First, my goal is to show you simple ways to save money, but there really are no earth-shattering ideas that anyone can give you. Each of these suggestions is to save you some here and there and to talk about how small amounts add up over time or multiple applications.
Some items in here I can already hear you saying “DUH” to, but the truth is that most people don’t even do the small easily understood things, so they never move on to the more complex things when it comes to money.
Saving money is often like plugging leaks. It seems like a little drip, but you don’t see how much water is actually wasted unless you measure it. And it is amplified by the number of leaks you have.
My hopes are that the first thing you will do with your savings is to begin (or grow) an emergency fund. Next to that, you will start investing it so your money can start to work for you.
1. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Lose the Vices
While this can be one of the hardest things to do, it often will reap the greatest savings.
We all have things that we spend money on that we shouldn’t. I define vices as things that you know you shouldn’t spend money on, but you do because of an addiction. Illegal drugs or gambling would probably be the easiest to understand, but I also consider alcohol and tobacco to be vices for many people.
Not only do you spend money on these things, but they could cause you to spend a lot more in legal, medical, or other ways. Cut them out of your life immediately. But one person’s vice isn’t always another’s so you have to be truthful with yourself what yours are.
2. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Reset Your Mind about “Sales”
If you need a product and it goes on sale, you actually save money. If you buy something you do not need just because it was on sale, you spent money not saved it.
Let’s say that a mattress store has put its $1000 mattresses on sale for 50% off. If you needed a new mattress and made the purchase then you saved $500. BUT if you didn’t need a new mattress, you didn’t save $500, you actually spent $500.
3. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Products per Hour Mindset
How much do you make in an hour? Now when you are decided if to buy something or not, divide the cost by your per hour salary. Let’s say you make $15/hour, now that $150 pair of shoes are really 10 hours of work. Once you start breaking down how much you have to work to afford something, they often don’t seem so important.
A good trick with this is to make a list of priorities ranked and list how much time it takes you to earn enough to pay for it.
4. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Refinance Loans
Do you have any loans? Student, Home, Car, etc.? Check into refinancing them to see if you can get a lower rate. Might even be able to consolidate some or all of them into one loan that is more manageable.
Check with another bank or lender to see if they can beat the one that you currently have, tell them to give you a few days to consider it, and take it back to the original bank telling them the other offer, but you would like to stay with a bank you already have a relation with. If the original bank wants to keep your business they may offer to match (or who know beat) the new offer.
Be careful and ask them if they have to run a credit check, to do a soft inquiry that won’t hurt your credit. Don’t want to get a better loan situation just to hurt your credit score.
If you have student loans, you can try to get a better rate on them too. When I wanted to lower my student loan, I went to Earnest. Check them out here and see if they can help you out with this.
5. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Ditch Unused Memberships
Pull out your checkbook, credit card bills, and other bills and see if there are monthly or quarterly memberships you have that you never use or haven’t used in a while to be worth the cost.
Maybe it’s to a gym that was running a special in January for all those “New Year’s Resolutions”. Maybe it’s a streaming service or a book club that you never use (or you waste too much time using). Maybe it’s a monthly subscription service that was cool at first but over time is just junk you don’t need.
We all do it, sign up for something and then two or three months in life just gets in the way and we no longer make it to the gym or really don’t have time to catch up on that book or tv show. No matter what it is, cancel it immediately and make a commitment to put that money into some savings account
WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Groceries
Let’s face it, I probably could have done all 21 of the suggestions just on groceries, but I’ll limit it to just these broad five.
6. Eat
– Eat something before you go to the grocery store or sit down to shop online. Going to stores (or sites) when you are hungry often leads to less discipline in your shopping.
7. Plan
-Plan out your week’s meals and make a grocery list accordingly…and then stick to it. We all have a habit of making a shortlist of must-haves and then planning to pick up other things when we see them on the shelf while we shop. It is amazing how much we buy that we don’t need and unfortunately how much we never eat and end up throwing away. Also, don’t fall prey to all the end of the aisle and at cash register items that break your budget.
