It’s always been important to find ways of saving and making the most of your money. But nowadays with rising inflation and prices rising on everything from food to fuel it’s becoming more important than ever to find ways of saving money at home. So we’ve put together this handy list below of how to save money at home and make your cash go further. We’ll also take a look at what you can do with the extra cash you save.
21 Ways To Save Money At Home
Listed below are 21 money saving tips for families or anybody else looking for money saving advice. These tips can help your household budget stretch further, allowing you to save more cash and improve your family finances.
Set Up A Budget
First on the list of how to save money at home is setting up a budget. Start by fully reviewing all your monthly incomings and outgoing payments.
This can be done with pen and paper or creating an excel spreadsheet. But nowadays the most accurate and convenient option is to use a budgeting app.
This will allow you to easily track and review all the money coming in and going out of your account, allowing you to manage your finances better.
Cut Bills
Once you’ve successfully set up a budget, you are better placed to track all spending. Reviewing all your bills will identify items to cut. We’re talking things like unused subscriptions such as video subscriptions, gym memberships etc. Bill cutting is one of the easiest ways to save money. There are some great financial apps that can help take the hassle out of cutting bills.
Haggle
Don’t always take the first price quoted for a service. Many companies are open to haggling on prices. This is especially useful when it comes to renewing contracts. If you have been a loyal customer then do some price research into competitors and ask your current provider to match or better it.
There’s no guarantees but they will often give you a better deal in order to keep your business and prevent losing you to a competitor. There’s no harm in asking and is worth it when looking at how to save money at home.
Switch To Lower Cost Alternatives
Do you regularly purchase premium brands? If so, an easy way of making some instant cost savings is to simply switch to cheaper brands or cheaper stores.
Switching from the big brand names to a supermarket own brand on all your grocery shopping could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per year from your regular shopping bill.
There’s usually minimal difference in quality – you just pay more for flashy packaging and better marketing.
Open A High Yield Savings Account
Any spare cash left over after all essential spending could be rounded up and deposited into a savings account. When opening a savings account you want to find ones with the largest APY for the maximum return on your cash.
There are a multitude of different savings accounts including regular deposit accounts and even interest paying checking accounts. Often the ones paying the highest rate of interest are known as high yield savings accounts. These are commonly opened and operated online rather than at traditional banks. CDs are also a good option if you are prepared to lock your money away for a fixed term in return for a higher rate of interest.
View our list of the best online savings accounts interest rates.
Set Up Automated/Regular Savings
You can be sure of sticking to your savings goals by setting up an automated regular payment from your checking account to your savings account. This should be scheduled to take effect immediately after being paid. That way you are less tempted to make unnecessary spending.
Some accounts even have round-up features included. Any spare change in your accounts after your bills are taken care of is rounded up and automatically moved to your savings, allowing you to easily save cash.
Make Use Of Tax Efficient Savings
See if your employer offers a 401k plan or IRAs. These let you save and invest money more tax efficiently from your wages for retirement. Some employers offer plans where they will contribute extra money to your plan. This is free cash so it’s worth finding out what’s available.
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Use Cashback
Cashback is simply receiving money back on your purchasing. Earn cashback through several methods including cashback websites, apps and rewards cards. You earn a percentage of your total spend value at participating retailers. Everybody should be using cashback as it gives you a discount on all your purchasing.
Plus you can be super savvy and boost cashback earnings even more by using both a rewards card and a cashback website. For example, you purchase an item from an online retailer. This retailer offers 5% cashback via a cashback website. Your credit card is a rewards card that also pays 5% cashback at this same retailer. So navigate to the retailer through the cashback website and pay using the rewards card to earn 5% cashback on each. This has now doubled your total cashback to 10%.
Pay Off Debts
If you have any types of debt from credit cards to auto loans, paying these off should be a priority. If allowed to accumulate, interest can quickly compound, meaning you owe more on your repayments and taking even longer to pay off. Just paying off your credit card balance in full each month can prevent you from paying interest.
Consolidate Debts
If you have a lot of different debts that you are struggling to pay, the most efficient solution is usually to consolidate your debts. A debt consolidation service will take on your debts and pay them off on your behalf.
This leaves you with just the one single debt repayment to make to the consolidator. This can prevent too much interest accruing on all your separate debts and allow you to become debt free quicker.
Improve Your Credit Score
Whilst we are still on the subject of credit, credit scores are worth a mention here. A credit score is used by lending companies in conjunction with credit reports to assess your credit worthiness.
