Tips For Saving Money
When it comes to budgeting, sometimes it can be very difficult to find places to make cuts. With everything costing a few extra bucks, it can be scary when looking at your monthly budget. Let me share with you a few things that I’ve done over the past few months to help secure my finances and tips to save your budget!
Save Money on Groceries
With the rising cost of… well… everything, if your family is like mine, you have been noticing the cost of groceries is skyrocketing. If you are health conscious and shopping around the outside of the supermarket, (you should be) then the cost is going to be even more painful for you and your family. With a family of 6, this is where my wife and I have been focusing the most on cutting costs. There are a few things you can do that make a big difference.
Try Cash Back And Coupon Services Like Swagbucks
At first, I thought this would be a bit of a gimmick, but I was wrong. It takes a little extra work looking for items that reward decent points, but by setting aside a few minutes before going shopping you can build up points fairly quickly! You can then use your points to purchase gift cards to help lower your grocery bill. Check out SwagBucks here! If you use my referral code you will be supporting my blog and receive a free 300 Swagbucks!
Don’t shop when you are hungry
One of the biggest mistakes I used to make before someone showed me the error of my ways, was going to the supermarket hungry. When shopping while hungry it is much more difficult to stick to your grocery list. Everything will look tasty to you, especially the high-priced pre-made food that the supermarket makes a killing on. So do yourself a favor and plan your grocery shopping for after lunch.
Try online order pickup
The one good thing that came from The Covid Pandemic is the availability of online shopping and order pickup. Sometimes it’s hard to transition to shopping online, but once you do it you will be happy you did. Learning how to add items to your shopping cart efficiently will have a bit of a learning curve, but the amount that you can save should help you push through learning a “new skill.” With online shopping you will be less likely to add items to your cart that aren’t on your grocery list, reducing the amount you spend dramatically.
pay with cash
Paying with cash isn’t as popular as it once was, but it has its place in helping you maintain a budget. If you use cash to budget, you will be less likely to overspend. When using cash you can physically see how much money you have left in your budget for the month. This will help you slow down your spending as you get closer to the end of the month.
Try a meal kit delivery service
Meal kit delivery services have changed how my family eats for the better. We struggle less to find something to eat and are using fresher ingredients. Now, this won’t save you any money after the introductory offer but for the first 5-10 deliveries you are getting a pretty decent deal. My favorite is Hello Fresh. My wife and I have been using them off and on for about 3 years. We absolutely love their recipes, they are a good mix of easy and “fancy.” We created a large binder of recipes and probably 75% of our weekly meals are from our Hello Fresh binder.
Check if Your Paying Too Much for Insurance
Insurance is one of those things that once a company gets you, they know they will have you for a long time. Usually what this means is the company is probably not giving you the best deal. It pays (literally) to shop around for new insurance. There are a ton of options out there and finding what is right for you may take some work, but could pay off huge for you.
Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
The amount people spend on their cell phones and coverage has ballooned over the last 2 decades. What once was a luxury is now considered a must-have for everyone over the age of 6. I won’t get into parenting and when it is appropriate to allow your children to have a cell phone (haha), but cell phones are taking a considerable bite out of your budget.
Stop using big three carriers
I believe it is well known that the big three cell phone carriers charge significantly more than other less known carriers. These 3 carriers often provide you with many services that you never use and would be better off giving up to reduce your monthly bills. There are multiple options available that provide discounts as high as 50%. Shop around and see what suits you best. Also by bouncing between carriers you get better deals than people who stick with the same carrier for years.
Get rid of the warranty
One of the biggest ways cell phone carriers make money is through the warranties they offer. With the purchase of a brand new $1000 phone, it is no wonder people believe the warranty is a good deal, but when you look at the numbers, you may think again. As an example, the “Verizon mobile protect” warranty has a monthly cost of $17 a month, and a deductible as high as $249. This means if you carry the warranty for 2 years (the average length people keep their phone) you will have paid $408. If you needed to use the warranty to get another phone, you are now up to $657, and even worse you will have spent all that money, and you could receive a refurbished phone.