8. Try Generic
– Start to buy store brand or generic products where you can. Again, we are always drawn to the name brands, but try the store brand and see if you really see a difference in taste or texture. Often products that we use in other things are unnoticeable.
9. Bulk Up
– Products that do not spoil in a week or less, try to see if there is a pattern to when they are on sale. Many products lower their prices around holidays or have a once-a-month to every six-week pattern to being priced lower.
OR try to buy these types of products in bulk. Do the math to make sure you are saving money, but often you can buy products that don’t spoil in large quantities at places like Sam’s Club or Costco for a much lesser price per weight than the grocery store’s normal size selections. A bit of a warning though, make sure you are saving more with your purchases than the membership fees or this would fall under “ditch the memberships” above.
10. Clip and Scan
– Coupons. Only use this for products that you would have bought anyway or that you adjusted your meal plan to include, but use as many coupons as you can. Not only will you save the coupon amount off your purchase, but often stores take the amount off prior to sales tax so you add to your savings by lowering the sales tax owed.
11. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Grow a Green Thumb
I started to put this under Grocery also, but this is more avoiding grocery so it is its own category.
If you have access to enough land, try to grow food like fruits and vegetables. Not only will you save money, but eating fresh is much better for your health which could help you lower your health costs.
Aquaponics has become a big thing for DIY gardeners- check out this site on how to start your own aquaponics garden.
12. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Check Your Utilities
Look at your bills to see how much you spend each month and then look at ways to cut down on each type of utility you have.
Electricity- Cut lights off when you are not in the room, put your ac or heat on a reasonable set temperature, and don’t touch it. Open windows on nice days and cut off the unit. If you have ceiling fans, they take up much less electricity and the reverse button can be used in the winter months to help with heating.
Water- Catch rainwater to water your plants (or garden *wink wink*) so you don’t have to add to the water bill. Take shorter showers. Brush your teeth or shave while in the shower. Use less ice in your glasses.
Natural Gas- often people have gas for heaters or water heaters so the above likely will help with this too.
Cable/Satellite- there are so many alternatives these days that allow you to cut the cord. Don’t load up on subscription sites, but if you already have one or two do you really need cable/satellite too?
Phone- a lot of people have cell phones and have started cutting their home phones. Also, look at your cell phone bill and see if there are any items you could do without like downgrading from unlimited plans.
Gas- keep tires inflated, don’t carry too much junk that makes the vehicle heavier, roll the window down and cut off the A/C, try to stay on streets that allow maintaining speed over constant stop and start, do less frivolous driving.
13. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Look at Your Insurances
Talk to your agent to see if there are any ways to lower your bill. Also, consider raising your deductibles. We often set too low of a deductible on our premiums. Think about doubling your deductible and put some of the savings out of each bill into a savings account that is used exclusively for deductibles when needed.
Another thing to look at is if you have multiple policies that actually do the same thing. If you only need one to cover, think about dropping one of the policies or seeing if you drop riders that are redundant if your bill can be lowered by the company.
14. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Quit Eating Out So Much
Make your own coffee instead of hitting the Starbucks or equivalently priced coffee shops. Take your lunch to work. Fix meals at home instead of ordering out or dining out so much. I came across a statistic that the average American spends $13+ when eating out and the average American spends about $4 when they prepare their meals at home. Imagine saving around $9/day 5 days a week… That is $35 per week and $140 a month.
And quit ordering through delivery services, fixing the meals yourself will then not only save you that $9 average, but the fees added on by these services.
Another statistic I found showed that the average American spent $5+ at the coffee shops each day, but only around $0.50 or less a day when brewing their own coffee. Again, $4.50/day for 5 days a week would be $21.50 each week and $86.00 a month.
