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!
Carrie says
One of my goals is to save money this year. I’ve set my budget to $325/month for all food, dog food and treats, and hygiene items ($150 per paycheck for me). So far so good. I have $7 to last to Friday but no need to go to the store before then. Maybe I should squirrel away that extra money for a special treat at the end of the year.
I darned my first wool sock last night. I have many holey socks and wool base layers that I plan on repairing. Once I feel I am ready I have a sweater with a small hole on the side I want to fix.
My partner has made a sneaky thermostat change. We had it set at 67 at the start of winter and the Dec. gas bill was higher then normal so he turned it down to 66 and told me about it. Then I noticed last night he bumped it down again to 65 but still no word from him. We have been making fires in our wood stove on cold nights but it leaves the rest of the house cold. I’m starting to get use to it but temps are rising this week. Thank goodness for a break!
Sheri Lin says
I love a new Year and a “reset”. I get lazy at the end of the year. I think it’s the holidays.
One of my money savings tips is saving new currency ($1, 5, 10, etc.). I only use it when I’m in dire need of cash. I have $500 saved as a result.
Weird, yes but it works. 🙂
Em says
Thanks for taking the time to send out these tip, Mavis. I’m going to try your no-spend weeks this year, and no more than one meal out per week for me.
Gina says
I fixed my dryer using youtube! Empowering on many levels. Question: Would you tour hgtv gig harbor home and shoe us? Maybe you can get press credentials, you being a blogger and all!
C says
Great list! For me, planning and having that plan written down has helped me save. Whether it’s a shopping list, project plan, or making sure the activities we choose to do help us move toward the bigger goals we have, there is something about seeing the plan in black and white that helps me stay on track and certainly keeps the impulsive spending in check.
Good luck on your move (if it hasn’t already happened). I look forward to reading about your new adventures!
Brianna says
Shopping ALONE saves me money. Costco isnt as painful on the pocketbook with a strict list and without a hubby and three kids.
Sandra says
My father always says that you should save on little things in order to be able to afford yourself something big and important. And this is so true. Your post reminded me that we don’t have to spend a lot in order to feel validated. Thank you so much!
Practical Parsimony says
I try to only buy food, clothing and other needs when they are on sale. I can no longer put fluids in the car. But, I don’t pay anyone to do it. WM will put fluids in car if you buy the fluid there. I think if a person needs to use a calculator to find the price of something marked down by a certain percent, they should learn mental math. I taught Math Anxiety at a university. The women were in their 60s and had husbands who were engineers, physicians, etc. The main thing the women wanted to know was how to determine the cost of a dress when it was a certain percentage off. So, I taught the mental math of finding a percent off a price.
I dress warmly in the house in the winter and then put on more clothes, wrap in a throw, and wear socks and shoes. That way, I can use less electricity to heat my home.
TS says
Great tips! I have friends who meal prep and it saves them time and money. I wish I liked the taste of reheated meat. It just tastes off to me.
I like how you and Mrs HB put together the meals raw and then freeze and bake later. I may try that since the meat would only be baked once.
Joan Blurton says
Mavis, is that your FoodSaver in the picture freezing the meatloaf? It looks like the one I was debating on getting at Costco last week. I passed on it so I can go home and think about it. I never occurred to me I could free seal large things like loaf pans of meatloaf.
Mavis Butterfield says
Mrs. HB’s. She LOVES her FoodSaver.
Ame says
I hate to shop. I hate the drive, and I hate the crowds and smells and the overabundance of choices and the prices. Because I look at it as a chore worse than scrubbing a toilet, I consolidate as much of my shopping into one or two major trips every three months. I do a marathon day of shopping. Sometimes that means loading up three or four big ice coolers into the back of my truck, going to town and bringing it all back home, vacuum packing and freezing and then going back to town for more. (I live rural and have two freezers and lots of pantry space.)
There’s a stigma that goes with this, though. People look at you as a hoarder. Or a crazy-eyed prepper. One guy at the check out in Costco even handed me my receipt with a sneer and a rude comment! It’s COSTCO, buddy…you know, a WAREHOUSE…!? Costco isn’t what it used to be.
I go into the tiny store in our one-horse town for the little things that run out, like milk for my eleven year old son. We have our own chickens and they produce enough eggs when they aren’t moulting, and we usually don’t eat much bread. I freeze bread and it lasts six months just fine, btw. I tried to make my own, but it just wasn’t worth the time and effort for a sandwich a week.
I also don’t like to shop for clothes at the mall. The mall is just as bad as the grocery stores. Sometimes worse. The perfume counters permeate the entire store! Instead, I shop for clothes on sale a couple times a year online and buy on eBay. I get hand-me-downs from my mom. Yes, I wear my mom’s castoffs. Big deal. She buys quality and has a shopping habit. So what if her taste is not mine. I’m not out to impress the Kardashians.
This bad attitude about shopping has saved a lot in gas. And because my mileage is so low, my insurance, too. Wear and tear on the car is minimal. Paid off eleven year old car and 1999 truck both look nearly new. I have no plan to buy new just to get a back-up camera and On-Star!
I think it’s important to talk about your reasons for things with your children as you go along. I was the mom in the store telling my then-two-year-old the price of the brand name tomatoes was too high compared to the store brand. I called out the price per ounce. He listened. He’s three years ahead in math for his age and the best little saver! Ha!
According to Martin Armstrong of Armstrong Economics, there’s hyperinflation coming and a famine.
That’s how I save. I keep out of the stores as much as possible!
Achariya says
Libraries are key, for me! My local library has digital loans, and in seconds you can have a book on your kindle, iPad, or computer, with a huge selection of titles. No need to buy books when there’s this much of a range.
Mitch says
Libraries are awesome, and for someone like me, who literally reads a book a day, the $10 a month fee for Kindle Unlimited (which gives you access to thousands of free books that the libraries often don’t yet have) is also worth the cost. I loooove saving on books, something that is surprisingly expensive if you read a lot.