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Episode 262 - Money Saving Hacks You Can Implement Today

In today's challenging economic times, managing household expenses and boosting savings is more crucial than ever. With prices increasing and budgets tightening, it's essential to find smart ways to save on everyday costs. This blog post aims to reveal powerful tips and tricks to help you keep more cash in your pocket, regardless of whether you're a seasoned saver or just starting your financial journey.  

 

Introduction to Thrifty Living  

Thrifty living involves finding efficient ways to reduce your expenditures while maintaining your quality of life. Common areas where you can look for savings include groceries, utilities, insurance, and subscriptions. Here, we delve into various strategies and advice shared by financial experts and everyday savers.  

Groceries: Smart Shopping and Meal Planning  

Groceries are a major household expense, but there are numerous strategies to cut costs:  

  1.  Avoid Impulse Buys: Stick to a shopping list and avoid visiting the store without a clear plan. Online shopping can also help by allowing you to focus on what's needed without the temptation of impulse items.  
  2.  Plan Meals: Planning meals can significantly reduce waste and help you stick to your grocery budget. Check your pantry and freezer before making a list based on what you need.  
  3.  Bulk Cooking and Freezing: Cook in bulk and freeze portions. This method not only saves money but also time during busy weeks.  
  4.  Use Cash: Pay with cash to stick to your budget strictly. Leave cards at home to avoid the temptation of overspending.  
  5.  Shop with a Purpose: Avoiding grocery runs when hungry or with children ensures fewer impulse purchases. Also, enlist your kids in budget management by assigning them tasks like tracking spending.  

Household Utilities: Efficient Use and Upgrades  

Utility bills can fluctuate significantly, especially with seasonal changes. Here are some effective tips to reduce utility costs:  

  1.  Budget Billing: Some energy providers average your consumption over the year and offer you a consistent monthly bill, helping you avoid seasonal spikes.  
  2.  Energy Efficiency: Utilize energy-efficient appliances and LED bulbs. They tend to cost less in the long run despite the initial investment.  
  3.  Off-Peak Scheduling: Conduct high-energy tasks like laundry during off-peak hours to take advantage of lower rates.  
  4.  Routine Maintenance: Regularly clean and maintain your appliances to ensure they operate efficiently.  

Subscription Services: Review and Reassess  

Regularly reviewing and canceling unused subscriptions can save substantial amounts of money. Common areas include streaming services, magazine subscriptions, and software apps.  

  1.  Review Statements: Check your bank and credit card statements regularly to identify forgotten subscriptions.  
  2.  Negotiate or Cancel: If you notice a hike in renewal prices, contact the provider to negotiate a better rate or cancel the service if it's no longer necessary.  

Insurance: Shopping Around and Adjusting Policies  

Insurance costs, whether for health, auto, or home, can be a significant part of your budget. Shopping around and adjusting your policies can lead to substantial savings:  

  1.  Compare Rates: Use independent brokers to compare various insurance plans and rates.  
  2.  Adjust Deductibles: If your financial situation allows, increasing your deductible can significantly reduce your premium.  
  3.  Take Advantage of Discounts: Look for available discounts, such as multi-policy discounts when you bundle home and auto insurance.  

Additional Tips and Tricks  

  1.  Cashback Apps: Use apps like Ibotta or Checkout 51 to get cashback on everyday purchases.  
  2.  Reduce Waste: Be creative with leftovers to minimize food waste, effectively reducing your grocery bill.  
  3.  Thriftiness on Social Media: Reduce time spent on social media to avoid impulsive online shopping.  
  4.  Utility Management: Pay attention to lights and appliances, unplugging them when not in use to avoid phantom energy costs.  
  5.  Pre-loved Items: Explore second-hand options for clothes, appliances, and furniture. Not only are they cheaper, but they also often come with a story.  

Conclusion  

Implementing these thrifty living strategies can significantly reduce your everyday expenses and help you manage your finances better. Whether you're trying to pay off debt, save for a big purchase, or simply stretch your budget further, these tips are a great place to start. Embrace a thrifty lifestyle today and watch your savings grow! By continually monitoring your expenditures and finding innovative ways to save, you can achieve financial stability and peace of mind. Happy saving! 

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Episode Transcript: 

Amber:  

Today, we're diving into the secrets of slashing your everyday expenses and boosting your savings on household costs, From groceries and utilities to savvy insurance shopping. We've got you covered. As prices climb and budgets get tighter, it's more important than ever to find smart ways to save. In this episode, we'll reveal powerful tips and tricks to help you keep more cash in your pocket. Whether you're a master saver or just beginning to take control of your finances, We'll be sharing actionable advice to help you thrive in these challenging times.

