Sometimes the best way to stretch your money is to find places where you can save.
In this article I will be sharing with you 9 ways you can save a little bit every month, which will hopefully add up in the long run!
If you are having trouble getting started with budgeting, check out my other article on the easy way to start budgeting and my financial resources.
1. Pay bills on time
Not only will paying your bills to help give you peace of mind but if you do you can avoid any late fees.
A simple way to avoid late fees is to set up automatic payments. This way, once it is time to pay your bills you won’t have to even think about it.
Setting up automatic payments is also very convenient since you do not have to go through the websites to all of your service providers to make payments.
Aside from that, it can help you improve your credit, as payment history is the biggest component of your credit score.
If you do set up automatic payments just be careful you have enough balance to cover fluctuating charges, as some payments will not be the same every month. Also, check how much time the payments take to process with automatic payments to make sure the payments will arrive on time.
If you do not feel comfortable setting up automatic payments, you can sign up for reminders. This way you can get emailed or sent a text message from your provider every time your payment is about to be due.
2. Make your coffee at home
We have all seen the studies that say how much money we would be saving if we made our coffee at home/didn’t go to Starbucks as frequently.
This saving tip is called the latte effect. It basically opens you up to accept that there are several things you can make at home instead of buying out that can save you money in the long run.
Financial Freedom Now has an article where they fully break down this money-saving tip of making coffee at home.
Instead of making the trip to Starbucks, consider just drinking the coffee offered at work or invest in a coffee maker to have at home.
It can actually be super rewarding to have your coffee brewing while you make breakfast, take a shower or get ready and drink it as you go.
If you really do love your coffee from Starbucks, and drinking coffee at home is just not the same, then consider just cutting back to buying a coffee a few times a week instead of every day.
And if we know this trick works with coffee, we can also apply it to green juices which have become a huge trend in recent years.
Fruits and veggies that you buy in the store will yield more than just one serving of juice, so you can even enjoy several juices for almost the same price as one bought in juice stores.
Some of the items that could fall under the “latte factor” category are
- Bread
- Hummus
- Salad dressing
3. Get a credit card with a good rewards program and take advantage of it
Cash back programs are a great way to get money back on your everyday buys.
For this to work you will probably need to put in a little bit of work to find out what cards work best with your spending habits.For example, you won’t benefit from a card that offers great travel discounts if you don’t travel very often.
Or you might be missing out on those great discounts if you are a frequent traveler but instead, have a cashback reward that will only give you back a few dollars a month.
For this, you can look at websites like creditcards.com, where they compare the best credit cards of the year.
Once you choose the card that works best for you, be sure to become familiar with the rewards you are getting (points, cash or travel miles) and how you can redeem them. You should also check if the points expire or if they can be rolled over.
Credit card reward programs can be amazing bonuses, but make sure you are paying the full outstanding balance every month. Since credit card interest rates are usually higher than the reward percentage you are getting.
4. Shop in bulk
For people who live alone, it might not make sense to shop in bulk as food would probably not stay in prime condition and a lot would be thrown away.
There are two alternatives to this! You can either buy in bulk and freeze what you can or you can reach out to friends and go grocery shopping together and split the bill.
Some of the best things to bulk buy are
- butter
- toothpaste
- paper products
- laundry detergent
- trash bags
- office or school supplies
Shopping in bulk can even apply to pet things! For example, you might get a discount if you buy 2 bags of food for your dog instead of one.
You can also try signing up for auto shipping and get a discount that way. I know that both Chewy and Petsmart offer that option and you can get up to 10% off!
5. Maximize savings opportunities
Look for coupons
Couponing can almost be counted as an extreme sport, as some people even end up paying nothing or getting money back on their purchases.
Yet, that’s not really what I am suggesting here.
Even using 1-2 coupons every time you shop for groceries can help you save money.
You can get these coupons by signing up for newsletters, by checking your mailbox or by looking for some online.
Coupons don’t need to only be considered for groceries. Crafts stores, beauty stores and definitely clothing stores offer coupon codes!
You can also download Honey to your chrome browser and they will automatically look up coupons from you.
Cashback programs
Aside from your normal credit card reward programs, you can also sign up for programs such as Rakuten that will give you a percentage of money back on your online purchases.
6. Sell items that you no longer need
You can find a lot of things around your house that you no longer use or need, and sell them online.
This is a great way to declutter your home and make a few extra bucks.
Nowadays there are several ways to do this. You could try selling your items in Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
I found this article that breaks down several places where you can sell your items.
I do have to warn you that this tip is only as profitable as you make it. To make a substantial amount of money, you might have to sell several items and take the time to optimize how you are selling.
Therefore, if you do not have a bit of time to spare, I would advise against skipping this tip as it can get frustrating to have items online that are not selling.
7. Cut your cable bill
Having netflix, cable and all our other streaming services might be a little overkill.
Think about which streaming services you are using, and if you actually watch your cable. Afterward, you can then trim your services accordingly.
If you are only using cable, then think about switching over to streaming services. You can probably even get a couple of services for the current price you are paying on your cable or even lower.
Or if you only use a streaming service to watch one show, consider only subscribing to it in the months your show is airing, and not for the full year.
In this article Mental Floss breaks down all the alternatives you have to cut your cable bill.
8. Plan your meals before going to the grocery store
The easiest way to overspend on your grocery store run is to go to the store when you are hungry.
The second easiest way, is to not plan your grocery run.
I honestly used to spend a lot of money on groceries when I first started cooking for myself.
It was hard to know what would be good to cook for 1-2 people. Also, I didn’t know any recipes off the top of my head.
Therefore, my groceries ended up being random items that wouldn’t make up one full meal.
I fixed this by following a couple food accounts and buying a recipe book. Then bookmarking and dog-earring the recipes I thought I would like and started trying them out.
I started to notice a huge drop in the amount of money that I was spending at the grocery store, and my grocery store runs became much shorter.
When planning your food for the week you can also make a conscious effort to just buy a few “main” items and have several recipes that revolve around those. Thus, being able to buy those items in bulk.
Also, if you plan ahead of time you can check what items are on sale in your grocery store and build recipes around those, and end up saving more.
9. Learn to budget
The best way to know how much you are spending each month is to keep a monthly budget.
Once you build a budget, it will be easy for you to see where you are spending the most money and what are some areas where you can save.
Check out my article on how to build a budget the easy way. A 5 step approach to building a budget that will work for you!
