We’ve all been there before – an emergency vet visit because the dog gets into chocolate, an unfortunate fender bender, a burst pipe in the bathroom… and then comes the hefty bill. Emergencies are often just as expensive as they are inevitable and while it’s tough to prepare for them, having a decent emergency fund will make getting through them a little bit easier.

Building an emergency fund doesn’t have to be a grueling process. In fact, there are methods of saving money that hardly take any effort at all! Before you know it, you’ll have a nice financial cushion to relax on top of, knowing that you’re prepared for whatever life throws at you.

Mint

Mint is an awesome way to keep track of your finances and manage your money. It syncs all of your data into one place that you can view on their website or right on your phone with the Mint app. You can conveniently check out where you stand with your credit cards, retirement accounts and more! It automatically updates and – perhaps the best part – it’s free!

EveryDollar

Dave Ramsey, the personal finance guru who is always giving “the tools you need to win,” created an app that lets you create a budget in as little at 10 minutes. All you have to do is enter your expected paycheck amount and monthly expenses and let EveryDollar track your spending. The free app can help you save money to get out of debt or just add some padding to that emergency fund.

Wells Fargo Way2Save

If you use your debit card frequently, imagine how much you could save if you threw a dollar in your savings account after every purchase. That’s exactly what the Way2Save checking account with Wells Fargo does! You can set it up to automatically transfer $1 to your savings account after each purchase OR a monthly transfer of $25.

Bank of America Keep the Change

This is similar to Way2Save but Bank of America will round up each transaction to the next dollar and toss the change into your savings account. It might not seem like a lot in the moment, but we all know that “pocket change” can really add up!

Auto deduction from paycheck

Check in with your employer and see if you have the option to tuck away a percentage of your paycheck into another bank account. Paying yourself first is one of the fastest and easiest ways to save money because you hardly even realize it’s happening! Even just 10 percent of your paycheck can add up to a substantial emergency fund by the end of the year.

I know that even the mere thought of saving money for emergencies is stressful, but I promise that once that emergency hits, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief knowing that money is one less thing to worry about

Do you have any awesome money-saving tactics? Comment your methods below and share this post to get the word out there!