Speaker 2:  

You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad Podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experience the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.

Amber:  

I'm Amber and I have saved and paid off $54,000 in 20 months and we have been debt-free outside of our mortgage since 2018.

Chris:  

And I'm Chris Hawkins and my wife and I started our journey back in 2005, and it took us about three years to pay off just under $100,000 in debt, and we've been debt-free except for our mortgage.

Kati:  

Ever since and I am Katie Hatfield I have been on my debt freedom journey for six years and on a single income, I have paid off over $169,000.

Ryan:  

And I am Ryan, and my wife and I paid off $160,000 over eight years while raising three kids.

Amber:  

Now, after listening to this episode, if you want to take your finances a step further three kids. Now, after listening to this episode, if you want to take your finances a step further, we've got an awesome free workshop that I'll be sharing details about later on in the show. All right, let's dive into it. You guys, how are we getting smart about saving as far as, like, household groceries, whatever? What are those daily expenses that you're able to save for?

Kati:  

I find if I don't leave the house, I don't spend money.

Ryan:  

And stay off of Amazon, right yes, Amazon Prime Days we just found out, right yeah, it is.

Amber:  

Yeah, as we're recording this today, it's first day of Amazon Prime Days, so that's how I'm saving. I'm going to delete everything in my cart. That is what's going to happen.

Kati:  

Don't save your payment information on your computer or your phone, so you have to go get it. That's just way too inconvenient.

Amber:  

Unless you're like me and it's saved in your brain.

Ryan:  

I would say the one thing for me when it comes to grocery shopping. I've just gotten really used to online shopping and that really helps us, like if we make a list and we just go online and we order it all and we just go pick it up I'm not saying we never buy something because they've gotten good at that. Now, like, if you go online, they're like what about these? It's almost like they send you down the little junk aisle you know the aisle before you check out. They're like what about this? And you're like oh yeah, I seen those on TV, I want to try those.

Amber:  

Yeah, or you bought it before. Right right, are you sure you don't need this again?

Ryan:  

Right, I'm like oh yeah, I did like that. I'm not saying we don't do that ever, but it's way better than if I go in a store. I could go in a store sometimes and be like I need these 10 things and I come out with 40 things and I do find that shopping online and going to pick it up we're pretty good at sticking to the budget if we do it that way.

Amber:  

Yeah, for me it's a lot of like if we sit down and we plan our meals, so I'll make my meal plan. I know exactly what I'm eating every single day, mainly dinners. I find breakfast and stuff is normal everyday stuff that I do all the time. But then I'll look through my pantry and my freezer and be like, hey, what do I already have? And then I make a list based on what I need. And, oh my gosh, my list is so small when I do it that way, instead of just willy nilly going to the grocery store with stuff I think I might need and then I have to go back Cause I'm like, oh, well, I want to have this, this.

Chris:  

Now I need that. So my wife and I, when we were, when we were getting out of debt, we were very religious about planning out our meals, going through the recipes, and what item do we need, or items do we need to make this recipe and the ones that we don't have? We wrote them down. But we took it a step further and we would write to the side of it how much that cost with tax. And if you buy things enough times, you sort of have a general idea. Okay, and if we weren't sure, we kind of guessed a little high and then we would, you know, total up the whole list and then we took cash that was maybe five or $10 more than that, just in case we had missed something, miscalculated something, and that forced us to stick to the list because that's all. We didn't take our debit cards with us, we didn't, we didn't have credit cards anymore by that point, and so we were forced to stay on the list and if we really screwed something up, but then something just got marked off the list because we only had a certain amount of cash there to buy things, and you know, that's that's how it worked for us.

Chris:  

Now, we always went to the store without the kids. We always went to the store when we weren't hungry. Okay, there's a lot of things that you can do above and beyond that to help with that impulse buying. And I would say that if you are going to take kids to the store with you and I think I've mentioned this on a podcast episode before give them one of those little door clickers where people used to count how many people are coming in a door and say to them okay, that's $3.50, or click it four times and give them the task of trying to keep track of how much you're spending as you go through there, because I would do that with a list. I would go oh, we said this was $3.99 and it's $4.59. So I need to sort of make an adjustment there, to try to figure out where I might need to make an adjustment later, because the worst thing is to get to the counter and not have enough money.

Chris:  

So I'd rather put something back ahead of time, so I didn't get in that position. So if you've got kids with you, give them the clicker and let them help count how much money you are spending as you go through the store.

