10 Simple Money-Saving Hacks That Won’t Affect Your Lifestyle

Want to save money without downgrading your lifestyle?

Use these simple money-saving tricks, and watch your dollars stretch further than ever.

Forget the Big Brands

A few years ago, a young man got fed up buying Gillette shaving blades for $30. He was not alone. Millions of Americans too were fed up with this.

So, he came up with the idea and started a company called Dollar Shave Club (DSC). The idea was to create shaving blades and ship them to consumers at a lower rate than that offered by Gillette.

You can watch the original ad that propelled DSC to success here.

Last year, the company he started 5 years ago was bought by Unilever for about $1 billion.

The truth is, you don’t need to always buy the nationally recognized brands. For example, if you are an athletic person, you don’t need to buy Lululemon’s running pants for $98. Instead, you can buy products from a lesser known brand for $15. They will all serve the same purpose.

Also, for personal care products, you can buy products from a company called Brandless that recently raised $50 million to sell unbranded but quality products.

Stop the Subscriptions

Today, there is a subscription for everything. There is a subscription for music (Spotify), movies (Netflix), clothes, cars (canvas), magazines (Zinio), newspapers (New York Times), food (Blue Apron), software (Adobe), TV (Sling), and games among others.

The truth is, you don’t need all these subscriptions. For example, the subscription to access Photoshop is about $10 per month or $120 per year. But, unless you are a professional editor, you don’t need to pay all this money for the service. The same example can be given to many subscriptions like Microsoft 365, Autodesk, and DropBox.

Dropping some of these subscriptions can save you a lot of money. For example, if you decided to drop Microsoft 365 that cost $10 per month can save you about $100. Instead, you can pay $149 for Office 2016 which will not need any updating or monthly subscriptions.

Buy Your Own Groceries

Today, meal kits are the order of the day. Companies like Blue Apron and Plated have become unicorns by offering a product that I feel is unnecessary.

So, as a Blue Apron subscriber, you will receive a box with ingredients and a recipe. You will then follow the recipe and prepare the meal. The question is, do you really need this? Another question, why can’t you go to the nearest farmers market and buy the groceries.

A common complaint among people using meal kits is that the food is never enough.

The truth is, you can live a better life and save more money by buying your own groceries at a nearby farmers market.

Board the Economy

If you fly often, just give up the first class and business class. Sure, the first and business class offer more comfort than the economy, but in many cases, it is usually not worth it.

For example, from New York to Florida, you can use Delta’s economy class and pay $122 or board the first class of the same plane and pay $343. Remember, this is a three-hour flight.

Unless your company is paying your air ticket, I strongly advise you to use the economy. Doing this will save you a lot of money in the long term.

Quick note.

It’s not wrong to try the first-class cabin. Once in a while, you can, but don’t make it regular.

Use Airbnb

When you are traveling, for business or for leisure, I recommend that you ignore the hotel and use Airbnb.

Hotels are expensive. In Washington, a regular hotel costs more than $100. When you add meals and other charges, you can be charged more than $200 per night. If you are traveling as a family, you can even pay more than $1000 per night on average.

Using popular home rental services like Airbnb and HomeAway, you can get a spacious house for less than $50.

Find a Cheaper House

You want to live in a spacious house in a leafy suburb. You are not alone. We all want that.

But, on many occasions, it is not worth it.

For example, if you earn $5,000 every month in New York, why would you want to live in a house that charges you $3,500 every month in Chappaqua?

The truth is, you should live in a house that is affordable and one that is near to where you work. You will always find a good inexpensive house there.

Compare Prices

This can be tiresome, but the truth is, it can save you a lot of money. For example, Apple has started taking pre-orders for the new iPhone X. Today, you can preorder the phone for $1000. But, you don’t need to be the first person to buy the phone.

A few weeks after Apple starts selling the phone, the prices will drop. Waiting a while can save you money. In fact, at eBay, some sellers are already selling the phone for less than $800.

Another good example is when you are buying furniture. At Wayfair, you can pay $549 for this living room sofa or $1199 for this sofa. Both are equally good, but the latter sells for more money.

When shopping, I recommend that you first do your research online before you buy at a physical store.

Make Your Coffee

Americans love coffee, and the love affair is becoming strong. Companies that sell coffee like Starbucks are making billions of dollars every year.

But, you don’t need to spend $10 every day for a cup of coffee. No. It is really not worth it.

Instead, you can make your own cup of coffee and save thousands of dollars every year. All you need to do is to buy coffee beans, a coffee making machine, and learning how to prepare coffee.

Doing this, – instead of buying coffee at Starbucks – is that you can make as much coffee as you want at any time and save a lot of money.

Carry Your Own Lunch to Work

Today, meal delivery companies like GrubHub and UberMeals are making a killing, delivering food to people in their offices. The concept is nice. Instead of you going to a restaurant for lunch, you just order the food from the restaurant, and it will be delivered to you.

However, this process is expensive considering you will need to pay for the food and the delivery.

Instead of doing this, you can carry your own lunch to work. When you prepare your dinner, you can prepare enough food for you and your family and then carry the remaining food to work.

Doing this can save you thousands of dollars every day.

Use Public Means of Transport

Transportation has been disrupted by applications like Uber and Lyft. With these apps, you just tap, and a cab will come for you.

Yes, these apps are convenient, but they are also expensive.

Instead of using these apps or driving to work, I recommend that you use the public means of transport. This can be a bus or a train. These can save you a lot of money.

Final Thoughts

Remember, in personal finance; it’s the small numbers that matter. For example, paying $10 every month to Netflix might not be much. But why should you pay for something you seldom use? Using the strategies I mentioned will save you a lot of money, and in many cases, you won’t feel the effect.