Do you feel like you're always living paycheck to paycheck and never have enough money left for savings? With prices continuing to rise on everything from food to gas, it might seem like you’ll ever get above water.

Saving money is one of the most important aspects of personal finance. From preparing for retirement to having an emergency fund, having money stashed away for a rainy day can be a lifesaver.

If you are ready to get off the hamster wheel of living paycheck to paycheck and build your savings, here are eight simple ways to save money each month.

1. Track Your Spending For One Week

Keeping track of your spending is an essential part of financial responsibility. By tracking your spending for one week, you can better understand where your money goes and where you might be overspending. After you’ve tracked your spending, you should be able to determine where you can cut back on. You may be shocked to see how much you are spending on unnecessary items or services.

After making cuts to your personal budget based on the data from tracking your spending for one week, it is always a good idea to verify that these changes had the desired effect by reviewing prior months' data as well. Doing this is just one of the simple ways to save money each month.

2. Carpool When You Can

You may be accustomed to driving everywhere, even if it’s somewhere local. These short distance rides will add up over time. Save money on gas by carpooling with friends, family, or even colleagues. Instead of burning through a tank of gas each week, you can stretch that tank to last three weeks by heading to work with a colleague. This is a great deal for everybody in the carpool because everybody benefits from it. Walking or biking to where you have to go is also a great alternative instead of grabbing the car keys.

3. Practice Mindful Spending

When it comes to personal finances, mindfulness is key. It can be easy to swipe your credit card without realizing how much that adds up over time. Before you know it, you may be asking for credit card debt forgiveness or wondering how to pay off $10,000 credit card debt. Mindless spending can be a budget killer, so it's essential to be mindful of your purchases and consider whether you really need what you are buying.  

If you’re faced with an impulse purchase, take some time to think before you buy. Impulse purchases can be costly and add up quickly. Often if you delay your purchase, you may find that the purchase isn't worth it after all. Try leaving an item in your cart for three days. After the three days, if that good is still something of major value to you then it might be worth the purchase. Otherwise, remove it from your cart and go about your day.

4. Reduce Subscriptions

Netflix. Amazon Prime. Spotify. Disney Plus. We all have them. Those monthly subscriptions to streaming services may seem like a necessity but do you really need them all? A simple way to save money each month is to look at all of your subscriptions and see which ones you could live without or even consolidate. If you have both Hulu and Netflix, choose which one you watch more and stick to that. The Hiatus app shows all of your subscriptions in one place and allows you to cancel the ones you don’t want.

5. Automate Your Savings

One of the best ways to save money each month is to automate your savings. By doing so, it’s much easier to stay on track and ensure you're saving what you need every month.

Most banks allow customers to set up automatic transfers from their checking accounts into savings accounts. To get the most of these, it’s best to look into a high-yield savings account since they’ll take your money further. This makes it easy to set a specific amount of money you will transfer each month without manually doing the transfer every time.

You can also automate other aspects of your finances, such as bill payments and investments. Automating these processes helps ensure that nothing gets forgotten or overlooked, which can help keep your finances organized and on track.