Welcome to today’s assignment. Today, you’ll start by identifying approximately how much cushion you’d like to build. Then, you’ll figure out how you’d like to boost your savings: either by increasing income, cutting back on spending, or both. Finally, you’ll get practical by spending time figuring out the logistics of your plan.
What exactly is a cushion?
You can think of your cushion as a cash buffer that you can draw from to pay bills or to Fill your Envelopes to full. When you have a cushion, you’re able to do those kinds of things before your new income arrives, rather than having to wait until after you get paid.
What that means is that this buffer isn’t stagnant. It goes up and down throughout the month. When you Fill your Envelopes in Goodbudget, your buffer goes down (and might even go to zero), but then it goes back up when you replenish it with money from your paychecks.
It’s the security you need that enables you to buy groceries or pay your rent even if your current paycheck arrives late or your gas bill is high this month.
Now that you know what a cushion is, you can start to figure out how much you’d like to build.
Step 1: Figure out how much cushion you’ll need
There’s a lot of debate by financial experts about how much the average person needs as a cash buffer (i.e. cushion). But a general rule of thumb says you should create a cushion equal to $3,000, or about one month’s worth of expenses.
Now, you might be thinking, “Whoa, that’s a lot.” And it is! But $3,000 makes sense for the average American making about $56,000 a year (the median US income). This is because a cushion of $3,000 is about equal to one month of take home pay, or one month’s worth of expenses.
But that $3,000 number is just an average suggestion; the exact cushion you’ll seek to build will depend on your situation, your goals, and what you’re comfortable with. What’s important here is to get started building a reasonable cushion to help you break the paycheck to paycheck cycle ASAP — don’t get hung up on exact numbers.
Using one month of expenses as a starting point, here are some things to consider to help you get an estimate of a cushion you can work towards:
Increase your cushion from one month’s worth of expenses if:
- Your expenses fluctuate significantly from month to month
- Your income fluctuates significantly from month to month
- You expect your expenses will increase in the near future (from buying a house, getting married, having kids, etc)
Decrease your cushion from one month’s worth of expenses if:
- Your income is fairly stable and consistent
- Your expenses are fairly predictable
At the end of the day, this estimate is just a starting point. Once you’ve grown your cushion and have lived with it for a while, you’ll have a better feel for whether or not it’s actually going to work for you in the long run. At that point, you’ll be able to make an even better estimate of how much cushion you’d like to have, and can adjust it accordingly.
Step 2: Find your strategy for boosting savings
This is where things get fun! This step is all about helping you find your strategy for how you’ll boost your savings to build your cushion.
Below, you’ll find a list of ideas for boosting savings. You can choose one that you like, or do a mix of them! And if none of these make sense for your situation, no worries! This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, and it might mean you’ll just have to spend a little extra time coming up with one or more options that do work. The goal is to find a strategy that you think you could live with for a period of time while you’re building your cushion.
Potential strategies:
- Sell valuables you no longer need: We all have things lying around the house that we don’t need. We might even have some large appliances that need to be sold. Websites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace are great for this.
- Take on more hours at your existing job: If your current job could use more of your time, this could be a great option.
- Cut back on your current spending: This is great for folks that have a few luxuries or other things that they could do without for a bit. For example, try making your morning coffee at home rather than buying out, or temporarily cut a few streaming service subscriptions.
- Pick up a gig, like as a delivery driver: Services like DoorDash and Instacart are thriving in many areas. Plus, schedules can be adapted to fit your current situation.
- Freelance your existing talents or skills: Have a desirable skill? Use an app like Fiverr to find people who will pay you for your skills.
- Rent out an asset, like a bedroom or vehicle: Got an empty spare room? Renting that out a few nights a week on Airbnb could bring in some extra cash.
Step 3: Get practical
Once you’ve identified how you plan to boost your savings, now’s the time to get practical about how you’ll make that plan fit in your life for the next 30 days.
Here are some tips to get you started.
