Here are some easy ways to save money and take control of your finances on any income. Whether you are on a tight budget or not, these money-saving tips will help you put away more money in your savings or investment account.
Also, these personal finance tips are great for helping you save money fast on a daily and monthly basis!
Are there other creative strategies you use to slash your expenses, cut your food bill, and save money easily? Mention them in the comments.
Table of Contents Show
1. Create a Budget
Creating a budget that highlights your expected income, expenses, and savings goals is a starting point for saving more money and increasing your net worth. Keep track of your spending, savings goal and net worth using budgeting apps like:
- YNAB
- EveryDollar
- Mint
- Good Budget
A good budget app can take your ability to save money to the next level.
2. Pack Your Lunch
Brown-bag your lunch to work and save hundreds of dollars every year. For example, the average cost of eating out at lunchtime for me is $11.50, while my packed lunch costs less than half at approximately $5 bucks – a difference of $6.50. At roughly 20 working days every month, I can save $6.50 x 20 working days x 12 months = $1,560every year in lunch costs!!
Even if I choose to eat out with co-workers once or twice a month, I can still generate$1,404 in savings. For my wife and I, this is equivalent to thousands of dollars saved every single year.
Potential savings: $$$/year
3. Eat Out Less
We save money by rarely eating out – once or twice a month at the most, except when we are away from home on vacation or work. Restaurant food is expensive, and when you are trying to save money while paying for childcare, child activities, mortgage, insurance, and so on, something’s gotta give.
The average US householdspent $3,154 on food away from home in 2016, and Canadians now spend 30% of their food budget on eating out.
Making your own meals is one way to save money fast every month.
For ideas on meals and what to cook, check out this excellent $5 meal plan!
Potential savings: $$$/year
4. Make Coffee at Home
I don’t drink much coffee, but as a tea aficionado, I know how to source my teas (on sale) without spending a fortune.
Are you a coffee addict? (I hear you guys live longer…haha). When you consider 20 cents per cup compared to up to $5 at the café, you can save hundreds of dollars annually by making your own coffee.
As per Business Insider, your savings from choosing homemade coffee can be up to a whopping $1,155 per year.
5. Save on Movies
Apart from the times my wife and I go to the movie theatre for some “alone time,” we save money on movies by streaming them at home for much cheaper.
In addition to movie tickets, you will also save a lot on making your own popcorn at home. You may pay up to a 1,275% markup on movie theatre popcorn!
When you go to the movies, sign up and earn Scene+ points (Canada) that can be redeemed for free movies or food and drinks later.
Other tips to save on movie tickets include:
- Go during off-peak times
- Search for discounts on deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial
- Use a credit card that offers cash-back on movie-ticket purchases (such asScotiabank SCENE Visa card or Scotiabank Gold American Express Card – Canada)
- Join the theatre’s loyalty clubs, such as Regal Crown Club and AMC Stubs
Potential savings: $$/year
6. Cut Your Energy Bill
Electricity usage and costs continue to rise. Reducing your energy consumption and avoiding waste can save you money every year.
Some easy ways to save money on your energy bills include:
- Wash clothes with cold/warm water instead of hot
- Upgrade your home’s insulation
- Winterize your home
- Utilize solar energy
- Lower the thermostat
- Upgrade home appliances with Energy Star-rated ones
- Use a smart power strip
- Use a timer on the outside lights
- Replace incandescent bulbs with CFL or LED bulbs
Potential savings: $$ per year
7. Shop Insurance
Be it life, home, or car insurance, shop for the best deal possible and save hundreds of dollars annually.
Life Insurance: Compare rates on comparison websites like PolicyMe and PolicyAdvisor. Go for term life insurance instead of whole life insurance to save money. Also, term life makes more sense for most people.
Home and Vehicle Insurance: Shop around. Increase your deductible – we saved $103 by increasing our home insurance deductible from $500 to $1,000. Do not submit a claim for minor problems. When you are claim-free, you can negotiate even further discounts.
Insurance quotes for the same coverage can vary by a lot. After obtaining six quotes for similar home insurance coverage, we chose one for about $300 cheaper. Buy just enough insurance – do not become under or over-insured.
Ask the insurance broker/company if there are any available discounts. You may be surprised at what’s available!
Potential savings: $$/year
8. Pay Insurance Premium Upfront
Some companies offer a discount when you pay your home/car/life insurance premium annually instead of monthly.
This discount can beup to 8%. Essentially, you save the interest that is built into installment payments.
