Simple Ways To Save Money That You May Not Have Thought Of

Whether you are struggling financially, want to save up for something extra or simply want to feel in control of your budget, this post is full of tips and tricks for ways to save money.

With a few of the simple changes outlined below, you might be surprised how much you can save!

1. Limit your streaming subscriptions

When my husband and I were assessing how we could save money each month, one of the decisions we quickly came to was that we didn’t need to have Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon at the same time.

Having multiple streaming services didn’t make sense for us because we figured we were paying for all of them just to use each one a little bit each month.

Instead, we opted to pick ONE streaming service and focus on watching all that we wanted to on that service. Then, if we chose to, we would end our subscription and switch to another service and do the same thing.

Since most streaming services allow for a month-to-month option, it’s easy to swap back and forth as long as you remember to cancel them.

If you still have a cable subscription, it may be worth cancelling it!

2. Reconsider the memberships that you think are essential

My husband and I used to think that having Amazon Prime was an essential for us.

However, when we really stopped to think about it, we were often using our Prime membership as an excuse to overspend. We would buy something on Amazon because it was cheap and had free shipping, even though we could have done without. Since you can often still get free shipping with orders over $25 on Amazon, we opted to cancel our membership and be more intentional with our spending.

It is worth noting that Amazon Prime may be a fantastic deal for you, especially if you need to purchase something on Amazon often that is cheaper than in a brick-and-mortar store. Also, if you’re using Amazon Prime for streaming as noted above, it may be a cost-effective option to keep your Prime Membership.

The other membership that you may want to take a deeper look at is your Costco membership. Since you have to go into the Costco locations for your shopping, it can be super easy to overspend.

For our family, we keep our Costco membership because our puppy food and our gas are significantly cheaper there than anywhere else. However, we have to be strict with ourselves about other purchases.

3. Do your grocery shopping online

One trip to the grocery store can quickly derail a budget. Impulse purchases can add to your already expensive grocery bill.

However, we’ve found that buying groceries online and picking them up that we’ve been able to save money. It’s super easy to stay on budget when you have a virtual cart adding up your total. If you go over, you simply delete something from your cart. Unlike at the actual grocery store, there are no nasty surprises when you checkout.

Most of the grocery stores that we’ve seen charge a fee for grocery pick-up. If your grocery store charges a fee, make sure that this fee is made up by not having impulse purchases adding to your total. Otherwise, it may be worth just heading into the store yourself with a strict grocery list in hand.

We currently shop at Walmart for groceries because they do not charge a pick-up fee for their grocery orders. You can use my code here to save $10 off your first grocery order, and we’ll save $10, too!

4. Take advantage of rebates

Rakuten (formerly Ebates) is an app and browser plug-in that will allow you to get rebates on your purchases! Score!

Get $10 back once you spend $25 by using my link here.

While I personally love Rakuten for things like booking flights or other travel accommodations, it is vital that you don’t spend money just to get a rebate – if you weren’t going to purchase an item without the rebate, don’t purchase it.

5. Consider downsizing to one car

This is absolutely not a recommendation that will work for everyone. However, reducing the amount of cars that you have to pay insurance for and maintain, the more money you’ll be able to save!

When we opted to go down to one car, I wrote a whole post about it here. So far, we haven’t had too many issues with only having one car over the last year and a half. My husband works in an office and I’m a work-at-home-mom. On days where I need the car, my husband takes the bus to work.

With a little bit of scheduling, we’re able to make it work, but it’s definitely not realistic for everyone.

6. Take a hard look at your phone bill

Are you really using all of your data? We weren’t.

When my husband and I started looking for ways to reduce our monthly bills, one of the first ones we looked at was our phone bill. Nowadays, we share a small amount of data because we found that the majority of places where we spend our time have wifi.

Even if you are only able to reduce your phone bill a few dollars per month, the savings will add up over the year.

Another important thing to look at is how much you’re paying for your phone per month. If you are still paying off your phone, when will it be paid off? Can you make your current phone last past when it is paid off?

In today’s day and age, it is SO tempting to stay in the cycle of paying off an expensive phone. As soon as we are eligible to get a new phone, we’re usually all about it! I had to break this cycle.

I’m intending to use my current iPhone 8+ until it no longer functions and enjoy a really cheap phone bill when it’s paid off in May.

7. Use cash if plastic is hard for you to keep tabs on

Using a credit card or debit card can be too easy. You can’t see the money that you’re spending, so it is easy to overdo it.

If you find that you are constantly overspending, consider only using cash for your purchases. That way, you can actually see what your spending looks like.

I hope that these tips gave you a few things to think about as you consider your own budgeting. If you have any ideas on ways to save money, leave them below!

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