Found money is better than no money at all. The other day I was in the grocery store and like a trail of bread crumbs I saw a nickel and four pennies. Nine cents really won’t do a lot but if you saved 9¢ a day for a year you would have $32.85. That’s not a lot of money but what if you saved a dollar a day and put it into a savings account. You would have $365 if you just saved the dollar in a jar in your closet.

If you saved a dollar a day and invested it or saved it at the end of each week you would have compounding interest on your side at the end of the year and your nest egg would be larger. So what if you don’t want to use that money right away? That’s ok too. If you have credit card debt or are saving for a big ticket item like a vacation or making a large purchase then saving a dollar a week can make a difference.

If you saved $30 a month, and put it into a savings account that you opened online with $1, assuming you earn 3.55% interest you will have $365 at the end of a year even after fulfilling your tax obligations and including your interest earned. This would work for a Christmas savings account. In about 11 months many people will have credit cards that will start to melt because of overuse. An extra $365 would really come in handy in December.

Many people do not like to talk about taxes but lets say you have to pay taxes each year. Instead of forking over a lot of money to the government or having to set up a payment plan: set money aside for taxes. Don’t owe the IRS, what about property tax? In that case, you would do well to put a little money aside to make your payments. Paying $1000 or more for your taxes may be difficult, but it would be a lot easier to set aside $90 a month or about $23 a week.

Saving money may not be chic (yet) but having a tax lien against you by the government isn’t either. Let’s say your taxes are up to snuff and don’t have outstanding credit card bills, if you save money that you would otherwise do nothing with this could be an easy way to add some padding to your emergency fund.

Somewhere in your current spending plan you may be able to find an extra dollar a day that you could save, donate or invest. If you start small, the savings can add up.