Whether you’re rich or poor, saving money is something that everyone wants to do. The good thing is that there are dozens of creative ways to save money. No one likes to over pay, and having more money in your pocket means you’re that much closer to financial freedom. So how can you save money today?
Everyone knows that you can go for a budget hotel or Airbnb instead of a hotel when you travel. We all know that we should cut back on the soda and alcohol when shopping at the grocery store. And sure, it’s better for our finances to buy generic rather than a brand name.
But I’m guessing you want to know how to really save money in creative and unique ways. What are the unusual ways to save money? I’m going to share some ways to save money that most people haven’t thought of.
How to Start to Save Money
You have to start by adopting a money saving mindset. Here are a few tips of lifestyle changes you may need to make to put you on the right path to save money.
1. Define Your Why
The first step to saving money is to clearly define why you’re doing it. Ideally, this will be because you want to work towards a tangible goal. It could be buying a house, traveling more, or starting a small business.
Write down why you want to save money in a journal – seriously. Leave it on your desk or nightstand. When you look at it every day, you’ll be reminded why you’re making financial changes in your life.
Did you know that simply writing down a goal makes you 42% more likely to achieve it? That’s huge!
Just the simple act of writing it down helps us subconsciously focus and work towards that goal. You can also create a vision board or say daily affirmations to further embed your commitment to saving money in your brain.
It will give you something to work towards so it’s clear that you aren’t sacrificing for no reason at all.
2. Know Your Income and Liabilities
Once you have your goal in mind, it’s time to dive into the numbers. Write down your income and necessary expenses to find out what you have to work with. Necessary expenses include living costs like rent, heat, water, and electricity. Liabilities refer to debt that you must repay every month, like loans.
3. Budget Spreadsheet
Once you have your income and liabilities written down, look at the money you have left over and decide how you want to budget it. You could set some aside for food, clothing, entertainment, savings, and retirement. Having a predetermined budget will force you to find new and creative ways to save money each month. Use a spreadsheet to allocate a portion of your income for expenses every month. Saving 10% minimum of your income is ideal, but to make real progress you should try to save 50% if you’re able to!
4. Personal Finance Apps
There are a ton of personal finance apps that make it easy to see where your money is going each month and help you figure out where you can cut costs. I personally use Mint and love the easy to use interface. It connects to all my bank accounts and allows me to categorize my spending into different buckets to get an overview of where my money goes each month.
5. Partner Up
Just like losing weight, having an accountability partner can help you stay on track to reach your money saving goals. This could be a friend who also wants to save money, a spouse, or a family member.
Cut Your Expenses
Once you’ve adopted a saving money mindset and created a plan to manage your money properly, it’s time to cut your unnecessary expenses.
6. Switch Banks
If your bank charges fees, run like wind. There are dozens of free basic checking accounts that don’t charge fees. One of my banks even refunds the ATM fees charged by other banks worldwide! That’s the kind of bank you want to have. Please, don’t ever pay an ATM fee again.
7. Use Free Internet
I’m always amazed at the availability of free internet hotspots around the country. With the prevalence of these networks, you can realistically get away without paying for a private internet network if you are a light web surfer. Just be sure to use a VPN like ProtonVPN (free) before entering any passwords such as when you connect to a bank account!
8. Cook at Home
The ease of delivery apps like Seamless and DoorDash mean we can order food to our doorstep in just a few taps. Many restaurants deliver in less than 30 minutes further enticing us to order and skip the chore of making dinner. My advice is to log out of the app or better yet, delete your account entirely! Don’t make it easy for you to spend that money. We all know that cooking at home is a far more economically sound choice. You can cut down on the time it takes you to prepare a meal by meal prepping ahead of time.
9. Ditch Netflix & Cable
Cable and Netflix are two costs that just keep growing. Instead, watch YouTube. It’s free and there’s a ton of cool and interesting content to check out and keep yourself entertained.
10. Cancel Your Monthly Subscriptions
I am super weary of free trials that turn into subscriptions and generally any service that has a monthly subscription. For the longest time, the only thing I paid for monthly (after rent and electricity) was my cell phone bill. In fact, as a general rule of thumb, if you have to pay for something on a monthly basis, you probably don’t need it. From Netflix to Spotify to DashPass, there are an endless amount of tech companies who want to separate you from your money every month. Don’t fall for their marketing tactics! Truebill and Trim are two companies who help people find unused monthly subscriptions in their bills.
11. Give Handmade Gifts
There are many tutorials online that explain how to make handmade gifts that you can give to your friends and family for birthdays and holidays. Buying expensive gifts can add up over time. Luckily, our culture is shifting from valuing things to valuing experiences. So giving a handmade gift or something a little more thoughtful will go a long way and help you save money at the same time.
12. Grow a Garden
Starting a little garden at home is a great way to save money on food. You can plant tomatoes and grow herbs with very little land.
