Smart Moves To Your Money / 10 Important Frugal Guides
What Are The Important Guides To Save Money?
Whether you earn more or are living paycheck to paycheck, good spending and allocating a budget for your necessary expenses and bills are smart moves for your money.
You will have a clear concept of controlling your costs according to your necessities and omitting trivial expenditures from your financial goals. Proper planning of your money will guide your spending while allocating some portions for your savings.
Allocating a proper budget is always a struggle for a limited income. Therefore, the best way to pay all the bills is to cut down on your expenses and incorporate some essential tips or guides to implement this plan and save money.
Limit or stop eating out.
Cut unnecessary subscriptions.
Make a budget list for your groceries.
Download discount and cashback apps.
Avoid binge eating and control yourself.
Avoid impulsive buying.
Go for discounted items or promotional items.
Cut down on credit cards.
Save your coins in a piggy bank.
Conserve water and electricity.
Here are some helpful tips for smart moves for your money.
1. Limit or stop eating out.
Trying out new places, like going to different restaurants every weekend, is nice to do with the family. However, eating out may be too expensive for your budget if you are in a tight financial situation. Cutting some expenses for eating out may be a complex process if you are already used to this routine, and it takes a lot of time and continuous effort to become the norm.
Cooking at home is still one of the smart moves to save money, reduce your food expenses, and help you save a little extra money to pay other bills or perhaps put in your savings. Planning for occasional dining out may not be a bad idea considering a budget plan is in place.
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2. Cut unnecessary subscriptions.
We may be unaware of petty expenses such as subscriptions for either entertainment or educational tools. You might need to review these costs in your lists and opt for FREE options.
Depending on the academic subscription you are working on, one of the smart moves to save money is to check the free version before considering a payment option. You can choose an affordable internet provider with a package that includes streaming movies for free.
Internet and other mobile app subscriptions that may not be important and not directly impact your productivity should be removed from your monthly bill payments.
Living paycheck to paycheck is challenging, and a complete change of spending habits is required.
3. Make a budget list for your groceries.
Creating a budget list for your groceries may require a lot of work, but it will control you from overspending at the store and buying unnecessary items that may go to waste. A little plan on your grocery list will give you a clear direction in your shopping.
Implementing smart moves to save money also means cutting down on purchasing expensive branded items. Choose a generic brand to save a few bucks and minimize the cost of grocery items.
A budget list is a way to focus only on buying what is essential while allocating your budget amount properly.
4. Download discount and cashback apps.
Another smart move to save money is to spend time searching for and downloading essential discount apps. There are many discount apps that you can download for free that could help offset the item’s total price, either on your groceries or other items.
Sometimes, the store will send coupons based on your purchased items, and you may want to take advantage of their coupons, but be cautious of those coupons that require you to buy multiple items.
Always consider purchasing items that you could use every day or commodities essential to your household. Incorporating and planning smart moves to save money is a way to escape the stress of being financially short of all your necessities.
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Another means of making smart moves to save money is by signing up for another cashback app called BeFrugal. The app is FREE, and you’ll get paid for shopping at the stores you love, with up to 40% cashback for over 5,000 stores! Your cash will be sent when you’re ready thru a check, PayPal, or gift card.
You can also earn points for every purchase thru the Fetch Rewards App! Just download the app to your phone and shop anywhere. Snap every receipt. Earn FREE gift cards! Sign up for Fetch with the referral code “174TK “and get 2,000 points when you snap your first receipt.
5. Avoid binge eating and control yourself.
Binge eating is a severe eating disorder characterized by consuming a lot of food, even if you are full or not hungry. There are various reasons why some people indulge in binge eating. Some factors include suffering from psychological issues, stress, or just being bored.
Binge eating will hurt your finances when it comes to expenses as you will increase the cost of your groceries, while not a good practice in attaining your weight goal management.
