Hello Steemians!
Today I want to share with you some simple tips, which can help you save 50 - 100 $ every month. Some of those tips may save you even more money - it all depends on how much you’re spending right now. Of course first of all you need a better control of your monthly spendings. Many people don’t even know how much are they actually spending on things like food, entertainment or even taxes! So the first step in order to reduce your spendings is definitely to know exactly how much money is fleeing from your pocket every month. If you know how much you spend you can simply decide how less you want to spend from now on and just stick to it. Below tips will help you achieve your goals :)
To make it easier I grouped tips into categories but it doesn’t make any difference which of them will you use first.
Food
Shopping list.
Before you go for a shopping do a simple checklist. Don’t put anything more except items from the list.The cheapest basket
Do a brief analysis of products you buy the most often. Write them down. Next do a simple research in which shop in your neighborhood these products are the cheapest. There are even apps which compare prices from multiple retail shops. In Poland eg. we there is “gazetka” (which means newspaper) app. I’m sure there is something similar in your country :)Let go of sweets and soda drinks
Your organism will be even more grateful than your wallet.Make food for work.
You can simply make some sandwiches or prepare some more for dinner and bring it to work tomorrow.Limit eating outside
Especially resign from fastfood. If you really have to eat something outside just buy yourself yogurt and mix it with small bag of muesli and you’ll receive balanced meal for less than a dollar.
Entertainment, education, self-developement
Free events
There are a lot of them in spring and summer. You can enjoy many free exterior events, cinemas, concerts, competitions, workshops and shows. You can find many of those on social media or some websites/ apps dedicated to gather information about such a events. In Poland there is great app called “Party Map”, where you can find tons of events in your city.Read in Empik
You don’t have to buy magazines right away. You can come by to Empik in read some for free there.Invite friends to your place.
It’s not necessary to go outside to have fun! You can simply make some great party at your place. Scheme where everybody brings something to drink and a little snack is really successful. But make sure that someone will help you with cleaning!Outdoor gyms
If it’s warm outside maybe it’s a good time to resign from your gym pass and start to workout outside? If you’re practising calisthenics it wouldn’t make any difference for you. You can do some running or riding on a bike on a fresh air as well. Sometimes maybe in your neighborhood you can find some free or very cheap sports facilities. Eg. I have got tennis courts in my settlement which costs me only around 20 $ per year!Train yourself on the internet
Doesn’t matter in what you’re interested in or what are you currently looking for - you can find all kind of knowledge on the internet. There are a lot of blogs and websites which can offer you free courses. You can find thousands of guides on YouTube, Skillshare, Udemy etc. Of course I recommend buying original stuff about if you just want to try it out before buying, I’m sure you can find some copies on the internet.
Transporation
Make whip-round
If you’re going on holidays with your friends consider if it’s worthy to go by 2 cars. Maybe it’ll be better to come together and just make whip-round for a fuel. If you’re going alone or don’t have a car you can always use BlaBlacCar or similar services.Buy tickets ASAP
Some time ago last minute was very popular. Now almost every company replaced it with first minute. So just the first few tickets for bus, train or plane are the cheapest.Prices are lowest in the middle of the week.
Book your tickets on weekdays, especially from tuesday to thursday - then, the prices are lowestDrive to work with colleagues.
If you’re driving to your workplace by car you can take your colleagues with you. You can account for in on many way. Eg. one time you’ll drive him and another time he’ll drive you.Bike
It’s really great! You’ll be more woken up and energetic at work, as well as you’ll improve your shape for sure. You don’t have to go to work by bike everyday. You can just start with 1 day, then two days and so on.
Other
Just control yourself! Ask yourself: “Do I really need this?”, “Do I really want to buy this?”
If you feel that you’re buying something just because of the emotions maybe you should wait with it till tomorrow or even two days - give yourself some time to make studied decision.Buy second-hand clothes.
And other items, which were already in use. If you’ll spend some time on surveys you can really save a lot of money buying stuff on ebay or other similar services. Also remember to use comparing sides, like skąpiec or ceneo (those are Polish sites, but again I’m sure you’ll find something similar :), which gather information from around the web to compare prices of the same product from multiple sites.If you want something put it on the list.
Then you can share this list before your birthday party. Let others buy it for you.Barter and whip-round.
You don’t always have to pay for something in cash. You can do something for someone and someone can do something for you without cash - like a good old times. If you want to buy eg some tools or devices that you know you’ll be using rarely, maybe someone you know will want to buy the with you, so you can split the price.Buy for cash
It hurts more when you see exactly how much you spend. That’s why you play only with some chips in casinos. Same goes with cards - it hurts much less to spend “virtual” money than the physical papers in our wallet.
So that’s it for today, but I’m going to prepare some more tips like this soon :)
Hope you enjoyed.
If you want so share your own methods please do it in comments
Have a great day :)