Nowadays it’s important to deal with shopping consciously and carefully plan your budget. In this article, we collected the tips from the financial consultant sharing ways to save money in different fields of life.
Finance
One of the most important methods of saving is the monthly management of income and expenses, control and planning of personal finances. Make sure your income is always higher than your expenses. It will help you to keep within means and save in the future.
Start managing your budget. You can use a special program, Excel or just an ordinary notebook. Write down all your expenses every day. You will be able to analyze your expenses later and find out which ones can be optimized or cut down.
Get used to deposit 10% of your income to a saving account (it can be a bank deposit). You will see that living on 90% is not any more difficult than on 100%. As soon as you learn to save, you will be able to put aside even 15-20%. This way you will save some money for a rainy day. Repay your loans and don’t get new ones. Interest rate significantly increases the cost of the product. Evaluate the necessity of the purchase and start saving little by little.
Food
When you go shopping, make a list of necessary products in advance. This way you will be able to buy only what’s really necessary. There are always some promotions in the supermarkets, so pay attention to them and buy the products with discounts. Try to cook at home instead of having meals in restaurants. It will save you money and also help to eat healthier. When at work, eat homemade lunch instead of going to the café. Many people now buy takeaway coffee. However, giving up this habit will save you quite a lot.
Let’s consider the example – every day you buy a coffee that costs $3 on average. It means you spent $60 in a month. Spending reaches $720 a year. Here is another example – all of us like spending time with friends. Let’s say you meet twice a month in a restaurant and spend around $50 every time. It makes $1200 a year. It’s much savvier getting together at home and cooking by yourself.
Clothing
Many people find it important to refresh their wardrobe monthly. It leads to increased expenses. However, there are many ways to save on clothes. First of all, don’t chase fashion trends and constantly refresh your wardrobe. Always relate the price to the quality of the product. You can make economical purchases on craigslist.org. There you can find new clothes and second-hand items of good quality that are much cheaper than in the stores. It’s also better to buy clothes in outlets than in normal stores. The outlet discounts reach 70% and the sales take place all year round.
If you buy clothes with cash back, for example in Nike or Shein, then you will always get a part of the money you spent back. It’s important to plan purchases. This way you will be able to buy clothes not in high season but during the sales with a good discount. Check sales and promotions – save on your purchases!
Electronics
When planning buying electronics or home appliances, analyze prices in different stores. Sometimes the price difference reaches 30% and even more. Usually, prices in online stores are lower than in offline ones. You can save by buying with cash back. Don’t chase fashion trends and do not try to buy a new smartphone every year. The joy won’t last long; the saved money will help to invest though.
Travel
Always plan your holidays. The hotels or apartments are much cheaper if you book them six months before your travel. Try choosing not the peak season for your vacation. For example, the trip at Christmas time is much more expensive than the same trip but a few days later or before the top season. Organize your holiday by yourself – book the hotel or apartments with cash back on Booking.com (3.48% of cash back), Hotelwiz ($10.48 of cash back) and other similar services. Search and buy airline tickets with cash back on Aviasales (1.14% of cash back). Except for the tickets, you will get cash back. It’s really pleasant.
Apply for visas by yourself – it will help you to save some money on the total cost of the trip. During your travel cook by yourself to save some more. If you fly often, it’s good to open a bank card with a bonus program from airline companies, save miles and use them later to pay for the tickets. Remember than you can use the tax free-system when you buy things from abroad.
Communications
We spend a lot of time using the phone and sometimes pay much for it. Check your payments, your operator might have another tariff suitable for you. Check the terms of no-limit tariffs. If you have Wi-Fi access during the travels, use WhatsApp, Viber, Skype for phone calls and messages. It’s also worth buying a SIM card from a local operator rather than using roaming services of your domestic operator.
Transport
Buy travel pass for several trips – it will help you to save. Share a taxi with your neighbors if possible. For example, we have a WhatsApp chat together with the residents of our housing complex. In this chat, people can join for travels to the nearest metro station. Those who have cars can give a ride to people who don’t. This way they save money on taxi and public transport. We have plenty of other chats based on the same principle. In some of them, we sell clothes and electronics, there is a chat for shopping together (which helps to save on shipping and decreases the cost of the products); a chat for services; a chat for children – you can share useful information about discounts on products for children.
Entertainment and services
Save on the entertainment without missing interesting events. Keep your eye on free events – usually, there are plenty of them held in parks and museums, there are masterclasses and thematic festivals, different concerts. You can save on your entertainment by using coupon discounts services. They help to save up to 50% on tickets.
Bills
It’s important to use electricity and water wisely. Such simple actions as turning off the lights or TV when leaving the room can help to save quite a lot.
Cash back
Whatever you buy, almost everywhere you can return a part of spent money with the help of cash back services. For example, buying through Megabonus.com, you will find more than 1700 stores with cash back. Here are some examples: on AliExpress you will get up to 4.91% of cash back, on Banggood – up to 4.88%, on GearBest – up to 2.4%.
You can save by using a bank card with cash back – this way the saved money will return to your bank card. Another way is opening a bank card with the bonus program from gas stations. You will be able to use the points to pay for the refill.
Plan your purchases, save money and buy with cash back. You will be surprised about how much you can afford now.
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