Freelancing or selling valuables? Consider your rate
If you’re freelancing or helping with yard work, then you’ll be able to set your rate for your clients. Your rate can inform how much time you’ll need to spend doing these things.
If you’ve freelanced a particular skill before, then you might have an idea of what your new rate might be. If not, try researching locals who are in the same field to see what their rates are. Be sure to adjust your rate so that it matches your experience level.
The same is true if you’re planning on selling some valuables around your house. Find comparable items nearby and see how much they’re selling for. Consider the condition of your items and how old they are.
Consider your schedule
To some extent, your rate will help you choose your schedule. Generally speaking, the more you charge, the fewer hours you’ll need to dedicate to your gig (or other strategy you’re using to boost savings). Conversely, the less you charge, the more hours you’ll spend. But you’ll also have to set time aside to actually find clients before you can start charging, so putting time on the calendar now will help you stay accountable to those goals.
If you’re opting to pick up extra hours at your existing job, then you might not have a say in when you’ll work those hours or what the rate will be. But if you’re selling things on the side, or picking up a gig with a popular delivery app (like Doordash), then you’ll probably have some flexibility in choosing your hours. In that case, put that time on the calendar now.
If you’re cutting back on spending…
You might need a budget to help you track your spending, if you don’t have one already. We’ll cover how to make a budget in more detail in the next assignment, but you can get started now!
Try making a budget based on your previous spending, and then adjust as needed to make sure that your expenses are less than your income.
If you’ve already been tracking your budget and spending, try looking at your past spending to see if there are areas you can cut back on.
Step 4: Set your 30-day cushion goal
Remember when we said you’d make a goal for where you’d like your cushion to be at the end of this course? Now’s when you’ll actually do it.
Think of how you’ve decided to boost your savings, and think about how much work you can put towards that in these 30 days. If you’ve got a lot of extra time on your hands, and you feel really motivated to build a cushion quickly, then maybe aim to have one week’s worth of expenses saved up in 30 days.
If you’d like to be a little more conservative, maybe shoot for saving about a week’s worth of your grocery budget in 30 days.
Whatever works for you is awesome! Just make sure that it’s doable in 30 days. By having a goal you can actually achieve, you’ll feel even more motivated to keep going to build your full cushion after these 30 days are over.
Step 5: Decide when you’d like to have your cushion built
Considering everything you’ve learned so far, you can now decide when you’d like to have your entire cushion built. And that’s the goal you’ll be aiming for after this budget challenge ends.
To help get you going, think about how much you’ll save each month with your strategy. Then, think about how many hours you’ll realistically be able to spend on working more, how many valuables you have to sell, or what you’ll stop buying for the foreseeable future. The answers to those questions will help inform when you’ll be able to have that cushion built.
Or, you could work backwards and think of when you’d like to have your cushion built, then figure out how many hours or months you’ll need to spend in order to reach that goal. You can then adjust from there if the timeline doesn’t seem practical.
Once you’ve got your target due date, mark your calendar so you don’t forget!
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That’s it for today! Now that you have your savings strategy in place and you know when you’re going to work on it, now’s the time to get started and actually do it! It’s definitely going to be tough, but remember your goal and why it’s important to you to stop living paycheck to paycheck. Putting in the work now means that you’ll have a little more peace of mind later on.
See you in the next assignment, where you’ll learn how to track your savings cushion in Goodbudget.
Homework
Leave a comment and let us know:
- Which savings boosting strategy are you going to use?
- What’s your 30-day savings goal? And your total cushion goal?
95 thoughts on “Boost Your Savings to Create Your Cushion”
1. When we need to boost savings quickly, we’ve sometimes sold valuable items that we’re no longer using, like a camera, audio equipment, or baby/kid gear. We could also cut back temporarily on things like exercise and other extracurricular classes.
2. My total goal would be one month’s worth of take-home pay. In 30 days, I think we could save about one week’s worth of take home pay.
may savings goal is to sell some unneeded stuff
my cushion goal is 3,000 a month cushion and 1,500 saving every month after that
$4k selling things we don’t use or need
My cushion goal is $4K. I plan to spend less and consider freelance work. My 30-day goal is to save enough to cover one monthly bill in advance.