Instead of paying for the warranty, start putting that money aside each month and “self” warranty the phone. Then if you destroy your phone, you can use that money to upgrade to a new phone instead of receiving a refurbished one. And if you are like most people, who never use the warranties they purchase, you have an extra $204 a year to put towards your next upgrade.
Try Cash Back apps and Coupons
Using cash back apps that include coupons can be a bit of a hassle, but I believe they offer a pretty good value for that work.
I mentioned this app up above for cash back on your grocery bill, but that’s not all they do. They also provide “Swagbucks” for playing games and reimbursement for signing up for services. Just this week I actually just earned $30 for reaching level 18 on the game Family Island. Now I’m not a huge fan of sitting and gaming, but I did it mostly on downtime and didn’t feel it took away too much time from my family. I also am taking part in the signup bonus for SoFi, this is a service I’ve wanted to try, and will receive 10,000 SB or $100 for opening an account and depositing $50. This seems like an easy decision to me, and can go towards paying off debt!
Refinance Your Mortgage
Rates are on the rise again, but if you have had your mortgage for quite some time, you could refinance your home for a lower rate. If you are really in a crunch, you may also extend the length of your mortgage payoff to really lower your monthly payment. Most financial advisors would suggest not doing this, but if times are tough, and you have limited alternatives this may be right for you.
Try recasting your mortgage
If you have recently paid a large amount on your mortgage, there is another option available to you. The recast is a not-so-well-known way of dropping your monthly payment. This is done by contacting the bank that owns your current mortgage. They may recast for much less and without the extra costs that go along with a home refinance. Before your mortgage company sucks you into the high cost of a refinance, ask if the recast is an option for you. You could save yourself $1000’s!
Transfer Debt to a 0% APR Credit Card
Debt isn’t my favorite thing in the world but if you use it strategically a 0% APR balance transfer credit card can save you a ton of money. There are a ton of options out there if you are looking to transfer debt, I don’t currently have any posts on this but if I do, I will post it here.
Cancel Your Recurring Subscriptions
It used to be that cutting cable was a great way to significantly lower your monthly bill, and of course, this is still a great idea. Recently most people have transitioned from cable to subscription-based television services.
At first, it seemed great, a few bucks a month for Netflix and you were ready. But, now you have so many competing services, it’s hard to choose which one to go with, and once you have you usually end up with multiple. Along with this, you have your gym membership, perhaps you pay for premium radio, and Amazon prime for free shipping. It’s hard to track these things and they can add up to much more than you ever thought.
My suggestion for things like this is to do a “quarterly audit” and see what you are and are not using and cancel your subscriptions accordingly. This allows you to enjoy the services you love, while not wrecking your savings account by paying for things that you don’t use as much.
Skip Your Morning Coffee
This is my favorite for saving money! Every morning when I walk into work I see countless people walking in with their fancy cups of overpriced coffee! I may just be a “fun sucker” but this just drives me crazy. At the hospital, I work at they provide an unlimited amount of free coffee. Now I must admit, it isn’t the best coffee I’ve ever had, but at the cost of $0 a cup it is infinitely better than any coffee shop for a bargain.
The average cup of coffee from a coffee shop (depending on what you get) is somewhere around $3! If you get a $3 cup of coffee every weekday morning you will spend around $780 a year on something that could cost you significantly less. Now, this doesn’t sound like much, but let’s say you took that $3 a day and invested it for 10 years. If you got a modest return of 6% a year, you would have somewhere around $10,000 saved by skipping your morning joe.
Now of course I’m not saying you shouldn’t treat yourself from time to time, this is more of a mental exercise of what is possible when you give up small things. If you compound these ideas together and invest wisely, it could be a tremendous benefit to your financial well-being.
Pack Your Lunch
Like skipping the morning coffee, packing your lunch is another great way of saving money. It is much cheaper to pack a lunch than to eat at your job’s cafeteria, but where the big savings come in is if you order out for lunch regularly. Not only is the cost of takeout very high, but delivery charges and the fees associated with delivery apps make the cost of delivery orders difficult to stomach. I have seen colleagues pay more for delivery charges and tips than for the item they ordered. It is hard for me to watch people so wasteful with their money, and with no desire to stop. Once again I understand treating yourself, but you must keep it within reason!
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