10 Ways to Save Money After Graduation

Last Updated on January 5, 2021

If you’re just graduating from college, the job market is an unfriendly one. It seems like every job post wants 5 years of experience, a Master’s degree, and pays just $28,000/year. As if you don’t have enough to worry about, you can’t seem to get away from the advice about saving for retirement and the value of buying a house over renting. How are you supposed to do either on a $28,000 salary and a bucket of student loans that coast at least that much? You have to get creative with your savings. To kickstart your thinking, here is ELFI’s list of 10 creative ways to save money after graduation.

When it comes to saving money after graduation, there are two methods: save more of what you make and decrease spending. Find what works for you based on your bills and habits. Also, don’t feel like you have to follow all 10 tips. Implementing even one of these tricks for saving money after graduation can help you be more financially savvy. 

1. Use Direct Deposit to Save 10%

Direct deposit isn’t just for eliminating a paper paycheck. It can also be your best friend for saving money after graduation if you request to have your employer automatically send 10% of every paycheck to a separate savings account. On that $28,000 salary, you could save $2,800 a year, which is only about $110 per paycheck. If you set this up as soon as you start that first job, you will never miss the extra money. If you already have a job, it’s never too late to set up a “rainy day” fund. 

2. Install “Round-Up” Apps

The same way your grocery store clerk asks you to round up to the nearest dollar for charity, you can use round-up platforms like Acorns to set aside leftover change from purchases you make. With the Acorns debit card, the spare change from each purchase is placed in an investment account of your choosing. And when you shop via the Acorns app or Chrome Extension at 350+ retail partners, a percentage of your total purchase is contributed toward your investment accounts.

3. Negotiate Bills & Eliminate Unused Subscriptions

You likely have a dozen or more automatic monthly payments coming out of your checking account or linked to a credit card. Some banks or apps like Truebill and Trim can help you find and cancel subscriptions that are unused or that you forgot you signed up for in the first place. These apps can also help you negotiate some services like your cable and internet or even your cell phone bill to help you get lower monthly rates.

4. Make New Rules for Eating Out

From coffee runs and grab-and-go lunches to happy hours and GrubHub deliveries, millennials eat out an average of five times a week. If you can eliminate just one of these outings, you can save a minimum of $5/week (that’s $260/year). Try setting unwritten rules for yourself—or if you’re a “write down your goals” person, use a dry erase marker and your bathroom mirror. Try rules like only eating out only on Fridays and Saturdays. Or only eating out only with friends. You can even make weekly cash-only envelopes, and when you’ve run out of dollars, you have to eat in for the rest of the week.

5. Make New Rules for Eating In

Sometimes, splurging on fancy groceries makes eating at home feel more fun. But you have to be careful at the grocery store or your bill can end up just as expensive as all those meals out. Consider rules for eating in, like Meatless Mondays. By eliminating costly animal-based proteins just one day a week, you can help save the planet and save money after graduation.

6. Keep Impulse Buys Out of Your Cart

Do you always find yourself tossing extra items into your cart at the store? There are several tricks to avoid impulse buys to save money. The first, and easiest, is to never shop hungry. This keeps those extra tasty, and rarely healthy, items out of your shopping cart. Also, consider only shopping online. This helps you keep to your list. You can clearly review your cart before checkout, and you don’t have to feel guilty for making employees restock your regret items.

7. Wait 24 – 48 hours Before Hitting the Checkout Button

Shopping online has many perks. The excitement of variety and good deals can hook even the savviest of shoppers, but practicing restraint and making yourself wait 24 to 48 hours before finalizing online orders can do wonders for your money-saving efforts. After a day or two, you can really think about if you “want it” or if you “need it.”

8. Don’t Buy Anything New

Our eighth way to save money after graduating from college is to go retro and buy everything used. Buying second-hand isn’t what it used to be. In the past, shoppers had to roll the dice at garage sales or Goodwill stores, but in the days of Craigslist, Next Door, and Facebook Marketplace, you can be picky about your second-hand items. If you have patience, you can find everything practical like dishes and clothes, as well as everything unpractical like skis and AirPods. 

9. Freeze Your Credit Cards, Literally

Another “old school” method of saving is to freeze your credit cards…in a block of ice. You might not literally need to freeze your cards, but putting them in an inaccessible place or by simply not having credit cards, you keep yourself from racking up debt that comes with costly interest rates. Keeping yourself on a cash-only system will limit you to using money that’s truly yours. In case of emergencies, there’s always hot water.

10. Refinance Your Student Loans

We can’t end this list about saving money after college without advocating for recent grads to consolidate or refinance their student loans. Student loan refinancing is the process of consolidating your loans (you can consolidate federal loans, private loans, or both) and obtaining a new loan at a new interest rate. People typically refinance with the goal of obtaining a lower interest rate or lowering their monthly payments to make paying their loan more manageable. Keep in mind that when you consolidate federal loans, you’ll lose access to certain benefits and protections such as income-driven payment plans.

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