How to Save $1,000 on Any Salary: Three Women Show How They Did It

A quick Google search on "how to save" will likely leave you drowning in a sea of conflicting advice that feels arbitrary and completely divorced from reality. Do you actually have to have a year's worth of your salary saved by age 30? Do you have to have double that by age 35?

What if you have nothing in the bank? What if you have some debt? What if financial literacy was never something you were taught as an obvious part of growing up? It's OK. You are not alone. According to a 2024 Forbes Advisor survey, 31% of millennials have savings below $1,000, and that is not a number that comes without context: rising costs of living, student loan debt, and a persistent pay gap all play a role.

At Girlboss, we believe that shame has no place in conversations about money. Not having savings does not mean you will always be behind. It means we need to have an honest conversation about money and look at saving from a realistic place. And here is the wild thing: you do not necessarily have to earn more in order to save more.

Money expert Priya Malani, founder of Stash Wealth, says that people who earn higher salaries often get caught up in spending more and neglect to save. "Basically, this is what happens when your lifestyle keeps increasing as your income increases. So, even though your salary increases, you can never find anything to save because you continue to live paycheck to paycheck. It's really easy to become a victim of lifestyle creep."

So if it is not necessarily about making more (though that never hurts), what is the secret? At its most basic, it is about spending less than you make, no matter what. And that can look very different for different people. Ahead, three women working toward a $1,000 savings milestone explain exactly how they are doing it on salaries of $28,000, $47,000, and $73,000.

The Dental Assistant Making $28,000 and Rethinking Her Rent

Bola Sokunbi, six-time bestselling author and founder of Clever Girl Finance, suggests looking at your rent before anything else. "Be mindful of housing costs because usually that's the biggest percentage that comes out of your check, so try to keep your rent costs below 35% of your monthly salary." This is not possible in every housing market, but even in expensive cities there are levers you can pull: considering a roommate, relocating to an area that is less trendy but still safe, and downsizing your space.

Angie, a 28-year-old dental assistant living in Milwaukee, WI, makes $28,000 a year and lives in a vibrant neighborhood known for its vintage shopping and trendy bars and cafes. Rent consumes most of her paycheck. "The biggest adjustment I have now is living by myself," she says. "I live by myself for the first time and I didn't realize how expensive it is when you're not splitting everything each month. I never paid more than $350 or $400 a month in rent so it's definitely different because that extra money doesn't go to savings anymore."

On Angie's salary, experts suggest she should be able to save $1,000 in somewhere between three months and a year. On the conservative side, that means putting away about $84 every month. "If I want to save I would sacrifice doing things with my friends," she says. But after a year of that, she would have $1,000 put aside for travel and vacations. And if it started collecting compound interest today, and she contributed another $1,000 every year for the next 30 years, Angie would have a little over $108,000 put away in savings.

"I think you just make sacrifices if you want something," she says. Sacrificing for saving is not a revolutionary idea, but it is worth reimagining your values to determine what is worth the effort and reduce that FOMO. "When you're making an annual salary that's something like $25,000 there's an idea that you aren't making enough money to save yet, and you become paralyzed and don't save anything.

Just start and you naturally get this confidence to see it's not that hard if you start with small increments," says Jennifer Barrett, a personal finance author and educator. "Think in small changes like, maybe I'll eat in tonight, maybe I'll buy something on sale at the grocery store. It starts to shift your mindset knowing that you're able even if it's small."

The Recently Relocated Grad Making $47,000 and Working in the Non-Profit Sector

Tiffany, a 24-year-old non-profit coordinator living in Omaha, Nebraska, explains her motivation for saving as wanting a sense of security. Her primary focus is building a safety net for unexpected expenses. According to Sokunbi, Tiffany has the right idea. "$1,000 is a good baseline but you should really have three to six months of basic living expenses," she says. Our guide to building an emergency fund walks through exactly how to get there.

Having an emergency fund goes beyond peace of mind. Avoiding credit card fees and interest is another added bonus to planning ahead. "It recently saved me during a sudden $1,600 car repair," says Tiffany, who continues to work toward financial security while paying off student loans.

Her salary would allow her to save $1,000 in two to four months, but that means being serious about it. "I know exactly where the leaks in my budget are. Going out to eat and eating out at lunch too many times is what gets me the most." After identifying her weaknesses, Tiffany limited eating out to two to three times a week and started meal prepping.

A side hustle cleaning a house for an elderly couple brings in an additional $200 that goes straight into savings each month. With these changes she is well on her way. For more on finding your own money leaks and plugging them, this recession budgeting guide has a useful line-by-line framework.

The Creative Freelancer Making $73,000

Earning more than $70,000 annually as an artist is no easy feat. When we first caught up with 29-year-old creative Laci, she was doing just that and saving up so she could work as a freelance artist full-time. "When I first got to LA I had an amazing boss, she was a woman, and she gave me an hourly rate of $35. It was interesting because if she didn't give me that number I wouldn't have known how to price myself when freelancing."

After a few months, she reached her goal of working for herself. "I feel more freedom with money now than ever." Being a freelance creative for only a few months, Laci is on track to maintain her corporate income, but it does not come without sacrifice. "I'm definitely overall more conscious about spending and saving since my pay schedule is a lot different."

Saving $1,000 on a salary of $73,000 would take Laci about one to two months, but how she saves matters too. "When you're putting your money into a savings account, it's like an employee who goes to work for eight hours but spends seven hours in the break room; zero productivity!" says Sokunbi, who suggests choosing a high-yield savings account, using investment apps like Acorns or Oportun (formerly Digit), and putting savings on autopilot with automatic transfers.

Laci is still adjusting to freelance life so she is not currently contributing to a retirement fund, but it is something she plans to implement soon. By utilizing a 401(k) or setting up a Roth IRA, saving for retirement is one of the most important financial investments she can make.

"Every dollar saved in your mid-20s grows to about $16 in retirement, whereas every dollar saved in your mid-30s grows to about $8 in retirement," says Malani. The earlier you start, the less you ultimately have to save overall.

No matter your salary, the path to $1,000 looks different but the principle is the same: find the leaks, make one or two changes, and start somewhere. This story of saving $100,000 in three years shows what those small changes compound into over time. And if a side hustle is part of your plan, this roundup of 22 side hustles you can start right now has options across every skill level and schedule.