r/SavingMoney: rules, karma requirements and posting culture
A beginner-friendly room for people trying to save on ordinary incomes. Loosely moderated, light on rules, and tired of referral codes.
Saving Money: A Community for Thrifty People · Open on Reddit
- Members
- 181k
- Created
- 2008
- New posts a day
- 17.9
- Comments on a typical post
- 3
- New posts removed
- 25%
The short answer
r/SavingMoney publishes no karma or account age requirement, and it has no formal rules list, only a short sidebar. About 72% of posts in our sample stayed up, with roughly one in five caught by Reddit's filters and about 6% removed by moderators. The posts that do well are short, honest text posts about your own money: what you earn, what you saved, what you cannot work out. Referral codes and earn-money-online apps are what the mods remove.
Who posts here
Posts ask how to start saving, whether a balance is good for someone's age, and why tracking spending has not fixed anything. Replies answer with their own numbers and habits and do not send people off to search. Terms like HYSA and 401k appear in the comments without explanation, but a basic question still gets real answers.
- People in their twenties and thirties building a first emergency fund.
- Renters and families on tight budgets asking what to cut first.
- Commenters further along, who share their income, savings and debt figures as a reference point.
- Posters from outside the US, writing in pounds, euros, rupees and Canadian account types.
- App builders and referral code posters, most of whom get removed.
Karma and account requirements
What it takes to get a post through in r/SavingMoney.
| Karma | Not stated publicly. About 19% of posts in our sample were removed by Reddit's own filters, so some accounts are being stopped before a moderator looks. |
|---|---|
| Account age | Not stated publicly. |
| Topic | Methods and tools for saving money, and the sidebar asks for new content or ideas.Mods' wording: “This sub is intended for discussions around methods and tools for saving money.” |
| Referral links | Do not post them. This is the one thing the sidebar spells out.Mods' wording: “refrain from spamming referral links for oft-mentioned tools” |
| Post type | Text and link posts only. About 64% of posts are text and 36% are links. Image and video posts are not allowed. |
| Post flair | None. The subreddit does not use post flair. |
What AutoModerator says
The moderators' bot leaves these messages on posts. They are the closest thing to an official statement of the thresholds.
While the community gets a look at your post, don't forget we have an official website with a bunch of resources specifically for the questions we see here every day. If you're more of a visual learner, we’re also active on Instagram where we post updated guides and strategies! It's a great way to stay sharp while you're scrolling. We also have more technical and professional resources on our Website. Also, if you want to chat in real-time or need a quicker answer, come hang out with us in the Join here (Investing & Retirement). Just remember to be careful with your personal info and report any sketchy DMs!
What you can post
| Post type | Subreddit setting | Share of recent posts |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Allowed | 64% |
| Link | Allowed | 36% |
| Image | Not allowed | 0% |
| Video | Not allowed | 0% |
| Poll | Allowed | <1% |
What happens to a new post
Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.
- Stayed up72%
- Removed by Reddit's filters20%
- Removed by moderators6%
- Deleted by the author3%
Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.
What happened when we posted here
We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.
- Stayed up
- 93%
- Removed by Reddit's filters
- 7%
- Removed by moderators
- 0%
- Period
- September 2025 to January 2026
The culture
r/SavingMoney has about 180,000 members and sees around 18 posts a day. It is a place where people on ordinary incomes talk about putting money aside: starting an emergency fund, cutting subscriptions, working out whether they are behind. Half of titles are questions and the typical post is about 105 words.
The posts that travel are personal and a little raw. Someone hits their first thousand saved. Someone admits they put a broken fridge on a credit card because they could not bear to touch the emergency fund. Someone can only save a few hundred a month and finds it depressing. The comments answer with their own figures, often income, savings and debt in one line, and the tone is mostly kind.
The sidebar says the subreddit is under new moderation, and it shows. AutoModerator comments on new posts with links to the moderators' own website, Instagram and Discord, and a recurring daily resources post points to the same place. There is no rules list. Enforcement is uneven: referral and click-for-click posts get removed in batches, yet a discount code post and a few tool plugs were still up in our sample.
What lands
- A small milestone told plainly, like a first emergency fund, in a sentence or two.
- An honest admission about money behaviour, such as borrowing to avoid touching your own savings.
- A specific squeeze with numbers: what is left after rent, what you have already cut, what you are asking.
- Open questions anyone can answer from experience, like which everyday expense you never needed or which household item you refuse to buy cheap.
- Am I behind questions with age, savings and income stated.
What gets removed or ignored
- Referral codes and sign-up bonuses for savings apps, bank accounts and cashback programmes.
- Requests for clicks in shopping app reward games. Several of these were removed in the sample.
- Earn money online and side hustle pitches.
- Plugs for your own budget tracker or a new YouTube channel about budgeting.
- Posts with a one or two word title and nothing to discuss.
The unwritten rules
- Put your numbers in. Income, rent, savings and debt are shared freely here, and a post without them gets generic advice.
- Most posts are quiet. The median post gets two or three comments, so judge a post by the answers and not the score.
- Comments are short, around 23 words, and none in our sample carried a link. A comment with a link will stand out.
