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Moneymaxxing? Honey, I’ve Been Doing That Since Before It Had a Name

/14 Comments/in , /by Mary Hunt

“Moneymaxxing” is the new social media buzzword for trimming bills, chasing points, and boosting savings. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? I’ve been teaching this exact approach since before anyone I knew had touched the internet, minus the hashtag. But the trend skips a step that actually keeps you out of debt long-term, and today I’m telling you what it is.

woman holding a fan of money dollar bills smiling moneymaxxing

So there’s a new trend blowing up on social media called “moneymaxxing.” People are trimming subscriptions, hunting down credit card points, and parking their spare cash in high-yield savings. Financial advisors are calling it a cultural shift.

I have a different word for it. I call it 1992.

That’s the year I sat down to write the first issue of what was then called Cheapskate Monthly, on a machine we called a “word processor” because nobody had settled on a better name for it yet. People were starting to talk about something called the World Wide Web, but nobody I knew had actually seen it. There was no email, no app, nothing to tell me where my money was going. Just me, a stack of bills, and a decade of digging myself out of a genuinely horrific pile of credit card debt.

I don’t say that to be smug. I say it because I want you to notice something: the internet just discovered, packaged, and put a cute name on the exact thing I’ve been teaching in this space for more than three decades. And that tells you everything you need to know about whether it works.

What moneymaxxing actually is

Strip away the hashtag and here’s the recipe: track your spending, cut what you don’t use, automate your savings, and stop leaving free money on the table. Sound familiar? It should. That’s the bones of Everyday Cheapskate and Debt-Proof Living, minus the one piece I’ll get to in a minute.

I’m not knocking it. Anything that gets a 24-year-old to open a savings account instead of a new credit card is a win in my book. Brad Klontz, the psychologist who commented on this trend, put it well: it beats “credit-card maxxing,” which is what way too many of us have been doing for way too long. Amen to that.

But here’s where I want to gently pull you aside, like a friend at a party who’s noticed you’re about to make a mistake.

The part moneymaxxing skips

Every “maxxing” trend I’ve read about treats money the same way it treats sleep or fiber. Optimize the inputs, watch the outputs improve. Track more, spend less, automate the rest. Clean and simple.

Except money isn’t clean and simple. Money is emotional. It’s the car that breaks down the same week as the dentist bill. It’s Christmas showing up in December every single year like it’s some kind of surprise. Trimming your subscriptions won’t save you when the water heater dies and you reach for a credit card because you have nowhere else to reach. I know, because I reached for one plenty of times before I built something better.

That’s the piece I’ve spent thirty-plus years building, and it’s the piece no app or algorithm hands you: a plan for the expenses you know are coming, and a cushion for the ones you don’t.

I call the first one a Freedom Account. Instead of getting ambushed every time your car insurance or your kid’s birthday rolls around, you divide those predictable-but-not-monthly expenses by twelve and set the money aside a little at a time. Say your car insurance runs $600 a year and the dog’s checkup is another $200. That’s $800, or about $67 a month, sitting in savings before either bill ever shows up. By the time it does, you’re not scrambling. You’re just transferring money you already have.

The second piece is a Contingency Fund, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Three to six months of expenses, sitting quietly, waiting for the day life throws you a curveball. Because it will. It always does.

Moneymaxxing gets you the first half of the equation: spend less, save more, stop bleeding money on stuff you forgot you subscribed to. Good. Do that. But without a system for the expenses that aren’t monthly and the emergencies you can’t predict, you’re just optimizing your way toward the next unexpected bill and the next round of credit card debt. I’ve watched it happen to plenty of people who were doing everything “right” on paper.

Why I’m not mad about this trend

old typewriter on vintage gradient background

I actually love that people are talking about their bank balances out loud now. Back when I was climbing out of that decade of debt, admitting you were broke, or that you’d made a dumb money mistake, was something you kept to yourself. I paid for the silence almost as much as I paid for the debt itself.

If a silly internet trend is what it takes to get a room full of strangers comparing savings rates instead of comparing sneakers, I’m here for it. I just don’t want you to stop at the trend. Trends fade. Systems don’t. Mine has outlasted the IBM Selectric, three website redesigns, and more “next big things” than I can count.

Where to start

If you want to try moneymaxxing my way, here’s tonight’s homework:

  1. Write down what you spend in a typical month. Nothing fancy, just the real number.
  2. Now write down what you spend once or twice a year that never makes it into that budget. Insurance, gifts, car registration, that dentist visit you dread. This list is always longer than people think.
  3. Add up that second list and divide it by twelve. Start moving that amount into savings every month. That’s your Freedom Account, and it’s the difference between “surprise expense” and “expense I already planned for.”

Then, whatever you’re not spending on subscriptions you forgot to cancel, or whatever cash-back you rack up hunting deals, funnel it toward a Contingency Fund instead of letting it evaporate into whatever caught your eye on your phone this week.