Kati:  

And before you go to the store I have been every month or so I'm cleaning out my freezer so I know what's actually hidden in the back of it and I make a list that goes on the front of the freezer so I can mark it off when it's not there. So then I can just take a picture of the list before I go and say, okay, do I have ground beef at home or did I just use that all up? And that's been very helpful for frozen items.

Chris:  

I went through the month of December making a different soup every day, but we doubled the recipe and we took the other half of the recipe and we froze it. So when we came back I went on vacation for January almost the whole month, and we came back in February. We used those leftovers that were in the freezer every day for our meals in February. So I didn't have to buy anything. It didn't have to go out and grocery shop for breakfast and lunch type items, yes, yeah, but for dinner it was already there.

Amber:  

I follow this girl on TikTok. Her name is Alex and her tag is like we use what we have. She comes up with the most. You guys got to go follow her. She comes up with the most incredible ideas of food with leftovers. Like she goes this is what I have as leftovers. We're going to make it something that people don't want to what people do want, and she feeds her whole family with these leftovers. It is really neat. So if you're looking for creative ways, if you're like me and you don't like using leftovers very often, go follow her. She's got some awesome ideas using leftovers very often.

Kati:  

Go follow her. She's got some awesome ideas, see, like I just made a couple months ago like a whole crock pot full of pulled pork and then I made pulled pork, quesadillas and a bunch of different things. Not just put it on a bun or put it on in a sandwich or whatever it was, just, yeah, use it up. Or like when you have a leftover chicken breast or whatever, slice it up, put it on a salad or toss it in quesadillas, or yeah, you gotta get creative so you're not wasting that money either, right, because that food waste is essentially it's money that you're throwing in the garbage.

Amber:  

Um, another cool available savings resources are apps. So if you're using apps, or if you're not yet, I would recommend going into the app store and finding these apps. Like, I bought a checkout 51. These are cashback apps that you just scan the receipt and you get cashback for them. In Canada I use flash food all the time. I don't think I've paid full price for meat in my freezer in almost a a year. Really, yeah, I'm just. I watch it, I grab it and I go pick it up and it's usually half price because it's gonna expire tomorrow okay bring it home and I freeze it we use ibotta.

Ryan:  

I mean, some of those are just super easy to use.

Kati:  

Like you said, you pretty much get your receipt, you scan it, you're done, you know, and some of them you can link it to your card so you don't even have to scan the receipt for some of them. But I also do receipt hog, so that one you get points for however many receipts and you have to answer like one or two questions after it and once you hit a certain point you can get, like paypal or um, different gift cards or whatever. Yeah, I think we were more on the apps at that point.

Ryan:  

Yeah, the only one. The only thing I was going to say, like on the like, on the apps, what I've noticed, cause we do use a number of them. They're also getting a little creative. So just be careful when you use them. They're putting coupons in there. Certain grocery stores will shop where it'll be like buy, buy three, get two free, or buy, you know, and so don't overspend to save money. You know what I mean. I think you can follow it, because at these, some of these grocery stores, even though it seems like it's a deal, it's like when you start really comparing prices, it's not so. I think that's the that's the only thing I would say. On some of these apps you can a hundred percent save money and we do use them. But I've noticed, especially like on on, on Ibotta, you can kind of scroll through their deals and then it's like if you buy two, then you'll save a dollar, but it's like, do you need two?

Amber:  

Yeah, well, yeah, and are you going to use it? Right or are you just going to throw it out later.

Ryan:  

Right. So that would be the only thing I caution on is just don't overspend to save a dollar.

Amber:  

And now like utility bills, right For household things like hydro heat. How are you saving money that way when it comes to doing some kind of like maybe upgrading to energy efficient appliances, that kind of thing, because that can save you money? But there are ways to save money on utility bills so that you're not spending as much, because I know those are increasing as well, not just groceries, right.

Kati:  

Well, now I understand why my dad always yelled at us to turn off the lights, because I live by myself and I walk around mad at myself Like why did I leave this on and why didn't I unplug this if I'm not using it? So yeah, I get it now.

Ryan:  

They just rolled this program out here. Yeah, I get it now. They just rolled this program out here.

Ryan:  

Before we moved here we had it in the old state we lived in. But when it came to utility bills they had what was called budget billing. So your utility bill for energy would be the same every month. So every month it would be whatever $150. But they would look at the whole year and see what's your average energy consumption and then they would divide that by the 12 months and then every month. Then you like a standard. You have a budget for the energy Cause, like here, in the summer our energy bill can be really high and then in the winter it's lower. So if that's important, it's not as a big, as big of a deal to us now, but like if you're trying to budget or just kind of have that that sense every month of you want to know what it's going to be and you don't want to be surprised by a huge energy bill. Um, that may be something to take advantage of that's available in your state you just have to watch it.