13. Cut Your Own Hair
I have been cutting my own hair for years. It has surely saved me hundreds of dollars worth of expensive hair salon fees. Of course my hair is straight and long so it’s very easy for me to do.
If you have hair that requires going to the hairdresser then a great way to save money is to visit a student hair salon like Aveda Institutes. I did this often when I lived in New York City and had great results. The students get to practice their craft and all of their work is checked over by a professor to make sure that the job is well done. You can get incredibly cheap haircuts this way.
14. Ask for Fees to be Waived
One time my bank charged me a transfer fee for something silly. I called them up and asked for it to be waived. Sure enough they waived the fee with no problem. Many companies know that you can go elsewhere if you’re unhappy with their service so they’d rather just refund you certain fees than lose you as a customer. It doesn’t hurt to ask and it could save you money easily.
Spend Less
While cutting expenses is great, there are some areas of life where we need to spend money. Things like shelter, water, food and clothing are basic necessities we can’t ignore.
15. Negotiate
The first step to spending less money is to learn how to negotiate. Many people overlook this but negotiating is a skill that will help you save money all of your life. From rent to food markets, there are so many purchases we make that could be negotiated lower. The problem is that most people don’t even try because haggling isn’t really a part of our consumer culture. Of course there are some scenarios where it’s not possible to negotiate but you’d be surprised by what you can get away with once you start trying.
16. No-Spend Challenge
Just like Dry January and No-Shave November, there’s now a challenge to go an entire month without spending extra money. Can you go a full month only paying for just the necessities? Doing a no-spend challenge can be a great way to teach yourself discipline and save money at the same time!
17. Identify Spending Triggers
Identify the areas of your life where you tend to make poor spending choices.For me, it was the seasonal fashion sales. Every time my favorite brand had a huge sale, I would use this as an excuse to spend money on clothing. In the back of my mind, I knew that I didn’t need that piece of clothing but I told myself that because it was on sale, I could justify spending the money since really, I was saving money.
The fact is that I would have been better off by creating a list of clothing I needed and just buying it full price instead of telling myself I needed a fifth winter coat just because it was on sale!
18. Don’t Fall for Sales
That brings me to my next point. Retailers know the power of sales. Consumers are far more likely to buy if something is one sale than if it’s full price. However, that is already worked into the price of the item! Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you need it.
I’m not saying you should avoid sales entirely. Instead, establish a list of items you truly need in the order of their priority. Buy the ones you have an immediate need for right away. Then, start watching the rest and wait for them to go on sale to buy. That is healthy shopping.
Just don’t buy something because it’s on sale. Buy it because you actually need it.
19. Wait 30 Days
The next time you find yourself wanting to buy a big ticket item, make yourself wait 30 days before buying it. You may find that a month later you don’t actually need it. This will help you create intentional buying habits and avoid making impulse purchases.
20. Check for Coupons
I always check for coupon codes by doing a quick Google search before buying anything online. There are also extensions like Honey and Capital One Shopping that automatically test out different codes on your checkout page to see if you can save money.
21. Don’t Save Your Credit/Debit Card Details at Online Stores
Having to manually enter your credit card, fish it out of your wallet in the other room, etc. will make you think twice before buying things online! I recommend deleting any saved credit card numbers you have in various online accounts. As an added plus, this will protect you in case the merchant gets hacked and personal data is stolen.
22. Lower Your Cell Phone Bill
When T-Mobile launched several years back, I jumped on them right away. A slashed cell phone bill and no contract was just the thing for me. Since then, even more cell phone companies have cropped up hoping to lure customers away from giant telecom companies charging enormous fees. Mint Mobile offers plans as low as $15 a month, offering you huge savings if you switch from a more mainstream network.
23. Shop for Gently Used Clothing
Saving money on clothing is tough because although our instinct is to buy the cheapest clothing possible, that means that you’ll have to buy it more often since it will wear down faster. I believe the best way to save money on clothing is to either buy high-quality clothes that cost you a little more but last longer, or shop for gently used quality made clothing online.
24. Buy a Used Car
Cars are one of the fastest depreciating assets you can own. Growing up, people used to say that a car loses half its value the minute you drive out of the parking lot. Save yourself some money by buying a used car with low mileage.
25. Compare Prices for Everything Before Buying
When I was buying kitchen supplies for my first apartment, I can’t tell you how many times I came across the exact same item for wildly different prices at different retailers. Sometimes one store had it on sale, while another didn’t and other times the “full” price was 10% lower somewhere else! I’m not talking about brand name vs. generic by the way – I’m talking about literally the exact same product.
So how do you know if you’re getting the best price?
Most people will tell you to do a Google search for the item name. That’s one way, but you should also do a Google image search for the product. You can see what other shops have that item for sale and compare prices in case they have named it differently.
I always do both a Google word and image search before buying any high ticket item. I have saved a ton of money this way over time.