Maximize away. Just make sure you’re maximizing toward something that still stands when life doesn’t cooperate. That’s not a trend. That’s just how you stay out of debt for good.

 

Question: So tell me… were you moneymaxxing before it had a name, or is this the push you needed to finally start? I want to hear which one.

If you’re only catching posts here on the site, you’re missing what shows up in the inbox every day, free, with a few things you won’t find on EverydayCheapskate.com at all. Subscribe here and start moneymaxxing before it’s trending again under some other name.

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14 replies
  1. Mindy says:

    I love how every generation comes up with new words, phrases and hashtags for this “new” thing they’ve discovered, absolutely sure that it’s never been tried before. I would laugh out loud but mostly I just roll my eyes and get a little sad wondering how we let our country become so irresponsible and dumbed down.

    Reply
  2. Linda J Wilson says:

    I discovered you early on in 92-93, bought your books, and began shaving off all kinds of debt as I moved through life. You personally have saved me 10’s of thousands of dollars! Probably over $100.000! THANKS!!!!

    Reply
  4. Becky Karns says:

    I started to open a savings account the other day where I have my checking account, but found they actually charge me to have one below a certain amount. Forget earning interest!

    Where could I open one free?

    Reply
    • Mary Hunt says:

      Check out my recent post about High Yield Savings Accounts: https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/high-yield-savings-account/
      There are many that don’t have a minimum balance but always make sure to read the details.

      Reply
  5. Sharon says:

    Husband and I have been doing this for over 50 yrs. Figured ALL bills for a month. Included entertainment and vacation. Then put appropriate amounts in labeled envelopes ie: car insurance,groceries, dentist, gas, clothes etc. Whatever we always spend money on got an envelope. Also have savings . Our house is paid off and we live comfortably in retirement because we planned for it. Thank you Mary for ALL your wonderful tips and ideas! God bless!

    Reply
  6. linda says:

    i’m almost afraid to say this because i fear jinxing myself but i found a four-leafed clover this morning…there was always something big and unexpected each month. car repair, dentist, taxes, insurance…for some reason one month i didn’t have anything come in. i took $500 of social security and put it in its own account. the next month didn’t have anything major. i put $500 more. i now have $2000 in this account and my regular checking account has $300 left over this month. i’m going to have to bust into this account. i broke my glasses but that will still leave me with $1500. and no, i am not compromising on my glasses. i want the frame i want. they are about $150 plus the lenses. usually i’d just replace the lenses, but this time it was the frame that broke. next month i will get two birthday cards for my granddaughters and stuff $25 in each. the month after, ditto christmas cards with $25. the month after that my sons-$100 each. done. each month, god willing, i will still be putting away $500. i hope life allows me to continue to do this.

    Reply
  7. Cheryl S says:

    I have been doing it my whole life. I could not rely on my family for anything, so I learned to do without and save and scrimp where possible. I never had anyone willing to help me. Even now, being retired and relying on Social Security only, I still save something every month. The only month I really miss is car insurance month as it is so costly, even though we only have one 11-year-old car. Every little bit I put in the savings account helps.

    Reply
  8. Don says:

    I’ve been “moneymaxxing” for 50 years, but I still ended up with a huge amount of debt. I contacted a credit counseling service in 2002. They sent me a form to fill out, listing all the money I spent. It asked about the typical items like housing, utilities, car payments, etc. But there were also things that hadn’t crossed my mind, like haircuts ($500 per year!), and gifts (not just Christmas and birthdays, but weddings, anniversaries, etc). That list opened my eyes much wider, and made me realize I was spending a lot of money on things I’d never planned for. And that’s when I finally understood why I was spending more than I made. On paper, I made enough money, but in reality, I was always coming up short, and racking up debt.

    Reply
  10. Alisa says:

    I was following frugality way before this trend! Avid reader of The Tightwad Gazette. I made up a price book by visiting every local grocery store and recording per unit prices (despite the frowning managers). Always frequented thrift stores rather than retail. Refused to buy a new car. Built up a pantry during covid. On and on.
    Thank you for your work and books!

    Reply
  11. Ellen says:

    Yup! done it for years! Husband (now retired) is a carpenter who would work and then not have work for months. We found out what we could live without, canceled subscriptions that we didn’t read, etc. Did not do the high yield savings accounts as we didn’t have enough at the time to start one…but oph well. I am glad that the old trend is finally catching on!

    Reply
  12. Charlene says:

    Shortly after we married, in 1970, we had a baby on the way and were buying a mobile home to live in while my husband served in the USAF. We sat down and figured out our yearly bills – insurance, taxes, etc and divided that number in 12 parts. We put that much money into a savings account then and have never looked back.
    We don’t have to do this so formally now, thank goodness, but we ALWAYS put something away every month and have a comfortable amount in savings to deal with unexpected bills.

    Reply

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