Number 11 above is a good way to help you lower your grocery and restaurant bills. Two birds- one stone…
15. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Create “Swear” Jar
While it doesn’t have to be a swear jar, come up with habits that you want to do away with and set an amount you will “punish” yourself with if you do it. Then have some plan for the money each month that is not frivolous- add it to your emergency fund, apply it to debts on top of what you already pay to reduce principal, etc.
This serves to help you save and to try to curb a bad habit. If you have multiple habits you want to quit, this can help add up faster.
16. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Ask About Discounts
Many businesses give discounts for people over a certain age, students, military, AARP, AAA, etc.
Ask the businesses themselves if they discount for “your status”. If you don’t feel comfortable asking the business, ask around your neighbors or friends if they have found places that discount. You will never know if there are discounts (or if you qualify) if you don’t ask.
And none of them are going to increase your bill for asking, most likely a pleasant “no” is the worse that you will get.
17. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Online Sources
There are several banks that have programs where you set up a checking account and saving account and if checks are direct deposited into the checking a set portion is automatically swept into a savings account. Some may even sweep anything in your checking over a set amount into savings and can sweep some back if you get under a set amount.
There are also online savings programs that have auto-withdrawal features. My favorite is Worthy Bonds.
Worthy has bonds that they sell to you for $10/bond and pay 5% APR. One of the things that I love about them is they pay interest daily so the compounding effect works even faster than monthly or quarterly interest payments.
While this also falls under “investing”, I count it as savings because they only loan to fully collateralized businesses and they allow you to withdraw a portion to all of your money at any time. Because of this safety, I look at my investment into Worthy as kind of like a savings account that pays 5% APR compounding daily.
18. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Apps, Apps, Apps
There are really several apps that will give you cash or gift cards. I prefer cash back myself but some people like cards better. Here are a few of my favorites to add to your phone:
- Rakuten– While I ask that you keep #2 in mind, this can be a good way to get cashback from making purchases you were already going to make. Also, has internet extensions so you don’t have to shop on your phone.
- Ibotta-Scan your receipts for various stores to get cash back for items on the app. I like this app because it deals in money instead of points or fake coins. My referral code is ltnestk
- Receipt Hog– This allows you to scan receipts from grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, fast food restaurants and get coins you can redeem for Amazon cards, Visa debit cards, or PayPal cash. My referral code is bloz2189.
- CoinOut– Scan all kinds of receipts and gain random change for each.
There are other apps but these are a good place to start.
19. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Cash is King
I know it has become not “in vogue” to carry cash, but the truth is it is far harder to part with cash in a wallet than swiping a debit or credit card psychologically. Also, if you spend cash, you can empty the change for the day into a container and then each month deposit the accumulated change into your emergency account to help grow it faster.
20. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Borrow or Co-own
There are plenty of things that we sporadically need but could just borrow when we do. It is important to be a trustworthy borrower who takes care of it while you have it, returns it promptly, and is willing to loan them items too.
Another trick might be to co-own items that you don’t use a lot with others in the same situation. There are usually family members, friends, or neighbors who would love to split the cost to have access to it when they need it and not have to bear the full cost themselves.
21. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: The 30-Day and 24-Hour Rules
When you are contemplating a large purchase, give yourself 30 days to mull it over before you purchase, more often than not you will not still want it and see it would have been an impulse buy.
With medium-sized purchases, give yourself 24 hours (the old sleep on it) to consider if it is needed. This will give you time to check your budget, maybe consider more factors than you were thinking about in the store or online, and discuss with a trusted advisor if it is a good purchase.
Bonus 22. WAYS TO SAVE MONEY: Dealer’s Choice
I thought I would leave a #22 to ask for you to fill in. Maybe as you read this you had an idea not listed in the article, maybe you have a trick or method you have come up with you are happy to share. Either way, tell us about it.
Thank you for reading the article and tell us in the comments below ways you have learned to save money that is not listed or maybe which of these you are going to try.