11 Lifestyle Habits That Will Save You Money
Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to spend less money? We’re already 9 days into the year year. How’s that savings going? Are you finding it’s harder to save than you expected? You’re not alone. Today I want to talk about 11 lifestyle habits that will save you money.
Saving money is tough, but here are some everyday lifestyle hacks that you can make habits in your life to save you big and help you stick with that goal!
11 Lifestyle Habits That Will Save You Money
Know When Savings Matter
That non-organic apple is $.10 cents less tha
n it’s organic counterpart. Let’s say buying organic is important to you, but you’re trying to save money so you opt for the $.10 savings. Now lets say you’re out shopping for a car. You find a brand new car that’s about $10,000 more than it’s used counterpart that is lacking some bells and whistles. THAT is the type of savings you should care about.
The small savings are important and do add up, but if you aren’t doing your homework and being frugal about the large purchases, those little ones won’t matter. Can you imagine how many organic apples you could buy with that $10k savings?
Buy Timeless Clothing
I’ve owned some of the clothes in my closet for 10+ years. One of the reasons that is so is simple: when your wardrobe consists mainly of timeless black shirts and jeans, you can get away with that!
If you try to keep up with all of the ever-changing fashion trends, you’ll be shelling out big bucks for pieces that may stay in style for a few months. If you buy timeless staples, you can pare down that wardrobe and hold onto it for years!
Learn How to DIY
With the invention of YouTube, pretty much every single thing on planet earth has a DIY tutorial. Of course you should know your limits, but why not watch a few videos for some minor repairs before shelling out hundreds to a repair shop? If it’s something in your wheelhouse, research how to repair it yourself.
This is also true about pretty much anything. Can you learn how to make a fancy cake yourself? Do a fancy updo on your daughter’s hair for prom? Cut your husband’s hair? Change your own oil? The tutorials are out there. Match them to your skillset and give DIY a shot!
Set up Autopay
Set all of your bills to automatically debit from your account if possible. You will never have to worry about spacing a bill and getting hit with a late fee! Plus, it makes it easier to budget that way.
Typically many utility companies will let you sign up for a level pay of some sort if you do autopay. That will keep you power bills leveled to a set amount for the whole year.
Use a Calculator
When something is 60% off, it seems like a steal. When you see a sign saying that dress you want is on a 30% sale, it seems tempting. But in order to know if that dress is truly a great deal, you need to pull out your calculate {ahem, phone} and price it out.
Sometimes we see sale and automatically thing it’s a great purchase. That’s not always the case. If that $200 dress will still cost you $160 after the sale, you need to think long and hard about if you’re willing to spend that much money.
The only way to truly do that is to know exactly what you’re paying. This helps too when grocery shopping and coming prices per ounce. That “deal” might not end of being such a deal when you see what the per ounce price is. Calculator helps there, too!
Know the Little Things Add Up
That $2 bagel. That $7.50 fee for that parking garage. That $5 latte. That quick trip to the grocery store to buy that forgotten onion that leads you to impulse buy $20 worth of groceries while you’re there. Nothing big. All little expenses. But if you add all the little things, they become big things.
If you have a budget for the little things, that’s perfectly fine. But if not, they can be budget wreckers without you even noticing! Pay attention to everything you spend. And that leads me to…
Track Every Penny
In order to save you have to know where you’re spending, right? We track all the money {every last little cent!} we spend in our Personal Capital Account. It’s totally free and we LOVE that we can see EXACTLY where every penny has been spent in real time.
Carpool or Become a 1-Car Household
Did you know it costs, on average, $9,000 to own a standard sedan per year {larger vehicle & luxury cars are even more!}. You’ll have to shell out for routine car maintenance, tire replacement, depreciation, licensing, registration, and taxes.
If you haven’t ever looked to see if you could juggle and tweak a thing or two and go down to one car, those savings should light a fire under you! At the very least, look into carpooling to save on gas!
Buy Used
Why buy new and pays. much. more. when you can buy used?! Thrift stores, Craigslist, garage sales, eBay, consignment shops! The beauty of buying used is that there are so many ways to find cool used stuff at a fraction of the cost.
You might have to be patient and work on your negotiator skills a bit, buy holy cats the saving opportunities are endless!
Don’t Keep Up With the Joneses
Trying to live someone else’s financial life when you are in an entirely different financial place can cause all sorts of trouble. Instead of making financial decisions based on what will be best for you and your family, you start doing things based on what others will think.
You buy a bigger house than you should so you’re in a neighborhood near your friends. You take that vacation you can’t truly afford. Maybe you host parties outside your budget because you want to impress your friends.
The ramifications might not seem that big, but they can have a snowball effect that can land you in a world of debt and take years to unravel and correct.
Do Meal Prep Sundays
Or Mondays or Tuesdays or whatever day you have a chunk of free time available. DO the bulk of your cooking for the week, get all your lunches portioned out and your veggies chopped and your meat prepped.
That way when the week goes sideways, as it sometimes will, your first instinct won’t be to gran dinner or lunch out if you don’t have time to prepare it. On another positive note, people who meal prep eat MUCH healthier than those who dine out!
So there you have it. 11 Lifestyle Habits That Will Save You Money!
What lifestyle habits have you implemented that helped you save? Do tell!
Save on,
~Mavis
Looking for more money saving tips? I have tons of them!
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