You can find money to save

• Cut the cost of living
• Find money in old accounts
• Save coins in a jar
• Pick up loose change
• Sell or rent the things you have
• Earn money in an evening
• Earn money in a weekend
• Have a savings account with penalties

Saving is a really good idea but not until you have paid off your debts - the amount you lose in interest on the repayments is likely to cancel out anything you make from your savings. If you are horribly in debt and haven't had a holiday in years or you would like to have a proper Christmas this year, we'll allow you to save a bit here and there for these specific things - just to alleviate the drudgery of paying off those debts all the time.

The first thing to do is open a high-interest savings account to help your money grow - find the current top savings accounts here and tax-free Cash Isas here. But then where do you find the money to put in it?

Cut the cost of living - and keep what's left over

In order to save you need to free up some money each month. Firstly cut down your essential bills each month. Use our comparison tables to quickly find cheaper insurance (on everything from you car to your travel), cheaper utilities, cheaper phone and broadband.

Check you've got the best bank account - currently we reckon the Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct account is the best all-rounder, with an interest-free overdraft of up to £2,500 and 8.50% interest (AER) for those in credit. There's no need to take out an account that charges you a monthly fee - put the money towards your savings instead.

Then cut down on your general spending. If you don't know where your money goes each month keep a spending diary for a few weeks and you'll soon find out! Start off with just one thing that you will cut down on - perhaps you buy a coffee every morning on the way to work. Replace that with a travel flask or cup of your own brew and you will save about £12.50 a week. Or bring sandwiches to work instead of buying them, or have one less takeaway a week. All these things add up and cutting back on them will free up a lot more money than you could imagine.


Find money in old accounts

A new website, Mylostaccount.org.uk, which will search for any dormant accounts you think you might have forgotten about. I’ve just been on the site myself because hey, you never know. I might have bits of money in an old building society account that my Gran set up for me. I don’t know but it’s worth a punt.

Also, don’t forget other financial products you may be missing out on. Our article on how to get free money has more links to services like the Pensions Schemes Registry which will find old pensions you might have had with a job you left years ago. Then there’s the Unclaimed Assets Register which covers all manner of investments, life policies, shares, National Savings and others. They charge a small fee which they give to charity but it’s worth it. They've also just partnered with the Halifax to help current and former Halifax members find old savings accounts quickly.

While you’re at it, why not pull the cushions from the sofa and check through pots, shelves and boxes around your house to see what spare cash is lying around. Apparently we all have more cash than we realise just hanging about our homes.
 

Save coins in a jar

Pick a coin - any coin. It could be £1 coins or £2 coins or 20p coins. Whichever coin you choose, you have to save any you have in your purse or pocket at the end of each day. Get yourself a piggy bank or a special jar into which you put these coins regularly.

A lot of people use this method of saving for things like a holiday or Christmas. It's a great way of gradually accumulating money, without it hurting your purse too much. However, it's also a good idea to empty your coins jar every month or so and put the takings into a high-interest savings account so that you can start making interest on that money and, hopefully, take away the temptation to raid the jar.

Keep your eyes peeled for loose change

It might sound naff but seriously, when you're walking around outside just keep your eye out for money that people drop in the street. Don't get obsessed with it so that you spend your life looking at the ground rather than the trees and sky, but just be aware that people drop money and you might as well have it.

Pick up £1 coins, silver, coppers and even notes if you're lucky enough to see one floating about. You could either add your booty to the coins jar mentioned above or set up a separate one. If it is separate you could earmark that money for something specific but small like a dinner out for the family at the end of the year, or a monthly trip to the cake shop for you or it could be added to your children's investments to help with their future.

By the way, while you are looking at coins that people drop, also keep a look-out for things they dump outside their houses. Sometimes, if you're walking in posh areas, people will dump quite decent furniture or decorations that they just don't want anymore. If you can carry it you could put it on eBay and make some more cash.  

Sell or rent things you already have

What have you got hanging around the house that you could make money from -money that you could put towards actual savings? Could you rent out a spare room? Do you have a driveway or garage you could rent? Or set yourself the task of collecting up unwanted junk each month and selling that on eBay, at a car boot sale or at a local second-hand shop. Once you get into the habit, you should find yourself noticing free things that you could get your hands on that you could then sell on. Keep a box or bag handy for collecting things you could sell and aim to make a bit of cash from it whenever you can.


Set aside an evening a week to make money

Sure, you're tired when you come home from work or when you've finally got the kids to bed in the evening, but instead of slumping in front of the TV every night, how about setting aside just one evening a week in which you will make some extra cash to save? It could be one night's babysitting, or one night's tutoring. If that sounds too much like hard work, how about one night in which you spend a few hours in front of the computer just doing online surveys, trying to recruit friends to news jobs on commission-based site Zubka, or even writing your own blog on which you have Google Adwords making you money. Take a look at the ideas in our Making Money section for any that match your circumstances.

Whatever it is that you can do to make some money once a week, make sure you know that the money you make should be earmarked for savings only. If you make the money over the internet then move it straight into an internet-based savings account as soon as you get it. If it's cash then put it in an envelope and deposit it in your special savings account immediately to stop yourself spending it on treats.

Make one weekend a month your money-making time

If you have the energy, you could spend every weekend, or perhaps just every Saturday, making money (maybe you would set up a buying and selling operation, picking things up during the week to sell at a car boot sale every Saturday, for example). If you don't have that kind of stamina, however, you could simply decide to do one a month. If you just did that you would start to make money that could be used for savings over the year.

There are a lot of money-making opportunities at the weekend, depending on where you live and what your skills are. Perhaps you could work in a local shop on the occasional weekend, or make things during the month to sell at a local market or car-boot sale once a month. You could make greetings cards or sweets, toys or handbags which you sell in one big go (we hope) during that weekend. Or, if you're a bit of an entertainer, you could set yourself the goal of doing one weekend children's party a month. Get yourself in the Yellow Pages as a children's party organiser/entertainer and then only accept the parties you know you can handle.

Again, check out our Making Money section for more money-making ideas that could be done at the weekend once a month.

Set up a savings account with penalties

Although it's a sneaky trick to offer savings accounts with good interest rates while adding in penalties if you withdraw funds, regular savings accounts with penalties can be useful for forcing yourself save regularly and not take the cash out. That way you get the bonus of a good rate and the incentive to keep the money there until you really need it.

So if the reason that you don't have any money is that you keep spending it rather than saving it, set up one of these accounts and you will have the discipline done for you.
 

Getting started

• More on saving and best savings accounts.
• Best Cash Isas.
• Free up spare money by cutting your costs and finding any lost cash.
• Use assets and spare time to make extra money specially for saving.