“Life hacks” are everywhere these days. If you haven’t heard of them before, they are ways to get more out of life without spending excessive money, time, or effort. You can find life hacks that show you how to make the most of your schedule, improve your cleaning routine, and even upgrade your fashion choices. However, the most exciting way to “hack” your life is to find ways to manage your money and your budget.
The great thing about life hacks is that they don’t have to be complicated to be effective. Some of the best suggestions you’ll find are the ones that show you ways of managing your cash that is so simple; you’ll wonder why you haven’t been using them since day one. Here’s your guide to the best hacks for saving money.
1. Drink Water Constantly
One of the most valuable things you have access to in your home is unlimited water. You can drink as much water as you like without spending any more of your monthly budget than you usually would on the water bills you get each year. Unfortunately, this is something that we often take for granted. Despite the clear benefits of drinking plenty of water, we often spend our hard-earned cash on sugary juices and sodas instead.
Try challenging yourself to drink only water for a week. You’ll notice that you don’t only save some serious cash, you may even feel a lot better physically and emotionally too. If you want to upgrade the experience, just add a water filter or some sliced fruit for flavor.
2. Haggle More Often
Haggling is something that we don’t generally learn how to do in Western countries. Often, you’ll get the price for your car tax, utilities, or broadband bill and you’ll just accept whatever you’re given as the price that you need to pay. However, the truth is that most companies will be willing to provide you with a better deal if you ask for it.
Call your insurance company and ask them whether they can match a price that you’ve found from another vendor online. If you’re sick of over-paying for your cable costs, contact your provider and tell them that you’re going to switch to a streaming service instead. You’ll be surprised how often you end up with a deal that you can’t get elsewhere.
3. Start a Carpool
Want to make the world a better place and save some money at the same time? Try starting a carpool. If you know that you’re taking a regular commute to work each day with someone who lives nearby, ask them to give you a lift a few days each week, and then return the favor for the rest of the week. This way, you’ll save some serious cash on petrol, and you’ll also be able to benefit from reduced car maintenance expenses too.
Aside from saving cash, a carpool also means that you’re making less of a significant carbon footprint. In other words, you’re doing something good for planet earth. It’s a win/win situation.
4. Open a New Email Address
You might have more than one email address already. Perhaps you’ve got one address that you use for your business emails and another one that helps you to keep track of your loan repayments, your family, and other essentials. Since you don’t want to clog any of those inboxes up, there’s nothing stopping you from making yet another email address that you can use to sign up for free vouchers, discounts, and codes from your favorite websites.
People often avoid signing up for newsletter subscriptions with their favorite brands, because they don’t want to have to deal with endless emails. However, a new email address will give you access to all the benefits, without cluttering your most important inboxes.
5. Grow your Own Food
Finally, there are a few reasons why growing your food is a great way to save some extra money. First, you get to reduce the amount of cash you spend on all the produce you regularly buy for you and your family. You can even grow and make your baby food with some help from recipes on the internet. Secondly, you have a fantastic way to keep the kids entertained when they’re not at school.
Rather than spending money on taking the kids to the movies every weekend, encourage them to learn how to grow things with you in the garden. You’ll get some great bonding moments, and teach your youngsters a valuable skill too.