Proper budgeting your grocery shopping through implementing a budget list is a good start in keeping track of food expenses while preventing you from buying any extra junk you don’t need.
Keep yourself busy finding essential tasks in your spare time other than watching movies or spending all your time on social media; this will keep you away from stress eating.
6. Avoid impulsive buying.
Online or in-store shopping excessively is not a smart move to save money. Although purchasing items with discounts and cashback with Rakuten and BeFrugal Apps can earn you cashback every time you buy, it is still best to control your spending and prioritize your necessity list.
ibotta is another cash-back app that gives back money when purchasing certain items. iBotta only offers selected cashback on specific items or brands.
It may be beneficial for you to use it if you are already a user or a buyer of a particular brand. Downloading these free apps on your mobile phone is a smart way to save money and avail free gift cards and extra earnings.
7. Go for discounted items or promotional items.
There are many available discount items or promotional items that you can find online. Make smart moves to save money by visiting the store online and searching for discounts.
You can download and print some coupons from coupons.com or get it directly from the store’s website that you frequently shop at, like Walmart, Target, Costco, Kroger, or others.
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Some of these big stores have discount apps, like Target. Target Circle was formerly the Cartwheel app. It is a loyalty program where you can earn 1% when you purchase at Target in-store or online, and you can join it for free.
Up to 75% Off Activities, Beauty & More! Groupon is another discount app that offers significant discounts for various items and services. You can purchase and use this app on both desktop and mobile phones. Sign up for Groupon at this link.
8. Cut down on credit cards.
Credit cards are one way of putting you in a cycle of debt other than student loans. Many people are trapped in debt because spending and buying stuff is much easier and more accessible thru swiping credit cards. Many credit card companies will present an enticing offer to almost everyone.
It may feel fulfilling to buy the things you want now, but paying them back is quite a struggle if you have many bills and limited funds. You will learn a hard lesson that paying interest with the meager money you earn may be a dreadful situation in keeping up the balance of your finances. As Dave Ramsey says, “If you play with snakes, you are going to get a bit.” True story.
Make smart moves to save money by cutting down your credit cards to one, or it would be better if you could eliminate them to avoid financial conflicts. Spending within your budget is a great way to control your money and apply the concept of “No Money, No Spending.”
9. Save your coins in a piggy bank.
If you place your coins anywhere, then it’s about time for you to collect all of them and store them in a piggy bank or container. Your saved coins can help you with some of your necessities, like buying your groceries.
If you still live paycheck to paycheck, your saved coins can significantly help your small expenses, including gas and food.
Saving coins is more helpful than you think. Do not take every penny you can save for the rainy days for granted. You may not consider it worthwhile to save a penny, but accumulating many pennies can turn into something useful for your emergency needs and necessities.
Another way of making your collection of coins valuable is to invest it in Stash. Stash is a way of investing as tiny as $0.01 increments into fractional shares of thousands of stocks. It is a financial services company that operates both on the web and mobile app platforms.
10. Conserve water and electricity.
Conserving water and electricity are other smart moves to save money. You save water by doing your laundry twice a week instead of doing it every other day.
Avoid hand washing your dishes as this will consume a lot of wastewater; instead, run your dishwasher to save some water usage by cleaning your dishes. Eight dishes in the dishwasher are worth running to save water. Install water-saving showerheads to minimize the water flow in your shower.
Reduce your electricity bill by turning off your furnace during nice weather, especially in the spring and autumn. Open your windows and get fresh air instead of running your air conditioner or heater.
It is always nice to open your curtains and let the natural light illuminate the inside of your house in the daytime. Turn off lights on the day if possible, and if you have a skylight built into your home, this will help save power and cut down monthly charges.
The bottom line is that there are many ways to reduce expenses and save money. You need proper planning, especially on regular expenses like groceries, and eliminating unnecessary extra spending. It will significantly help pay off debt fast and save money if you can do a side hustle for additional cash inflows.
