10 Reasons Why You Can't Save Money - For the Love of Budgets

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Sometimes it feels like I understand the phrase, “I can’t save money to save my life!” Saving money can be difficult and require a lot of discipline and planning ahead.

Have you ever read something that really surprised you?

I looked up a stat yesterday to figure out where I was in relation to others out there as far as savings go. To be specific, how did my lack of savings look compared to everybody else?

Is it normal to have no savings?

What I found is that I’m clearly not alone in my lack of savings. If you’re a stats person, you’ll appreciate this: 34% of adults have ZERO saved. That’s huge. 35% only have several hundred dollars saved. So, doing the math, that’s 69% that haven’t really saved a lot, if anything.

So what is the disconnect between those who are saving money and those who aren’t saving money at all? You might think the more money you make, the more you save, but you’ll probably be surprised at the reasons there’s a savings crisis going on.

Let me walk you through the list I’ve compiled of reasons why you might not be saving right now.

Why Aren’t We Saving?

1. You Don’t Make Enough Money

You can’t save money when you don’t have any money. It’s as simple as that.

It’s important to distinguish between “I don’t have enough money to save” versus “It doesn’t seem like I have enough money to save because I have no financial plan or budget so I always over-consume.”

This is probably the biggest reason that people use to justify their lack of savings. The myth here would be: If I made more money, I’d definitely save more money. But would they? It’s been my experience in seeing that this is not always true. Sometimes when you make more money, you just upgrade your lifestyle to match your income.

However, if you’ve done the budget, the cutbacks, and the math, and you still don’t believe you make enough money to save, you might be right.

It could be time for you to find a side hustle, ask for a raise at work, or find a higher paying job.

Check out this post I wrote about ways to make money from home or on the side if you’re looking to up your income every month.

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2. No Financial Plan or Goals

Maybe you’re interested in saving, but you haven’t officially set up a formal financial plan or goal.

I’ll go so far as to say this attempt is like buying furniture from IKEA and attempting to build it without having the instructions. You’ll try and try, but without proper guidance you won’t end up building it correctly. Or, it will take you 5x longer and be far more frustrating.

You can either blindly walk into saving, just hoping for the best, or you can use the wisdom of those who’ve gone before you and be prepared using their methods.

If you’re looking for how to set up a savings plan or a financial plan, check out Pinterest for some of the best worksheets and methods you should use.

3. You’re terrified of Budgets and Money

Does the thought of creating a budget or financial plan scare you because you have no idea what it looks like or where to start?

You’re not alone in this feeling. But I can guarantee you that you’re not the first to feel this way, and you can overcome it. There are so many free resources out there for easy ways to begin setting up a plan. It may seem scary since you don’t know what you’re doing, but I can guarantee once you find a method that works for you, you’ll realize it’s a lot more simple than what you think.

There’s an unlimited amount of resources for creating your first budget. There’s an insanely large amount of apps to use in tracking income/expenses and setting up your plan. Find what method works best for you and stick with it.

4. Over-spending

What I’ve found happens most when I don’t have a budget in place is this– I spend. A lot. And I don’t realize how much I’m spending because everything adds up so quickly.

Those $30 grocery runs, the $5 coffees, the $10-15 dinners out, three words: they add up. And it’s harder to realize how much these individual trips cost you because they seem so small in the moment.

So two things to fix this problem. One, you need a budget. Two, you need to stick to that budget. In order to stick with it, you need a way to track your expenses and where your money is going. This can be manually on paper, through an app, or using an excel spreadsheet.

Whatever method works for you, use it. You’ll be surprised at where your money goes when you start tracking it.

The app that I’ve found to be very helpful for this is called Personal Capital. I’m going to be writing a review on this as it’s been so useful for me.

Read more: Fun things to do without spending money

5. Living beyond your means

I think the concept of “treat yo’ self” might go a little overboard sometimes. I know it does for me. I’ll have a rough week at work, get to payday and think I have every right to purchase anything expensive (so wrong).

Not only that, but I believe the idea of trying to ‘keep up with Joneses’ is a huge factor in living beyond your means. If Katie buys a Louis Vuitton purse, I should have a Louis Vuitton purse too. The next door neighbors just bought a new car, we also need to buy a new car (also wrong).

Stay in your lane. Figure out what you can afford and stick with it. There’s nothing wrong with rewarding yourself here and there with something nice. Definitely do that, it’s good for your health. But that doesn’t mean you should justify every purchase by calling it a reward.

Call it what it is: splurging beyond what you can afford.

6. You Think You have plenty of time left to save

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Many people think they have a lot of time left to save. It’s easy to live the lifestyle you want right now while telling yourself that you’ll start saving in a year or so.

Typically what happens is you don’t start saving in that year or so. You never really start saving. Saving hasn’t become a habit to you, so you continue to live like you’ve always lived: spend now, promise to save one day.

It might seem to scary to save money when it feels like you don’t have a lot to save. That’s okay! You can save a little here and there, and you’d be surprised at how quickly it can add up. Check out a savings plan if you need inspiration on what it looks like to save slowly but to save a lot of money by doing this long-term.

7. Credit Card Debt

This reason is cringe-worthy. I’ll admit it. I’ve racked up credit card debt, and it really kills my income each month just trying to make minimum payments.

Two tips here: One, if you don’t have credit card debt, do NOT go out of your way to have credit card debt. Seriously. It’s one of the biggest regrets I have financially.

Two, if you are like me and you do have debt from your credit card, don’t panic. Figure out a plan to chip away at your debt each month/year. If this means cutting out expenses and putting more income towards debt, then do it. If it means making more money on the side to put more towards your bills, definitely do it!

Credit card debt can be devastating, but don’t let it deter you from saving. Take it step by step.

8. Bad Habits

Eating out. Your Starbucks addiction. Drinking. Smoking. Buying things you really don’t need every month. All of these are bad habits that can be very costly.

Take a moment to think of any bad habits you might currently have that are affecting your income levels.

Cut these out as quickly as you can, or at least cut back on them as much as possible. You’ll be surprised at how much money goes towards these habits, and you’ll be equally surprised at how much money you save giving them up.

9. Accountability

Just like with anything in life, it’s a lot easier to follow through with something if you have an accountability partner.

Talk to friends or family you trust about what you want to accomplish– set an amount or plan that you are shooting for and let somebody know the specifics of it.

Not only will you feel obligated to follow through with it now that somebody else knows, you’ll also want to give them updates at how great it’s going. It’s a lot harder to back out of something when you’ve told somebody on the outside that you’re committing to it.

10. No motivation

Let’s be honest. For a lot of people, retirement seems so far away. Why save money for it now when you have so much time to save for it?

This isn’t true of course, because the more you save now, the more that money will be worth with compounding interest over the years.

And this reason doesn’t have to do with just saving for retirement. This is for saving in general, including your regular savings and your emergency savings. Usually what happens is you have no motivation to save until something bad happens, and you soon realize the importance of having an emergency fund.

Don’t wait until a scenario like this happens. Find your motivation to save now, and you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache in the end.

Let’s Start Saving!

I still fall into the trap of believing so many of these reasons, especially the one about believing that if I made more money, I’d save more money.

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What are some of the reasons you struggle with saving money? Have you found a system that works for you?