26. Do Your Holiday Shopping After the Holiday is Over
You can save a ton of money on Christmas supplies by buying them at the beginning of January. Most retailers put their holiday supplies on sale immediately after the holiday is over. You can take advantage of this by buying your holiday essentials for next year ahead of time.
27. Refinance Your Loans
When the interest rate on my student loan kept creeping up month by month, I started looking into refinancing my loans. It didn’t end up working out but saving several percentage points on a loan’s interest rate can be a great way to save money in the long term.
Get Rewarded for Your Spending
Another way to save money is to ensure you’re being rewarded for the spending you have to make. This could be in the form of points, future discounts, or cold hard cash back! Here are a few tips on how to save money through rewards and reimbursements.
28. Join Every Loyalty Program You Can
Most companies offer some sort of loyalty or fidelity program for their customers nowadays. These programs typically track your spending and reward you with a discount once you reach a certain amount or give you access to special sales. The vast majority of them are completely free to join meaning you have nothing to lose and lots of money to save. Loyalty programs have become so popular over the years that there are now apps available to manage all the different programs that you’re a part of. Stocard is the app that I use to keep track of all of my loyalty program memberships.
29. Use Ibotta to Save on Groceries
Ibotta is a wonderful money saving grocery app. All you have to do is submit your receipt to get cash back on your grocery store purchases. They also offer discounts on select products you buy in store.
30. Get Cash Back for Your Purchases
There are a ton of great programs like Rakuten and BeFrugal which offer anywhere from 2% to 15% cash back on purchases from select retailers. I have saved a ton of money using these platforms, but you have to be careful as they don’t work if you use another app like Honey or Capital One Shopping afterwards. All you need to do is click the extension before you make your purchase online. Stores like Sephora, Walmart, Forever21, Levi’s, Farfetch and more all offer cash back programs. The great thing is that these programs do not interfere with the points and cash back you may earn from your reward credit cards!
31. Sign up for a Rewards Credit Card
You can score double points by using cashback sites and paying with a credit card that rewards you with either cash back or points for your purchases. Signing up for a premium credit card is another great way to save money, even if there is an annual fee involved. Depending on your expenses, the fee can pay for itself when you take into account the cash you save. My favorite rewards credit card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve card which offers cash back from a rotating selection of merchants like Starbucks and Airbnb every month. Obviously it’s important to be responsible with a credit card and pay it off every month, but if you’re spending the money anyway, why not get rewarded for it?
Save Money on Living Costs
For many people, our home living costs tend to be among the most expensive. You can save money on your everyday living costs in many ways. Lots of different companies have even popped up to help you do that as well.
32. Downsize
Rent is one of the largest expenses that cut into our paychecks. Consider selling your excess furniture and belongings and downsizing into a smaller home. People who live with minimal belongings tend to be happier which is an added benefit of living with less.
33. Don’t Buy, DIY
Did you know you can make many of the household supplies you need at home, saving you a ton? Laundry detergent is one of the many things you can make yourself at home.
34. Learn How to Repair Things Yourself
Use common sense with this one, but learning how to repair things at home yourself can save you a lot of money. You can patch up a drywall, repair furniture, and fix other little things around the house to save you money that you would otherwise pay to a handyman.
35. Dry Clean at Home
I hate dry cleaners. Mainly because they charge women more than men to clean the same types of clothing! I’m pretty shocked that this antiquated pricing system still exists. I just avoid them entirely and buy dry cleaning cloths that I can toss in the dryer to clean my clothing. It saves me money and I get to avoid that unfair pricing!
36. Ask for Smaller Trash Cans
Did you know that some waste management companies charge by the size of your trash bin? That means if you don’t create a lot of waste, you could get away paying less for a smaller trash can. It’s worth looking into!
37. Smart Thermostat
Getting a smart thermostat for your home can help you save money in the long run even if there are some upfront costs. Being able to control the temperature of your home while you’re away is a great way to ensure that you’re not overpaying for your heating.
38. LED Bulbs
You can save money on electricity by switching to LED bulbs to light your house.
39. Close the Blinds
Another great way to save on Heating and cooling costs is to close the blinds in your house. Keeping the sun from overheating your home in the winter means that you’ll pay less on air conditioning.
40. Lower Your Water Bill
There are many ways to lower your water bill. Waiting to do laundry until you have a full load, limiting the length of your showers, and fixing leaky faucets are all things you can do to save money on water.
41. Switch to Energy-Efficient Appliances
Most home department stores can help you pick out the right home appliances that save energy. Switching to energy-efficient appliances can lower your electricity bill and save you money in the long run.
I hope you found several new ways to save money in your life. Saving money is somewhat of a skill and it takes practice to get it right. Pretty soon, you’ll start to see money saving opportunities everywhere you look! Please let me know of other ways to save money that you’ve discovered in the comments below.