9. Bundle Up Your Insurance
Discounts of 5% to 20% may apply when you obtain auto and home insurance from the same insurance company. Other ways to save on insurance include:
- Keep a good driving record
- Install a home security system
- Use group discounts
Potential savings: $$/year
10. Quit Smoking
Cutting out this expensive habit can save you loads of money every year. Smoking costs the average smokerat least $1.1 million over a lifetime.
Quit smoking and save the money spent on purchasing cigarettes. You will also spend less on medical bills and pay lower home and life insurance premiums.
Potential savings: $$$/year
11. Take the Bus, Bike, or Carpool
Cut your transportation expenses by walking more, biking, and/or carpooling. Walking and biking will save on fuel costs and do your health some good. Carpooling with colleagues to work a few times a week will significantly cut your travel costs.
All these options are also great for the environment.
12. Hand-Me-Downs For Kids
When you have toddlers who outgrow everything so fast, fairly-used items can save you a lot of money. Depending on your comfort level, these may include toys, clothes, sporting gear, footwear, and more.
You may choose to swap items with another family with kids, or you can visit thrift stores like:
Canada: Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Value Village
US: America’s Thrift Stores, Thrift Store USA, and many others
Potential savings: $$$ per year. Yup – kids cost a lot!
13. Buy a Gas-Friendly Vehicle
The average cost of fueling a car per annum is over $2,000. However, there can be wide variations in the gas mileage for different vehicles, making room for significant savings when you buy a gas-efficient one.
You should consider buying a hybrid or electric vehicle or going with a smaller car.
14. Buy a Pre-Owned Vehicle
Buying a fairly-used car as opposed to a brand-new one can save you thousands of dollars right away. As soon as you drive a new car off the dealers’ lot, you lose 10% of its value! After the first year, you lose 20%, and by the fifth year, you have lost about 60% of its value. On a $40,000 car, that is roughly $24,000 lost in 5 years!
With good research and by shopping around, you can buy a certified pre-owned car that comes with a warranty – either remaining from the manufacturer or provided by the dealership and which has passed rigorous inspections.
If you can also pay with cash, you can save on interest payments, or at the very least, with a pre-owned vehicle, you will be taking on much less in financing and debt.
Here’s how to negotiate a good deal on a car.
Potential savings: $$$/year
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15. Cancel Unused Subscriptions
All those magazines you subscribed to a few years ago that are now piled up around your house unread and cluttering up your living space?
Do not renew them – cancel your subscription and move on. Do the same with memberships that are no longer relevant to you and save some money!
Trim (the U.S. only) is a free service that automatically saves you money by cancelling unused subscriptions, finding deals, negotiating lower internet and cable bills, and more. Try Trim for FREE.
There’s currently no Trim-like equivalent app in Canada.
Potential savings: $$/year
16. Buy Regular Fuel
Fueling up your car with premium gas is not worth it. Yup! Stop paying an additional 15 to 40 cents per litre to fill up your car.
Unless your car owner’s manual indicates a requirement to purchase premium fuel (octane rating 91-93), buy the cheaper regular gas (octane rating of 87), and potentially save hundreds of dollars every year.
17. Buy Cheaper Gas
In addition to buying regular gas, also look for where it is being sold at a cheaper rate. Gas Buddy (U.S.) and Gas Buddy (Canada) can help you find the cheapest gas in your area.
When paying for gas, use a rewards credit card that pays you back (in cash back or points).
18. DIY Car Maintenance
There are some simple car maintenance servicing that you can easily do yourself. Need to change the cabin air filter? It is not difficult, and this saves us up to $70 in labour charges every year for two vehicles.
Other easy car maintenance tasks that will save you money on your car include:
- Replacing wiper blades
- Inspecting and inflating tires (adequate tire pressure can improve gas mileage by up to 3%)
- Topping up fluids – coolant, brake, power steering, and windshield washer fluids
- Change engine oil. Also, note that in most cases, cars do not need their oil changed every 4,000 km like the repair shop wants you to.
Potential savings: $$/year
19. Drive Light
Do you drive your car with a trunk full of unnecessary baggage? Reducing the load your car hauls around will improve your mileage and save you money on gas. Every additional 100 lbs of load on your car lower its fuel efficiency by 1%.
Other strategies to save on your gas bill include:
- Don’t over-speed (As per theU.S. Dept of Energy, excessive braking and rapid acceleration can increase gas use by up to 40%)
- Keep your tires inflated
- Avoid idling unnecessarily
- Keep up-to-date with required servicing as per your owners’ manual
20. Re-Think Your Gym membership
Have you been keeping your New Year’s resolution and visiting the gym several times a week? If so, good for you-you are in the minority, and it is money spent well.
If, however, you fall into the category otherwise known as “the majority,” you should cancel that gym membership that’s not being used 🙂 and save money.
