5 Ways to Save Your Green on St. Patrick’s Day

Got any fun St. Patrick’s Day plans this weekend? Whether you’re heading out of town or staying local to unwind, make sure your weekend doesn’t drain your wallet!

Check out these five ways you can save more green and still have a blast.

1. Get a group together and divvy expenses: The more the merrier, right? If you’re hosting an all green themed party, see if a few of your friends coming along would want to split the decoration or food costs. This will help keep the costs low, while also still being able to enjoy fun parts of your day!
2. Know the specials: Whenever there’s a holiday around, you’ll usually see some deals for bars, restaurants, party stores, or even group activities. You may be able to snag a happy hour bonus or BOGO deal. Take a peek online or check out local sites to see the best offers out there. You can also scan to see if there are Groupon deals.
3. Skip the meals: If you want to hang with friends, but don’t don’t want to blow your budget going out for appetizers can be a more affordable option. Or even better, as mentioned before, see if your group is willing to split large food items.
4. Go out for lunch instead of dinner: In the same vein as skipping a meal, you could try out local hot spots without getting sticker shock by going earlier. Depending on the place, you can still get the lunch deal later in the day. We managed to snag half price by having ‘dinner’ at 4pm. Plenty of time leftover to relax and explore the town.
5. Have friends over to chill: Nothing reads more like a holiday celebration than bringing out the grill and smoker this weekend. You can prepare and cook the meat while your guests can bring sides and drinks!

How to Save Beyond this Weekend

Saving some green shouldn’t just be left to this weekend. If you’d like to grow your stash this year, here are three of my favorite ways.

1. Do a monthly challenge: It can be a bit frustrating (and frankly unsustainable) cutting back on every expense all the time. Mix things up by doing something different each month. One of our favorites is the $20 date night challenge.
2. Use apps to save: Want to save, but not sure where to find the money? There are really helpful apps out there like Mint that will help you stash away a few dollars at a time based on your habits.
3. Automate your savings: Pay yourself first is an essential habit to develop, just don’t spend that money. Go ahead and automatically transfer to savings.

Thoughts on Saving More

I’d love to hear from you – what’s the big thing you’re saving for? How are you stashing your cash?

And if you haven’t filed your taxes yet you can get them done this weekend and save by doing them with TurboTax. TurboTax ask you simple questions and gives you the tax deductions and credits you deserve based on your answers. If you have questions, you can connect live via one-way video to a TurboTax Live CPA or Enrolled Agent to get your tax questions answered all from the comfort of your couch. A TurboTax Live CPA or Enrolled Agent can even review, sign, and file your return.