This post aims to be the ultimate resource on giving you ways to save your hard-earned money. The tips are divided into the categories below to make it easier to go them through.
Categories: Products and Services | Health | Groceries | Finances | Housing | Travel | Transportation | Hobbies | Studies | Relationships | Work
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Disclosure: This article does not include investment-, dietary-, or health and exercise advice, and is for informational purposes only. If you need such advice, turn to professionals.
You may get by by sharing the internet of your phone to your other devices. Negative point to to consider of this is to consider that using the hotspot feature of your phone puts a lot of strain to its battery and can thus shorten its lifespan.
According to an international survey made by YouGov in 2024, those who subscribe to services, more than half paid for one or more services they don´t use. Check your bank balance and see if you can find any unnecessary fluff that may be costing you potentially hundreds of dollars per year.
Contact the customer service and ask politely if you could get the service with a reduced price. More bargaining power you have, the better. For example, you can point out that you stop using the service if the price won´t go lower.
You can also mention that you would prefer to switch to a competitor´s service. One other option is to log in to the account settings section of the given service and start the unsubscribe process from there. Many service providers automatically offer you a special discount at this point as a last resort to keep you as a paying customer.
Websites can give different price for different geographic locations. By using a VPN you can benefit from the lower prices, as long as this doesn´t violate Terms of Service of that given website. NordVPN and Proton VPN are couple of good VPN providers we recommend.
For example, a family subscription for Apple Music is 16.99 dollars per month in the US. Up to six family members can use the service for this price. In comparison, inidividual subscription for Apple Music is 10.99 dollars (pricing as of 21st of July 2024).
Many products and services are offered with a trial periods. Utilize these to find out if you actually find the purchase as useful as you thought. Alternative is to rent a product for a short period to see if it meets your expectations. If not, you probably saved a considerable amount by renting it.
Direct-to-Consumer companies sell their products directly to customer without retailers. This lowers costs and also often trickles down to the prices paid by the customers.
Examples of Direct-to-Consumer companies:
For eyewear: Zenni Optical, Warby Parker
For bicycles: Canyon Bicycles
In many cases, the version of a product that is marketed for men is more affordable than the one for women. Often both versions are close to identical functionally. An example of a product type that tends to be more affordable for the male version are razors.
By ordering the printed images from your photographer you are likely paying more than simply asking the image files from the photographer and then ordering the physical images yourself.
Many products are frequently updated with new versions. This is especially true for tech devices. When the latest and greatest version arrives to the market, the previous version often gets discounted, even though the differences with the latest one may be miniscule.
Many things are relatively easy to fix or make. By watching a YouTube video of the subject you can save huge sums. Just don´t do things that require a training and cerfication, put you or other people in danger.
Get money, more space and have less to worry and to maintain? Sounds a pretty good deal!
If you plan carefully and have discipline, Black Friday can actually be a great opportunity to save. This requires you to evaluate in advance what products you actually need, follow their prices and then get them on Black Friday if they are on a good discount.
Buying higher quality products usually come with higher upfront costs but pays back in a longer time period. Below some of the benefits of buying higher quality products:
Get familiar with Courtney Carver´s Project 333. It is one of the most popular minimalist challenges where you only use 33 items from your wardrobe during a three month period.
Oftentimes service providers offer their services with discount prices if you commit to them for a longer period of time. If you use a service you find useful, check if they offer such discounts.
Most things carry more costs than just the initial purchase price. They need space, need to be maintained/cleaned, take up your mental space and often need accompanying products or services.
Check experts on the topic for more inspiration, e.g. The Points Guy.
There are various versions of packing challenges. Perhaps the best-known is the version popularized by The Minimalists. In this packing party, all belongings are packed to boxes. Then, the challenge participant only unpacks those items from the boxes he or she needs. After three weeks the items that stay in the boxes can be sold, donated or recycled.
Maybe now is the perfect time to master the guitar you have had sitting in the corner of your living room for some years? Or pick up that you have had plans to finish for a few years already?
When diseases or conditions are catched earlier they are more afforabable to cure and/or their advancement can be slowed down more effectively. Thus, it is definitely worthwhile to check your condition regularly.
When making your own carbonated water you not only save money but also reduce plastic waste. Using this method can also reduce your exposure to microplastics.
According to research published in Journal of Consumer Behavior, shoppers who plan individual expenses ahead spend less money.
By preparing your meals in advance for the next days / week save you from those situations when you’re out of food and quickly go grab something sub-optimal (health- and cost-wise) from the store. Meal prepping will also sgives you more time for other activities.
Shop owners prefer you to spend more. One of the tactics they use is to put the more expensive versions of an item to an eye level and more affordable ones to positions that require more effort for the shopper to pick them.
If you use a mix of 50% drink – 50% water you will get double the amount to drink and your teeth will also thank you as the acidity goes down which helps you to combat tooth erosion.
Often times the store-brand product can be the exact same as its more expensive counterpart, just with a different-looking package.
The emergency fund is for the case of emergencies: that´s right, not for a nice-to-have holiday trip but unexpected financial emergencies, such as hospital or car repair bills. By having an emergency fund, you don´t have to go into debt in such situations. General recommendation for the size of the emergency fund is around 3 to 6 months of your monthly expenses. You should have your Emergency Fund in a form that is easy to liquidate; either in High-Yield Savings Account (HYSA) or in Money Market Account (MMA).
Also known as “pay yourself first”. Allocate a certain amount of your income to be automatically deposited to your saving / investment account. It is more difficult to spend money you don´t even see.
It may possible to refinance your loans and get a lower interest rate for them. However, you still need to keep paying off your loan as a priority.
Having a higher credit score can have several benefits, such as lower interest rate for your mortgage and lower insurance premiums.
Paying with physical bills and coins makes you consider the purchase in a much more tangible way than just seeing numbers on a screen.
If you’re short on money and have bills to pay, try negotiate with the companies that are billing you. They may provide you an opportunity to postpone the due date of your invoices in w ay that would cost you nothing extra or at least less than what you would pay after the invoices´s due dates have passed.
By having to input your payment information is one of the ways to increase traction to counter impulse spending.
In a no-spend challenge you only spend money for the necessities (food, shelter, medication, hygiene etc.) as long as the you decide the challenge to last. You may be surprised how much extra money you are left with at the end of the challenge. Taking this challenge can greatly help you to rethink your typical expenses. You can use our free printable to keep track of your progress with the challenge.
By downsizing you’ll save on electricity, heating and have to less to clean and upkeep. You’ll also have less temptations to get more stuff to your place as there´s less storage space.
For example, you can learn to take shorter showers and dry your clothes without a drier.
This move can save you significant amount on your electricity bill.
On average, cars lose around 20% of their value during the first year of ownership.
Libraries ain´t just about books anymore. Many of them nowadays also offer i.a. the following items to borrow for free: movies, video games, board games, sports equipment and tools. Often the libraries also offer services you can use to borrow e-books, e-magazines and audio books.
An average wedding in the US costs over 30 000 dollars. That´s a lot of money that could be spent on other things or enable you to retire earlier, if you wish.
