4 Ways to Save Money on Everyday Expenses

Identify Ways to Save

1. Look for leaks. Ask your pastor or a key staff person for permission to spend a Sunday morning walking around your church looking for little money leaks and ways you can solve them. For example, a friend on staff at our church noticed that when our north-facing automatic doors opened on cold winter mornings, which they do about every 20 seconds, our expensively heated warm air was sucked right out of the building into the Colorado cold. He designed a vestibule with a second set of doors that contained the warm air, stopped the suction loss and immediately began saving our church untold tens of thousands of dollars a year in heating costs. Genius!

You don’t have to be on staff to spot things like that. Anyone can see a dripping faucet, a constantly running toilet or a door that is open too much and causing energy leaks. Utilities are a huge cost—help reduce them. 

2. Make a list of solutions. Everyone is quick to point out problems, but how many people offer solutions? Many nonprofit organizations have areas of waste and duplication that staff members don’t see because they’re focused on their own work. In our church, we gratefully accept suggestions on ways we can streamline and save money on everything from pens and printing to health insurance. If you humbly and respectfully give your pastor feedback on ways to correct nagging problems and recurring waste, I promise it will be gratefully received.

3. Rally the troops. Is your church about to hire a new staff person to do a job that could be done by volunteers? Take the lead and offer to round up lots of help to fill the role. Volunteers could work in shifts to answer phones, eliminating the need for a receptionist. Anyone with a few free hours a week could make copies, stuff envelopes and water plants—and churches are happy to use volunteers.

The problem is that it can take more staff time to coordinate volunteers and their schedules and work around the no-shows than it does just to accomplish the task. If you offer to do the scheduling, the reminder calling and fill in for any gaps, you can truly save your church tens of thousands of dollars a year in staff time and new hires.

4. Eliminate an expense. Meeting a need that a ministry typically has to spend money for is an awesome gift. For example, a friend of mine who worked for a company that was going out of business collected dozens of three-ring binders that were about to be discarded and brought them to our church. Those binders retailed for $8 each—a significant savings for us since binders are always on the supply list. 

Perhaps your church needs the very video camera that your neighbor is selling in his garage sale—or maybe his power or lawn tools. The diapers that you can get for free with coupons can be used in the children’s ministry and eliminate that expense for a week or two. If you know what the needs are, you can help fill them on the cheap, or even for free.