8 Unique Family Finance Tips for Saving Money

What is your number one little known, yet important tip for how families can start saving money today?

That was the question posed to family finance experts recently and featured in the article 32 Family Finance Experts Reveal Their Top Tips for How Families Can Save Big Money.

Of the 32 entries, here are the 8 that I felt were most unique and why (excluding a virtual family bank of course). Click through on each one to see the expert’s explanation:

1. Run your envelope accounting system on prepaid cards. I love this idea, and I think it’s a perfect way to use prepaid cards. Just be sure to keep the number of categories small. I like Joanie’s choice of groceries, clothing, and entertainment.
2. Put your kids on a budget and have them manage the money allotted to that budget. This is an allowance done right! It isn’t an entitlement, it’s a budget and it teaches a critical life skill early.
3. Enforce a 50-30-20 plan for necessities, lifestyle, and savings with automatic transfers. I like keeping the budget buckets super simple and the enforcement automatic.
4. Get your kids on a payroll early and then help them contribute to a Roth IRA. This matches up with my all-time favorite family finance tip: the Family 401(k). If you have a teen who made some W-2 income from a summer job last year, look into this.
5. Make a list of everything you DIDN’T buy. I love the reverse psychology of this one.
6. Dedicate cash-back rewards to investing. This is like a mini version of Jay Leno’s practice of having two jobs and always saving the proceeds from one — but without having to hold down two jobs!
7. Take the 52-week savings challenge. Starting with just $1 on week 1 and $52 by week 52, you’ll have $1,378 at the end (ignoring any investment gain or loss). This is a nice, simple challenge that really adds up.
8. Take the 30 day no-discretionary-spending challenge. This is a clever extension of the “sleep on it before you make a spending decision” technique that will teach the whole family to delay gratification. Not only will you save a ton of money, but your family will be more thankful when you do spend money afterwards. Bonus.

What’s your favorite, little-known family finance tip?