10 super easy ways to spend less

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If you find yourself having more days left in the month than money left in your bank account, here are ten super easy ways you can spend less.

Our spending habit is more powerful than we care to admit. A poor one is equivalent to poking a hole in your pocket and letting the money lick out and as the end of the month crawls over, you are left wondering where all the money went.

You see, it’s easy to overlook the little cash you spend here and there, it’s just $2, you say, but a couple of $2 spent randomly and unchecked would easily add up.

I can go on to tell you how much a good spending habit can improve the quality of your life, but that’s no news. We all know that. The difficult part is knowing where to start and having the discipline to follow through with it.

So, without wasting much time, I will be diving into ten ways and areas you can cut back your spending and use that money for more important things.

1. Meal planning

The first thing on my list of super easy ways to spend less is meal planning.

Planning your meals for the week ahead of time would prevent you from spending larger sums in restaurants or getting takeout.

You can also easily control what you are eating if you are dieting or on a healthy eating journey.

You can prepare easy meals that would last you the entire week in just a couple of hours. For really busy people, this would be a huge time saver as all you would have to do is reheat, and your meal is ready.

If you are new to meal planning, here is a post I wrote on an easy way to do it without getting overwhelmed.

2. Automate your bills

A lot of bills have fines for late payment, and if you find yourself often forgetting to pay them until it is late, you should consider automating them if that option is available to you.

And, if you don’t have the option of automating it, you should still opt for online payments that way, you can set aside a day in the month when you pay them all at once.

3. Eat at home

If you’re always getting low on cash before the month runs out, that’s a sign you need to evaluate your spending. It could be that you spend too much eating out.

You should consider making meals at home instead. I’m not saying you should completely stop eating out, but you should cut it down significantly to occasions such as when you are catching up with friends.

You don’t have to be an expert in cooking to make a decent meal. YouTube and Pinterest make it so easy to follow recipes step by step. All you have to do is search for whatever meal you are interested in making.

4. Start a budget

Budgets are a great way to access where your money is going and which expense is the culprit making you run out of cash.

Accepted, it’s not the most fun thing to do, and you can count on your brain to bring up a hundred different things you would rather be doing.

But, with just a tiny bit of discipline, you can do it. Just make sure to simplify it as much as possible, and it doesn’t have to be very detailed unless, of course, you want it to be.

I share in this post how I easily budget and save on expenses.

5. Money-back sites

Number five on this list of super easy ways to spend less is to take advantage of money-back sites.

There are several websites and apps that pay you back a percentage of the money you spend on a purchase when you shop through their app or links.

Topcashback and Rakuten are some of the popular ones with a lot of positive reviews.

It is a great way to get free money for products you would have paid the same price for or more elsewhere without getting anything back.

How does this work, you might be asking? If you are being skeptical, I said free money, you should be because, technically, there’s no such.

Topcashback, for instance, has affiliate links with sites and brands, meaning they get paid by the company anytime you buy through their link. They then share this commission from the referral with you, which is how you get cash back.

Topcashback boast of being the only site that returns 100% of this commission to you, which makes their rates higher than other cash-back sites.

In the end, it is a win for both parties.

6. Take advantage of sales

This is a tip everyone knows already, but I still wanted to include it in this list. You should note when your favorite stores have their sales so that you can take advantage of them.

Make sure you only buy items you would get anyway if there were no sales.

7. Coupons and discount codes

There are so many websites you can get coupons from. Want to get a product? Chances are your favorite YouTuber has a discount code for it.

These discounts can range from 10-50% off, take advantage of them.

You can check sites like Groupon for coupons or simply google search ‘the brand you are trying to purchase from + coupon.’

8. Downsizing

If a lot of your money is going into things you can do without, you should consider downsizing.

If your rent is too much and you would still be comfortable in a smaller apartment that costs less, you should probably downsize.

You should also cut back on premium purchases and memberships that drain your account. A lot of times, we sign off for subscriptions and free trials we end up not using at all or regularly but are billed for monthly.

Make sure to go through your account statements and unsubscribe from subscriptions that are not important.

You can always add these luxuries back when you are making much more.

9. Quality over quantity

Buying cheaper products might seem like we are saving money, but a lot of times, they don’t last long. This is because they are made from cheaper and lower-quality materials.

And because they don’t last, you would have to change them out often. This could end up costing you more overall.

Always choose items with better quality, even if it costs a little more. For items such as clothes, it is easier to build a collection this way because they would last longer.

10. Thrifting

Thrifting could be a fun activity if you like it. Also, can we talk about the hidden gems you can find in there?

Thrifting could be a good way to buy cheaper vintage or designer clothes, and the money also usually goes for a good cause.

You could find thrifted items that are made of better quality and are new or in really great condition. So if it is something you don’t mind doing, you should check out one close to you.

It isn’t limited to just clothes, you can also find good pieces of furniture at thrift stores.

Ready to start saving?

I hope you can incorporate at least one of these tips with your spending. Just remember you don’t have to get it all together in one day.

To summarize, these are the ten super easy ways you can spend less as listed in this post:

• Meal planning
• Automate your bills
• Eat at home
• Start a budget
• Make use of money-back sites like Topcashback
• Take advantage of sales
• Use coupons and discount codes
• Downsizing
• Quality over quantity
• Thrifting

Just start somewhere, one tip at a time, and don’t beat yourself up when you slip.

You’ve got this!