Ready to save up your down payment? Here's how to get started: Find opportunities to trim your budget! Does the sound of that make you nervous? Remember, this is temporary. You can always add nonessentials back into your budget after you've saved up your down payment. Isn't it worth a short-term sacrifice to purchase a home you love? 

The best part of taking control of your budget is that you'll find money you didn't even know you had. With our simple plan, you can save up to $720 every month toward your home savings goal. That’s nearly $9,000 a year! Try these ideas:

• Buy generic brands. When you buy generic, you save anywhere from 20–30% off the name brand price. Make a game of it to see if you can only buy generic. 
  Savings: $120 per month
   
• Cut the cable. With Netflix, Hulu and other apps, you can ditch traditional TV altogether. Remember, this can be temporary. You can always bring cable or satellite TV back into your new home if the budget allows. 
  Savings: $60 per month
   
• Pack your lunch. Bringing your lunch to work just one extra day a week can make a big difference. Try to trim at least $10 from your weekly lunch budget. 
  Savings: $40 per month
   
• Take a break from the gym. Use the great outdoors as your treadmill or search YouTube for free workout videos. 
  Savings: $60 per month
   
• Carpool a few days a week. This works great if you live near coworkers or in a city with public transportation. 
  Savings: $100 per month
   
• Save eating at restaurants for special occasions. Take a temporary hiatus from the restaurant scene or limit yourself to one special date night a month. 
  Savings: $200 per month
   
• Consider your extras. Instead of spending $200 a month on clothing and entertainment, trim it to $100. Then, see if you can cut the money you spend on leisure activities in half.
  Savings: $100 per month

To get help tracking and trimming your monthly budget, create a free account on our EveryDollar budgeting app. 

If the budget cuts aren't enough to reach your down payment savings goal as quickly as you want, you don't have to stop there! A few of these other short-term sacrifices may be all it takes to reach your goals even faster. 

• Hold a garage sale. Cleaning out your closet or finally deciding to sell that furniture you never use could earn you $500–700. Plus, you’ll have less junk to haul when you move into your new home!
   
• Skip a vacation. Skipping a thousand-dollar beach view this year could mean taking in views from your new neighborhood this time next year.
   
• Adjust your tax withholding. Instead of letting the government hang on to a thousand or so dollars of your paycheck this year (at no interest), work with a RamseyTrusted® tax pro to adjust your tax withholding. Sure, you won’t get a big refund come tax season, but you will start taking home more of your hard-earned money from each paycheck to save toward your down payment goal. (Just be careful to not withhold so much that you end up owing the IRS.)
   
• Sell a car. Yes, this is drastic. But if you work from home or live in a city with public transportation, this could be an option that pockets you thousands of dollars to put toward your new home. 

You can make major headway on your down payment goal by trying a few of these ideas. For example, say you skip your $2,500 yearly vacation, hold a garage sale that brings in $500, and save an additional $1,500 by adjusting your tax withholding. You'd have $4,500 to add to your stash. Add that to the nearly $9,000 you save from trimming your budget, and you’ll have about $13,000 by the end of the year. That's some serious cash!

Tightening your budget and selling everything you can think of is hard work. Keep yourself motivated with our Down Payment Milestones worksheet. Print it out and hang it in a place where you can see it every day and track your progress. It’ll be your reminder to have some fun (that's right, we mean spend some of that hard-earned money) while you dream about your future home.