Many people like to make goals or resolutions at the beginning of a new year, but the truth is, sometimes yearly goals can be overwhelming. If you decide your goal for the year is to avoid sugar, spend as little money as possible, and exercise every day, chances are that before the end of January you’ll have already failed at at least one. It’s hard to make huge changes all at once, especially when it comes to money. (But if you do want to set yearly goals, check out my tips on how to do it.)

So maybe this year, instead of setting lofty goals for the year, you should decide instead to set monthly financial goals. These are goals that you can do in a month. Doing something for 30 days is less ominous than trying to do it for 365 days! And if you meet your goal and decide you want to keep doing it, continuing to practice that habit for another month will be even easier.

I’m going to share some ideas if you’re not sure what kind of monthly goals might be good to try. Some of these might not be relevant (for example, if you’re not a coffee drinker). But these monthly goals address areas of the budget that are variable, unlike other parts of budgets. I’m sure we’d all love to pay less for our car insurance, but if you’ve gotten as low as you can go, that’s about all you can do. And yet you can probably find some areas of your budget where you are spending more than you have to, and where you could cut back and see how much you can save.

Of course, the important thing about these goals is that you should have a plan to do something with the money that you save. Whether it’s putting it aside for a trip to Disney World, saving up for the holidays for next year, or just contributing to your emergency fund, figure out how much you’re saving and put it aside before you spend it on something else without realizing it.

Set Monthly Financial Goals to Save Money in 2023

Here are 12 ideas you could use to set monthly financial goals—repeat them, do it every other month, or try them all!

Don’t eat out for meals

Even if you don’t eat out often, you might be surprised at how much you spend each month on things like Happy Hour at Sonic or a quick breakfast on the way to work. Decide to spend the month avoiding eating out completely and see how much you save.

Only make coffee at home

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