Here are some easy steps you can follow to save $100, today!
1. Making coffee at home instead of going for a coffee run
- Effort level: Easy
- Continuous savings potential: Medium-high
I know that some of us can’t survive without our morning coffee, and many are used to standing in line at our favourite coffee shop (or the most convenient one) to get our coffee every day. I admit that it could be a difficult habit to break, but in reality, it doesn’t require that much effort to make coffee at home. You don’t even really need a coffee machine. All you need is some ground coffee and hot water. You add the hot water to the ground coffee, let it steep for a few minutes, strain out the coffee ground, and it is ready for you to enjoy!
I highly recommend that you give it a try at least once, today. It may be a start of a new money-saving habit for you!
2. Using cashback earned for your grocery or everyday items
- Effort level: Medium
- Continuous savings potential: High
Cash back shopping sites/apps allow you to earn cash back on everyday purchases.
My favourite cashback app/websites are:
- Drop (check out my Drop app review here)
- Rakuten (sign up here to get a bonus cash reward when you make your first qualifying purchase)
- Honey browser extension (sign up here to get $5 bonus when you make your first purchase!)
- Fetch (check out my Fetch Rewards review here)
Now that you have these tools at your disposal, let’s use them to save some money on your groceries or necessities that you have to buy anyway!
3. Dining al fresco with your friends instead of meeting them at a restaurant
- Effort level: Medium
- Continuous savings potential: Medium
Dining at a restaurant is out, and dining al fresco is in! Who doesn’t want to enjoy some fresh air and nice sunshine with friends in a park or on the beach!
One nice thing about having a picnic is that because you no longer have to pay for labour, sales taxes and tips at a restaurant, you can even splurge a little bit and pick up that fancy cheese and fancy sausage for your homemade sandwich. I am pretty confident that as long as you don’t go all the way out, you can still save at least $10 versus dining out!
4. Waiting a few days to get the item you want
- Effort level: Medium
- Continuous savings potential: Medium
Waiting a few days helps prevent compulsive buying. Personally, I find waiting a few days before clearing out my Amazon shopping cart really gives me clarity on whether I want the items or not.
If you are patient enough, you may consider waiting for the items to go on sale before you make the purchase. One tool that I use for price watching is camecamelcamel. It is a free Amazon price tracker that provides price history for products and sends email alerts when the prices drop to your desired level. I can’t recommend enough how useful this tool is.
5. Using cash and storing away the change
- Effort level: Easy
- Continuous savings potential: High
I have seen plenty of variations of this exercise over the years, and they all work! For example, Broke Millennial® puts away all the $5 bills she gets back as change. If you want to aim high, you can set your target to $10 bills, or even $20. On the other hand, if $5 is too large a denomination, you can consider just putting away the coins you get back from the stores.
6. Canceling a subscription you no longer need
- Effort level: Medium-High
- Continuous savings potential: High
Are you a paid subscriber to various apps, magazines, and online services? Because of their usually low monthly costs, they may have escaped your attention during your financial audit. But over the years, these charges really add up! I recommend that you take 30 minutes to go through your credit card statements, circle the subscriptions you pay for, and cancel the one that you use the least. Just need one to start! Since it is a recurring expense, you will be able to save quite a significant amount over time.
7. Borrowing books instead of buying
- Effort level: Medium-High
- Continuous savings potential: High
If you are a book lover, chances are that you have purchased many books in your life. But how many books are you absolutely in love with? Probably only a fraction of the ones you purchased. Now, instead of buying physical books, why not purchase ebooks or even borrow through the library for free? Of course, if you love the book, you can still buy it after!
8. Buying store-branded groceries
- Effort level: Medium
- Continuous savings potential: High
It’s not our fault that we have brand affinities. After all, companies won’t be spending billions of dollars on advertising if it doesn’t work. However, if you want to save money, buying store-branded items can save you quite a handsome sum. The actual quality of the products isn’t inferior. In fact, when I conducted a blind tasting test among my friends, around 50% of the people actually preferred the store-branded items! Of course, it is a small sample size, but you know my point. Give it a try at least once, and you may be surprised!
9. Buying generic drugs
- Effort level: Medium
- Continuous savings potential: High
This item is along the same line as purchasing store-branded items. After all, according to the FDA, generic drugs are
“medications created to be the same as an existing approved brand-name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, and performance characteristics”.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Since generic drugs work in the exact same way as brand-name drugs but are significantly cheaper, why not use them instead? All you are giving up on is just the pretty packaging, which is thrown away anyway.
10. Asking for gift cards at stores you regularly shop at for your special days
- Effort level: Low
- Continuous savings potential: High
Instead of getting actual gifts from your family and close friends, why not ask for gift cards for places you frequently shop at instead? You can use the gift cards towards your regular purchases and save the money that would otherwise be spent on your necessities, such as groceries.
Conclusion
We have now come to the end of this exercise. You should now have saved quite a bit of money if you followed all the easy steps outlined above.
For more money saving tips and tricks, check out my articles here! Leave a comment down below if you have any other quick savings strategies you’d like to share.
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