Generally speaking the higher the credit score, the better the deal. Those with better credit scores and good credit history stand a better chance of borrowing on more favorouble interest rates. Lower credit scores or poor credit history could leave you paying higher interest rates on your debts such as credit cards.
Fortunately there are lots of things you can do to improve your credit score. Check out more information in our post on the importance of a good credit score.
Purchase Second Hand Products
Do you really need to purchase everything brand new? Save money by switching to second hand products for huge discounts on everything from clothing to furniture. There’s no end of places to find quality used items – charity stores, yard sales, online marketplaces, classified ads, Facebook etc.
Repair & Re-Use
Instead of throwing away something that is no longer working, why not try to fix it? Or if there is no longer a use for an item, could it be repurposed? Clothing for example is easily thrown away as soon as it gets a hole in it. Invest in a needle and thread and repair them instead. Not only is it better for your wallet, it helps the planet as well.
Make Your Own
Cut back your grocery and takeaway spending by making as much of your own as you can. From taking your own lunches to work to making your own cleaning products, there’s likely lots of extra daily spending to be cut out.
Buy In Bulk
Products used regularly or that are long lasting can be purchased in bulk. With prices likely to continue rising over time, stocking up now could save you a lot of money in the longer run by locking in at current prices. This is one of the best money saving tips for families if you consume a lot of products.
Use Vouchers & Discount Codes
With the internet and apps it’s easier than ever to find and use discount codes and money off vouchers. For instance, download the free Honey web browser extension and it will automatically apply the best discount codes for you.
Walk Or Cycle
With rising fuel and transport costs it is becoming ever more costly to travel. Whether that be for work or leisure. Switching from a car or public transport to a bicycle could have the potential to save huge amounts of money.
Perhaps your commute is very long and losing access to a car isn’t an option. You can still make small savings in fuel costs by only using the car for long journeys and switch to walking for short trips.
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Sell Your Old & Unused Items
Our homes can quickly become cluttered with old or unused items we no longer have a use for; clothes, books and old technology are some common items. Declutter your home and sell your old stuff to raise some extra cash. Sell through garage or yard sales or through online marketplaces.
Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
Depending on the climate you live in you may either heat your home or cool it. Either way, home heating and cooling systems use vast amounts of energy.
With energy prices skyrocketing at the current time, now could be the time to make your home more energy efficient and help reduce those bills.
Just simply turning the heating down, swapping bulbs for LEDs or switching lights and appliances off when not in use can make a big difference. When looking how to save money at home, reducing energy bills are a must.
Re-finance Your Mortgage
As mortgages are a long term financial product, it’s easy to stick with the same provider for many years. But interest rates and competitor offers change over time. So it’s often worth checking if you could find a better deal using price comparison sites.
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Make Use Of Free Trials
The final tip on how to save money at home is to make use of freebies. Many businesses offer free trial periods for their services as a marketing tactic, hoping to keep lots of these sign-ups subscribed after the trial period ends.
You can make use of free trials and sign-up offers to bag yourself some free products and services. Just remember to turn off any auto subscriptions or cancel before the trial ends. Use a service from one company and then move on to the next.
What To Do With The Cash You Save
If you have extra cash that you have managed to save by cutting back on expenses and bills, you can put this extra cash to good use by creating an emergency fund, investing it to help grow your wealth and increase your net worth.
It is essential to save cash in an emergency fund is a savings account that is used to cover unexpected expenses, such as a job loss, medical emergency, or car repair. This fund should be easily accessible and liquid, so that it can be used when needed.
Investing extra cash can help to grow wealth and increase net worth. This can be done by investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. These investments can provide income and grow over time, which can help to build wealth.
Extra cash can also be used to pay down debt. This can help to save money on interest payments and can free up cash flow each month. Paying down debt can also help to improve credit scores.
Extra cash can be a great way to improve financial security and build wealth over time. By creating an emergency fund and investing extra cash, people can help to protect themselves from financial hardships and build a stronger financial future.
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How To Save Money At Home Conclusion
It’s always good to save cash. But perhaps in the present climate of rising inflation and prices, learning how to save money at home is more important than ever.
Some of the top ways on how to save money at home include budgeting, using cashback, opening savings accounts, switching to cheaper brands and much more. Don’t forget to also check out these top apps to help you manage your money.
If you’ve found our how to save money at home list useful you may be interest in discovering ways to make money from home for free. Find more on our blog including the following posts you may find helpful;
- Financial lessons everybody needs to master.
- Why you need multiple sources of income.
- Why it’s important to switch savings account.
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