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photo credit: LarimdaME

The wallets of all of us recent grads are constantly stretched thin. Between rent, bills, gas, food, various credit card and student loan debts – there isn’t a lot of money to spare, especially since most of us are working entry-level positions. However, despite our financial constraints we want to build up some savings as well and not live paycheck to paycheck. I found some helpful tips, courtesy of The Street, for creative ways to save and create an emergency fund for yourself that I thought I would share, along with some of my own tips.

• Shifting Your Expenses

One of the easiest ways to save is to spend less money and stash the savings. There are innumerable ways and places to do this, like at the grocery store and at the gas pump, but the article mentions some great other options. For instance, call your cable provider with a competitor’s offer and look for them to match it or better or else you’ll switch providers. The same came be done with your car or home insurance and generally speaking the provider would rather keep you as a customer at a discount then lose you to the competition.

• Sell Your Junk

We all have tons of stuff cluttering up our homes and apartments that we never, or rarely, use that someone else would love to get their hands on. Consider selling some of your extra stuff on eBay, Amazon or Craigslist or by having a simple yard sale. Use the money you’ve saved to jump start your emergency fund.

• Set Up a Separate Account

When you are starting an emergency fund, you’ll want to put it in a different account than your other money so that the two don’t get mixed together. Many banks offer bonuses and startup money for people opening new accounts, so make sure to look around for the best deal. Getting an Orange savings account with a higher annual yield is also something to consider so you can make those savings earn even more for you. It’s what I have done with my savings.

• Pay Yourself

Another thing you can do is dedicate a certain percentage of each paycheck to savings. My father always tells me to try and save 5-10% of each paycheck, and that’s a good barometer, depending on what your other expenses are. Also, whenever you have loose change in your pocket at the end of the day, put it into a jar and then deposit it into savings when it is full. I started doing this my senior year of college and racked up $85 in change over the next year!

If you have any tips or tricks for saving money, please feel free to share them in the comments section, as we would love to hear your thoughts. If you want to read the full text of The Street article, you can do so here.