My plan is to spend less and consider some free lance work. Maybe sell my paintings. I also want to write a children’s book. I have people waiting in line to purchase when I’m done. I spend a lot of money on Amazon and take out so these are now put into the budget into the envelopes. I waste a lot of money on groceries as they rot or expire because I don’t use them. Therefore I will start meal planning.
$3000 by Jan first. I plan on cutting back and only buying groceries as I need them. I’m finding I was buying too much then they are rotting. I will be doing my own car detailing and mowing my own lawn and no house keeper. Toys and treat for the kids on special occasions within the budget
Mt strategy will be, to cut down on spending
My 30-day savings goal is $200.00. My total cushion goal $1600.
My 30 day savings goal is one months cushion of grocery budget. Total goal $1400.
Strategies will be to sell household items not being used, cutting back on current expenses and saving extra weekly money over weekly budget requirement when weekly pay allows.
For my savings strategy, I already consign my clothes and home goods, but I will cook more to decrease my eating out and cut expenses in other areas (ie. monthly subscriptions) as well.
My 30-day savings goal is one take home paycheck ($2500). My total goal is $5000.
My strategy will be to sell some unused household items and to reduce spending from our budget. I will also see if I can increase my income by finding an evening data entry type role or administration work.
My 30 day savings goal is one month from 1st December for a total of $3500
My strategy is to pick up a gig. My total cushion will be $6000 and I plan to save $2500 in the next 30 days.
Strategy is to reduce spending. 30 day goal is $200. Total cushion $3000.
My 30 day goal is 200$ and my strategy is to sell some items to put into savings.
I’m going to pick up work with Instacart because I can work when I want, after my part time job.
Saving back a months worth of groceries and my electric bill. It comes to $275/the first month, then I’ll add my phone $40 + $275 = $315
Cushion goal: $4,295
30 day goal: $300
Strategy: Put the extra money I’m getting from my raise towards the cushion, as well as the money I usually put towards medical expenses that I won’t need for a few months, since my FSA has been funded for 2022.
My plan is to reduce spending and freelance. My 30 day goal 300 and my cushion goal is 1200
My goal is to earn almost a paycheck’s worth of money by working extra hours as often as I can.
I need a 4000 cushion. I wish I could freelance or had something to sell. I will cut back on expenses like groceries and cable. I will find a way.
I want to be conservative in my goal expectations to avoid disappointment.
Cushion goal $5,000 in a year
My 30day goal is $400
I will achieve that by extra work and budget spending on wants. Just spending on needs.
My 30 day goal $200. Salary variable- and difficult to take on extra work. Will try to reduce food and Amazon expenses.
Right now I have $187.40 unallocated, and I’d like $4500 more. I rerouted money in my budget and came up with $687.08 for the next few months! I may have to cut that back when certain expenses come up. I’m considering doing Door Dash to help. My goal is to complete my cushion in 6 months.
30 day goal $300
Cushion end goal $1500 by the end of the year
I’ve got some things in a storage unit that I might consider selling. Also I’m going to be cancelling my Prime subscription, I don’t use it enough to justify the expense.
I’m also not willing to go too hard on the restrictions because I know I’m the kind of person who responds poorly to not being able to do what I want with my money. I’m working on fixing my mindset towards money but its not something that can be fixed in only 30 days.
Cushion Goals:
30 Day Goal: $225 ~ 2 weeks of groceries
End Goal: $5,000
We have cut back expenses by eliminating unused streaming services and eating out. We are starting to sell handmade items online.
30 day goal is $100 so that means cutting back on ordering take out and iced coffee. I would like to have enough to cover a truck payment or $500 vet bill if needed.
My first goal (cushion) is to cover my rent and car payment for one month. Approximately $1,300.
My goal is have $3500 cushion. I plan on selling items, cutting back on spending, &picking up extra work. Excited to have a cushion
I will try to sell things we have around the house and try freelancing.
