Tips to Save Money (and Still Live Well)
Tips to Save Money (and Still Live Well)
Searching for tips to save money that don’t lead to deprivation? The truth is there are only two ways to live below your means: One is to earn more; the other is to spend less.
Living below your means boasts obvious benefits including increased financial security and decreased financial stress. Having a savings net is also a critical step toward self-sufficiency because it buffers against setback.
Buying less—and desiring less!—helps the environment, too, because you require less stuff to be manufactured, shipped, and ultimately discarded in a landfill.
Read on for 10 tips to save money and help the planet at the same time.
Tip 1: Save money by analyzing your small, daily purchases
There used to be a time in my life where I spent at least 3 dollars every single day on a cup of coffee. But 3 dollars a day adds up to nearly $800 dollars per year.
I cringe just thinking about it.
Perhaps your vice isn’t coffee. Instead, perhaps you:
- Stop at the deli for lunch most days
- Buy a water or snack when on-the-go
- Adore scratch tickets
- Smoke cigarettes
- Buy wine weekly
Spend some time and ruminate over what you always buy that seems small in the moment but definitely adds up.
Such purchases—when analyzed over the course of a year as opposed to the course of a day—do indeed add up to a large chunk of change.
2. Make sales work for you
Televisions go on sale the day after the Super Bowl. If you are in need of a new flatscreen, wait until the Monday after the big game.
Stores slash prices on candy after Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Stock up then and freeze it until the next holiday that demands sugary treats.
Plan your meals around what’s on sale at your local grocery store, too. Check out the circulars regularly as the basis for your weekly meal plans. Similarly, stock up when something you ordinarily buy goes on sale.
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3: Cut back on eating out
Eating out can drain your budget and add up to hundreds of dollars every month, and that’s because, when you eat out, you pay for food preparation, service, overhead, and management’s salaries.
Shift your mindset around dining out and ordering takeout. Rely on restaurants as less as a backup plan for poor meal planning and more as an infrequent, celebratory treat best enjoyed with friends and family.
4. Lower your bills
The sad truth is that many of us are overpaying on our monthly bills including our cell phones, satellite radio, cable TV, internet, and home security.
Bill Shark will contact your providers on your behalf and negotiate lower rates. They boast a 90% success rate, and you only pay them if they save you money.
If you’d like to save on your electric bill, head over to ElectricityRates.com. Plug in your zip code, then analyze the current rates in your area. Simply switch to a different power provider with a lower rate and enjoy a lowered electric bill for years to come.
When it comes to cable television, know that cable or satellite TV can add over $100 per month to your bills.
Are you receiving $100 per month worth of benefit?
There are cheaper alternatives to cable or satellite television including Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and more that will cut expenses and still enable you to watch your favorite shows.
5. Invest in energy efficient technology
Replacing your appliances with intention can significantly lower your energy bill. When your existing appliances break, invest in energy efficient options.
There are energy saving products for your home, too, including:
– Smart Plugs, which automatically switch items off when not in use
– Smart Thermostat, which saves homeowners an average of 23% annually on heating and cooling costs
Save money Tip 6: Stash your bonuses (and your raises)
If you’re wondering how to save money without feeling deprived, know that it starts by shifting your mindset around bonuses and raises.
Many of us are in the habit of spending our bonuses before they even arrive. My husband and I are guilty of this, too: we often find ourselves thinking about what we will spend his bonus on months before we even see the money.
Spending money we don’t have is a socially-ingrained habit.
Instead of spending your bonus, set aside just 10 or 20 percent to spend as you want. Then use the rest of the money to fund goals aligned with your values, such as retirement, a vacation fund, or even an outsource fund.
Save your raises, too: Rather than adjusting your spending every time you get a bump in salary, increase your savings.
7. Pay with cash
As a kid, my mom carted my sister and I to the bank every Saturday morning. Once there, she would withdraw the cash she needed for the following week, then she stored it in a plain, white envelope.
Once the envelope was empty, she stopped spending.
Although we have become accustomed to living in a digital world, studies show that charging your purchases on plastic causes you to spend more.
Use cash instead of credit as a means of feeling the pain of spending.
8. Embrace thrift stores, yard sales, and Buy Nothing groups
This year, daughter asked for a lava lamp for Christmas.
I could have headed to Amazon and bought a brand new lava lamp for $25. Instead, I asked in my town’s Buy Nothing group as to whether anyone had a lava lamp. A neighbor did, and I picked up a new-to-me lava lamp in its box that same afternoon.
I know what you might be thinking: Are you actually going to give your daughter a secondhand item for Christmas?
My answer is is heck yes!
I think often about our society’s reverence for new. I often find myself wondering how to change this collective reverence so that we embrace secondhand items more and choose new only as a last resort.
While I don’t know how to do this on the societal level, I do know that in my own home I have the power as a parent to embrace secondhand as a way of life. It is my hope that my children will follow suit as they grow. (Fingers crossed!)
Thrift stores are a great way to save money on anything from clothes to appliances and furniture. You can often find brand-new items with the tags still on for a fraction of the price of buying new. Before going online to buy something full price, check out the thrift stores in your area, yard sales, and even your Buy Nothing group.
[Related: How to Embrace Secondhand with the Best Online Thrift Stores.]
9. Use a cooling off period
Because e-commerce lowers barriers to buying, it has never been easier to make regrettable purchasing decisions. Yet impulse purchases may cost you dearly in the long run: Consumers spend an average of $5,400 on impulse purchases every year (source).
An easy way to stop impulse shopping is to institute a waiting period. Get in the habit of saving items in your online shopping cart and give yourself twenty-four hours to mull over the potential purchase.
More often than not, you will likely realize that saving your money is the smarter choice.
At the end of the day, it’s all about intentionally putting back up those barriers to purchasing that companies strip down so that purchasing becomes harder.
Save money tip 10: Limit your time on social media
Social media can be great for a lot of purposes, but one thing that’s not so great? The hyper-targeted ads.
Facebook has hundreds of thousands of data points on each and every one of us, and perhaps Facebook knows more about us than we know about ourselves. Based on their algorithm’s knowledge, the site shows you perfectly curated ads are incredibly difficult to turn away from.
Limiting time on social media is a great way to limit your exposure to temptation, and when you are tempted less, you may buy less.
How do you save money and live below your means? Leave your best tips in the comments!
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