- Link posts make up over a third of what stays up, but every top post in the sample is a text post.
- Many posters are outside the US. Say which country and currency you mean.
Self-promotion
The sidebar asks posters to stick to new content or ideas and to stop spamming referral links for tools that already get mentioned a lot. That is the whole written rule. In practice the mods remove referral codes, reward game click requests and app plugs, while a few I built this budgeting tool posts stayed up in our sample with little response. The moderators also promote their own website and Discord through AutoModerator, so the room is not free of promotion, it just is not open to yours. A tool mentioned inside a real money question is the only version that reads as normal here.
How people write here
- Typical post length
- 105 words
- Typical title length
- 9 words
- Titles phrased as a question
- 50%
- Typical comment length
- 23 words
- Comments that include a link
- 0%
When people post
- 0:00 UTC, 12
- 1:00 UTC, 9
- 2:00 UTC, 19
- 3:00 UTC, 15
- 4:00 UTC, 13
- 5:00 UTC, 11
- 6:00 UTC, 14
- 7:00 UTC, 16
- 8:00 UTC, 10
- 9:00 UTC, 10
- 10:00 UTC, 14
- 11:00 UTC, 19
- 12:00 UTC, 15
- 13:00 UTC, 25
- 14:00 UTC, 19
- 15:00 UTC, 11
- 16:00 UTC, 16
- 17:00 UTC, 23
- 18:00 UTC, 18
- 19:00 UTC, 17
- 20:00 UTC, 44
- 21:00 UTC, 20
- 22:00 UTC, 22
- 23:00 UTC, 8
New posts by hour of day, UTC.
The regulars
The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.
Most active posters
- u/AccomplishedWash445523 posts
- u/Tricky-Candy-5185 posts
- u/Fine_Response3383 posts
- u/budget_banda3 posts
Most active commenters
- u/wassdfffvgggh6 comments
- u/khaluud6 comments
- u/Stanbarrwood5 comments
- u/Z08Z284 comments
- u/Aggravating-Day-40093 comments
Top keywords
The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/SavingMoney.
- money 125 posts
- saving 64 posts
- savings 68 posts
- savingmoney 24 posts
- investing retirement 24 posts
- cash drop 24 posts
- budgeting 43 posts
- weekly research 23 posts
- website independent 23 posts
- top community 23 posts
- strategy hysa 23 posts
- side-by-side comparisons 23 posts
- self-guided saver 23 posts
- savings strategy 23 posts
- savings habits 23 posts
- savings decision 23 posts
- savings daily 23 posts
- saving budgeting 23 posts
- saver join 23 posts
- resources daily 23 posts
- research comparisons 23 posts
- research briefing 23 posts
- pulls top 23 posts
- newsletter weekly 23 posts
- newsletter pulls 23 posts
- money-saving guides 23 posts
- members subscribe 23 posts
- less earning 23 posts
- investors traders 23 posts
- hysa rates 23 posts
- habits investing 23 posts
- guides daily 23 posts
- discord live 23 posts
- decision comparing 23 posts
- daily resources 23 posts
- daily money-saving 23 posts
- comparing accounts 23 posts
- budgeting guides 23 posts
- budget basics 23 posts
- authentic strategies 23 posts
Posts that did well
- Are people earning $70K really supposed to retire on $2,500 a month?269 upvotes · 348 comments
- I’ve saved $15k and somehow still feel financially behind at what point does saving actually start to feel like progress?226 upvotes · 85 comments
- finally started an emergency fund192 upvotes · 21 comments
- The most I can save a month is $500 this is depressing.169 upvotes · 64 comments
- I lied139 upvotes · 58 comments
- why does spending my own savings feel worse than swiping a credit card??132 upvotes · 19 comments
- What everyday thing does everyone use that you’ve never needed?121 upvotes · 152 comments
- Renting and barely saving. What did you cut first?120 upvotes · 78 comments
Common questions
How much karma do you need to post in r/SavingMoney?
No number is published. The subreddit has no rules list and the sidebar says nothing about karma or account age. About 19% of posts in our sample were removed by Reddit's own filters, so a brand new or empty account can still be stopped before a moderator sees the post.
Can I post a referral link or promote my app in r/SavingMoney?
Referral links, no. The sidebar asks people to refrain from spamming them, and referral codes are the most common thing moderators remove. A few posts about self-built budgeting tools stayed up in our sample, but they drew little attention. Text posts about your own money do far better.
What kind of posts work in r/SavingMoney?
Short text posts about your own situation. The top posts in our sample are a question about retiring on a modest income, people who feel behind despite saving, and small wins like a first emergency fund. Half of titles are questions and the typical post is about 105 words.
Are images allowed in r/SavingMoney?
No. The subreddit accepts text posts, link posts and polls. Image and video posts are switched off, and about 64% of posts in our sample were text.
Data as of October 4, 2026. Numbers come from public Reddit data (the Arctic Shift archive and GummySearch) sampled on this date. Removal share counts posts taken down by moderators, AutoModerator or Reddit's own filters. Banner and icon belong to the community. Moderators change rules without notice, so treat the sidebar as the final word.