Kati:  

If they start to raise their prices and your budget payment doesn't change, then you have to watch because it'll tell you like are you over or under where you need to be at to be like actually covering it. Because then all of a sudden they'll be like oh, now you owe us an extra $300 because we are charging more now.

Amber:  

Yep.

Chris:  

I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy a front load washing machine if you have a washing machine, but when you need to replace a washing machine, seriously consider getting a front load washing machine. We learned when we bought one that they do a much better job of spinning water out using less water and when you put them in the dryer they dry faster. And we saved a tremendous amount of water on our build when we went to a front load washing machine and noticed that things would dry much quicker. So it's something to think about down the road. Just keep that in the back of your mind that when you need to replace a washing machine and or a dryer, think about the front load ones.

Amber:  

And taking advantage of off-peak energy times. Do you guys have those in the US? That's just a no-brainer. If you can do your laundry or run your dishwasher in the evening, plan for it or do it. Most new washers and dishwashers now have a timer on it. I'll time it. I'll be like, hey, this is going to start in six hours.

Ryan:  

We've really made an effort to make sure that everything is LED bulbs. Led lights, Pretty much all our outdoor lights, landscape lights. Pretty much everything we have now is everything is LED, which that can save quite a bit of money if you're still running on older style incandescent bulbs.

Amber:  

You can save quite a bit of money if you switch to LED. Yeah, and for the outdoor lights, we have a lot of solar powered.

Kati:  

we throw those out there, so we're not spending any money on that and a tip that I've been doing since college is wash all your laundry in cold water, because I'm not paying to unless it's like super, super crazy dirty. And if I have like something red and something in white and they're like brand new, I'm not gonna wash them together. But you don't want pink clothes. I've never so far across my fingers had any incidents, no other household savings, just in general, reviewing and canceling unused or unnecessary subscriptions.

Amber:  

This is huge, like the amount of subscriptions that some people have that they don't even remember they had. I had a subscription for amazon two of them for a year. I didn't even realize I was paying for two. Like, check your statements.

Kati:  

It's wild what you can miss, like all of those streaming services, if you've cut cable and now you're like, oh, I need this and this and this and this, because the movie you want is never on the one that you have, so you're like. I'll just sign up for the free trial. Make sure you cancel it before the trial ends.

Amber:  

Yeah, and we actually have a statistic here that approximately 42% of consumers admit to forgetting about a subscription they are still paying for.

Chris:  

And that's 42% of people who are not balancing their checkbook every month. I know that's an old fashioned concept. What's a checkbook Exactly? Okay, it's a checking account. It should be called a debit account, perhaps. But money comes in and money goes out and you need to have your own record. I know I'm still a little old fashioned with this, but it works All right If you have your own record. I know I'm still a little old fashioned with this, but it works All right If you have your own record. You can compare your record to what the bank has and you go Ooh, I didn't have in my record that second Amazon bill.

Amber:  

Right Yep. It was on two separate cards. Totally missed it.

Kati:  

Yep, yeah, I do it on a spreadsheet, though I don't do it by hand anymore. That's fine. Spreadsheets do the math for me, especially because I do my finance 15 minutes for roots every morning when I'm not quite awake yet, and I haven't had my Dr Pepper, which, of course, I will stock up on whenever it's on sale, along with toilet paper. Those are the only two things that I will ever stock up on ahead of time, are the only two things that I will ever stock up on ahead of time. But, yeah, I love that and it does all the formulas for you. And if I was charging things on credit cards, I would put it in as a line item and be like all right, well, it takes my checking account down to this. I can't buy anymore because I have to pay that credit card bill now. And I was acting like, okay, I have to pay that credit card bill now. And I was acting like, okay, we don't have the money for this.

Ryan:  

I tell myself, I'm terrible at this with subscriptions, stuff that I sign up for, and I'm like be like three or four months later and I'm like crap, I forgot that we still didn't cancel that. You know, I actually just found one the other day that I signed up for like eight months ago. It's only $5 a month. So it's like one of those little things where it's like it's five dollars a month. But exactly that's what you say, Chris. It's like I especially even like when we were getting out of debt, we had every single thing checked. You know, and I will say, when you get to the other side of it and things get a little bit more comfortable, you could just it's easy to fall back into that it's, it is easy. It is easy to just like say it's five bucks a month. I know we got five bucks a month who cares? But if I look at it and go it's been five bucks a month for eight months and I only really wanted it for one month.