I would like my cushion to be 1 months of grocery spending which comes to $600.
I’ll cut back on spending. My goal is to save a week’s worth of expenses every 30 days over the next four months.
I’m looking at the above comment and I’m so impressed with this person’s goal. I have no idea how I could save a week’s worth of expenses in 30 days. I’ve created a budget and I’m really trying to follow it. I am trying to spend less but it’s been challenging. If I try saving a week’s worth of groceries that’s $250 in 30 days. With the high cost of groceries right now, that seems tough. I will try my absolute best.
To boost savings, I plan to pick up gig work, likely Uber. I will have to rent a car through then to do so but that gives me the added bonus of having a car, since I currently do not. I will also cut back expenses- buying drinks and snacks at work for example. I think I can save about $400 in a month, with my cushion goal being $2000.
Our savings strategy is to freelance. We will look for additional cleaning jobs for our cleaning business while working my full time job at Walmart. Our 30 day savings goal is $333. Our total starting cushion is $1,000. Then we will increase it to 3 months of my salary which is $8256.00.
I plan on cutting back on my expenses and using a side gig for extra income. I plan on stashing $150 every payday to start, I would like to have $3000 for a cushion by next year at this time.
My strategy is to cut back spending and my cushion goal is 5000 in 12 months
1.my saving boosting strategy would definitely be selling some old toys and some clothes we no longer use or wear and also using my hairdressing skills to make some extra money!
2.my cushion goal would be $3k!
Cut back on my current spending my only sticking to things like rent utility food car payment and car insurance
My savings goal 3500 to cover my total monthly spending
Cushion, $2500, side hustle and OT, 30 day goal, $200, total cushion-6 months.
My 30 day goal is to save a quarter of my monthly income. That is going to be about 800 to start and I plan to save a whole months worth (about 3200) within 3 months. I start a part time job the 16th and I also start cleaning a friends house once a week.
My strategy is cutting back on hello fresh, streaming and luxury foods like coffee down to 2 a week .
Goal is $500 saved this month that is o ly 12% but it’s a step.
Cushion goal $10000 in 6 month by selling the 2nd car and strategies.
1. Selling stuff no longer in use
2. 30 Days savings cushion of $500.00 (to start)
Budget better. savings cushion to start is $1500
Plan to work overtime at work. To save one week of my cushion.
My 30 day goal will be £500
If I cut down my eating out budget and food shopping.
We all cut spending, pickup extra hours and look for another part-time job. Goal 7900. 30 day goal 660.00
My goal for 30 day cushion is 4,500.
I will set my first goal at $250 for one week of groceries. I plan on cutting out all extra spending; eating out, subscriptions, and alcohol consumption.
Which savings-boosting strategy are you going to use? I plan to cut back on spending, get a side gig, and sell stuff.
What’s your 30-day savings goal? And your total cushion goal? I would like to save 1 week’s worth of pay in 30 days. In 6 months, I would like to have major debt paid, a cushion, and emergency fund
My 30-day goal is $500 but my total cushion goal is $3000. I will work overtime and teach some extra classes for the next 3 months also I will cut mindless/impulse spending.
I’m going to freelance cleaning services. My first goal is $150. And my total goal is $4,000.
I plan to have a cushion of $1500 by the end of May. To accomplish this, I plan to take extra shifts at my jobs, cut back on streaming services and other expenses, and maybe sell some things.
My total cushion goal is $3,000 by end of this year. My 30 day goal is $300. I will do this by working Skip the Dishes and setting aside $10.00 per day of the income.
My total cushion goal is $5,000 by the end of the year and $800 30 day goal. I will start by cutting back on Amazon spending and not ordering take out at work every night. That’s minimum $100 a week.
My 30-day goal is $300 but my total cushion goal is $3000.
I will work overtime and sell some stuff I no longer use or need as well as cutting endless/impulse spending.
My goal/dream is to save enough to cover one monthly bill in advance.