If you are very motivated, you can also buy your own gym equipment, work out at home, and save on gym fees.
21. Save on Haircuts
My wife has cut my hair for over 7 years and often does her own hair as well. I cut my boys’ hair. By my calculations, not visiting the barbershop/hair salon saves us approximately $1,000 per year.
Potential savings: $$ – $$$ per year
22. Visit the Dollar Store
Some items are just cheaper to buy at the “dollar” store – think freezer bags, lunch bags, disposable work gloves, some garden tools and supplies, duct tape, picture frames, greeting cards, disposable plates and spoons, office supplies, decorations, gift bags and wraps, batteries, etc.
Focus on purchasing items where quality is not a big deal, and the brand names are the same as what you will find elsewhere. Pick and choose, as not even everything is worth a dollar! 😉
Dollar stores include:
Canada: Dollarama, Dollar Tree, and The Great Canadian Dollar Store
US: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, 99-cent Only Stores, andFamily Dollar
23. Visit Yard/Garage Sales
Garage sales can be a great avenue to buy equipment/tools, toys, and other things you need occasionally at a great price. To avoid buying what you don’t really need (and becoming a hoarder), keep a wish list of what you are looking for and cross them off once you get a good deal.
You can check out where garage sales are happening by visiting:
Canada: Kijiji and Craigslist
United States: Craigslist, Yard Sale Search, andGarage Sale Hunter
Potential savings: $$$/year
24. Visit Your Local Library
You can save the money spent on buying a book by borrowing from your local library. Many libraries also offer online portals (such as Overdrive) where you can put a book on hold, read an ebook, or listen to an audiobook using your phone, tablet or computer.
It’s not only books and magazines you can borrow from the library. They also have DVDs, music CDs, and Blu-rays which you can borrow to save on rental fees. In addition, libraries may also offer free classes, workshops, activities and toys for toddlers, free tool rentals, and more.
I love listening to audiobooks while commuting and have saved hundreds of dollars by borrowing from the library. If I feel that a book is a must-have after reading it, I look to buy it used or on sale.
Potential savings: $$$/year
25. Learn To Sew
If you have kids, then you already know how often they tear holes into their clothes or rip off a button. My 6-year-old son plays rough and needs patches in his new pants within two weeks or so of wearing them. Without my wife’s handy patching/sewing skills, we’d spend $100 every couple of weeks on kid’s pants alone.
Learn how to sew/mend/patch/repair clothes (especially kids’), and you can potentially save hundreds to thousands of dollars ($$ to $$$) every year.
26. Plan Vacations Early
Start planning early to get the best deals on flight tickets and hotels. Set up price alerts to get notified when prices drop on flight bookings.
Use a travel rewards credit card to earn points or cash back, and you can double your savings by also using a rebate site like Rakutento access your flight/hotel booking website, if applicable.
Estimate how much you need and start saving well ahead of time (by creating a vacation fund) to avoid dipping into your emergency funds or overloading your credit card and missing the payment deadline.
Instead of vacationing abroad, consider visiting local attractions and parks. You will spend less and support the local economy.
27. Embrace DIY
DIY skills are one of those skills that keep giving you something to smile about, and with the advent of the internet and sites like YouTube, DIY has never been easier.
By embracing DIY, I was able to save up to$1,500 when I stripped, cleaned, stained, and sealed our deck. This is just one of the many projects I take on myself to save money.
Other simple DIY tasks include house painting, composting, caulking, laminate or hardwood floor installation, bread making, pet food, soaps, and more.
Some useful DIY websites include:
- This Old House
- eHow.com
- DoItYourself.com
- DIY Network
- The Family Handyman
- Instructables
Potential savings: $$$ per year
28. Don’t Keep Up With The Joneses
Sounds like a TV show, but no, I’m not referring to “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Don’t spend lavishly to impress people who don’t care about you. When you feel pressured to replace your car every two years, do home renovations that are not necessary, have the greenest lawn on the block, use the latest smartphone…because you want to keep up with your neighbours and friends, you are keeping up with the Joneses, and it will not do your wallet any favours.
A YOLO (You Only Live Once) lifestyle sounds hip, but when it comes to money, remember that crushing debt will kill you much faster than frugality.
29. Learn to Negotiate
Hone your negotiation skills to save money on almost anything. From getting a good deal on a car or home to cutting your cable/phone bill, there are savings available. Develop a system. Do your research. Know your limits. Be polite, and like all great negotiators, be prepared to walk away when required.
As mentioned previously, I negotiated our cable, phone, and internet bill to save almost 75% on yearly costs!
Potential savings: $$ to $$$ per year
Take Charge of Your Finances
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