options. Do we need to spend $100 at the local delivery place or can we choose the option where we only spend $35? Do I need a glass of wine with dinner or am I ok with a water? Do I really need that fancy shampoo this month, or is the budget option ok? Those are the easiest things for me to cut, of course.

{related: financial tips for new lawyers (or other women in their first high-paying jobs!)}

Bigger Changes I Make to Save Money

All of the above are things that are somewhat intuitive and easy to do, and usually do the trick… in times past where I’ve needed to do more, I’ve done a few more steps…

Assess past spending to figure out where the money is going. This usually involves downloading a lot of statements and categorizing stuff myself in an Excel chart. Sometimes it yields useful information (subscriptions, easily identified overspending), and sometimes it doesn’t.

Assess my other saving goals (and automatic savings). If I’m trying to save more money because it feels like I never have money in accounts, that might be because I’ve got a lot of automatic savings set up for multiple financial goals — and maybe those savings are a bit too much for where we are right now. I might dial back the money going to our Vacation Fund, or our “fun fund…” or I might choose to live with the stress of not having a ton of money in our accounts because the stress helps me tighten our belt in other areas, and the automatic savings are high level goals.

{related: how to set up automatic investing}

Make a budget. For a lot of people this is the first step, but for me this is one of the last — I only partially use Mint anymore (and really did not like YNAB when I downloaded it recently, although I know readers love it)… but I prefer to use automatic savings for budgetary items like vacations and then use whatever’s left for those of-the-moment purchases like restaurants, clothes, etc.

Readers, what do you do when you want to save money?

{related: cash savings or retirement savings? where to stash your cash when you’re unsure what you’re saving for}