Chris:  

So it's basically I just gave away $35, that it didn't even use it, and I did it, you know, um, so I don't know what's worse the fact that you said it happened for eight months, or that you said it's only $5. This is worse. Now I will say this You're absolutely correct. When you get out of debt and you do it for as long as I've done every now, and then you're just going to say forget about it, I'm going to do something stupid, something dumb, because I can't Right, and that's. That's part of the peace and happiness of being debt free and being where we are is you have that freedom and flexibility and it doesn't bother you. But I still look at it, though, is when I find myself doing things like that, I go back to the old tricks that work, such as a cash envelope. If I need to, I'll go back to it. I don't do it anymore, but I certainly have been many times over the last 20 years where I've gone back to that.

Chris:  

The other thing is, I always tell people that you are your own worst financial enemy. You will sabotage yourself faster than anybody else, and one of the things I've had to do is, if it goes free trial, I just I don't do it. I don't need that bad enough to end up five months down the road spending you know five bucks a month and go oh boy, I forgot about that. And so that's sort of how I have to protect myself, just like I don't have a credit card, because I know if I do it's going to get used, and so you have to know sort of your limits. And then you've got to be true to yourself, and if you can learn to do that, it's going to help you tremendously.

Amber:  

And shop your services. I mean whether you have cable, internet, phone insurance, if you have a renewal that popped up and you're like me. Recently we had a renewal pop up. It was over $400 more for the following year and I was like, no way, I'm not doing it. So I called around and found a broker. She found me almost the same insurance. I already had $1,000 less a year. You guys Like that is a lot of money and that's going to help with the increased price of the groceries, right? So yeah, shop your services, and I mean even phone phones can be so expensive nowadays.

Amber:  

Shop for services and see if you could find a cheaper plan.

Kati:  

I just completely switched my internet and phone. I had been a customer with that company for years and years and years and years and I got a deal where I was going to save almost $30 a month and I'm like that's $360 a year, that's definitely worth it. And I got a deal where I was going to save almost $30 a month and I'm like that's $360 a year, that's definitely worth it. And I'm also getting a brand new phone that I'm not paying for and they give you, for $6 a month, an upgrade every two years automatically.

Ryan:  

I would say, as you start to get yourself in a little bit better financial situation, you can take on a little bit more risk and when you can take on a little bit more risk, and when you can take on a little bit more risk, your insurance rates can really drop, because a lot of people have pretty low deductibles, they don't have a lot of risk associated with them. But, like our car insurance, we bumped up to like a thousand dollar deductible and that just, I mean it dropped our rates like a rock this year. Because we're able to. We can look at it and say, okay, if something were to happen, we know we could cover $1,000 for the car if that happened.

Kati:  

And independent brokers are amazing because they can look at all of that and they can compare the apples to apples. For you, my sister and brother-in-law just did that and saved a ton.

Amber:  

Yeah, I didn't want to be the one calling around insurance companies and answering 5,000 questions. I'll answer them for one person. No, you go do the work for me. If you want to pay off debt, save more money and take control of your finances and start seeing some amazing results in just 30 to 60 days. All you have to do is head over to debtfreedadcom, click on the green button at the top of the page and we will show you how and that sound means it's time for the celebrations of the show.

Amber:  

This week we're talking all about money-saving tips from our Roots members and Marty says grocery pickup stops a lot of impulse buys. It is great the story I shot that.

Chris:  

And Mary says stay home. Stay home and don't internet shop. It's tough, but just say no.

Kati:  

I'm with you there, mary, for sure. And Paul has reduced time on social media and senseless scrolling, planning weekly meals and cooking instead of eating out, uh, they also eat before going to the grocery store yep, same. And using the smart apps like upside for earning cash back every time you gas up I also use, uh, I've used that one and I'd use gas buddy to check what's the cheapest gas near me, and they take off a certain cents per gallon before they charge your card. It's awesome.

Ryan:  

And then we have Hope. She says check your paid off credit cards to see if there's an annual fee so you can either budget for the fee or negotiate to be waived and Hope. I will be honest with you, this was one we almost got burned on because we have a credit card where we do for miles. We just use it because we get miles on the credit card and they jacked it up to $400 and we caught it. We didn't realize it, but it's $400 annual fee so we were able to cancel that before it renewed. So that's a great tip.

Amber:  

As always, congratulations to all of you who are taking a stand for your financial life and are wanting better. We get that getting out of debt isn't easy, but with our help and with your consistency and discipline, we promise you this will be some of the best work you do in your entire life. Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you on our next episode you on our next episode.

Speaker 2:  

Thanks for listening to the Debt-Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Debt-Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. We so appreciate it. For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show, visit debtfreedad.com. Catch you next week.

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