If you’re looking for tips to save money, you’ve come to the right place.

We know that saving money doesn’t come easy to everyone.

There are bills to pay. 

Debts to repay. 

Accruing credit card interests.

Groceries to buy! Time and time again.

Let’s not forget, a couple of night outs or vacations because…work-life has to balance.

Although it may seem hard at first, it is possible to save if you can make few simple changes and use the right tools.

In addition, we believe it is possible to use whatever income you have to settle bills, get a deserving holiday and save.

When money is managed correctly, you won’t have to stress over every bill. You won’t have to worry after every trip to the grocery store.

This post is chock-full of  the practical and easy hacks you can adopt to manage your money properly and live comfortably.

What’s even better?…it’s not about sacrificing the things you love. You won’t be compromising your quality of life with these hacks. 

Instead, it’s about being intentional with your choices. 

Grab the worksheet to Join our free 30 day challenge to save $500/£500.

Cut back on your Food expenses to save money.

You know what really eats up a lot of people’s money? Food! It’s the number one culprit for overspending. 

Trips to the grocery store with no planning. Eating out every night or weekend. 

We are not about to ask you to sacrifice meals you love or a fun night out with friends. Instead we’ll give you some tips that will help you save money on groceries and spend mindfully on food.

1. Get Cashback every time you shop

It’s possible with the Rakuten app.

Rakuten is a free mobile app (iOS and Android) that offers up to 20% cash back when you do your shopping online with favourite brands such as Tesco, M&S, Walmart and more.

Simply shop in the mobile app or add the free browser extension to your computer so you don’t miss out on your cashback or free rewards.

You can redeem your reward in cash or exchange it for Rakuten points to use on other rewards such as gift cards.

If you’re keen on eating out, use those Rakuten points at your favourite restaurant.

Want to know more about how Rakuten works to give you cashback? Check out this Rakuten explainer video, here!

Some of the cashback offers on Rakuten UK include:

Sign up for free at Rakuten here 

More reading : Rakuten Review

Other cashback apps you’ll enjoy:

• Quidco
• TopCashback

2. Use Meal prepping to save at least $100 a month

Meal prepping will save you time and money.

It’s simply about planning what you will eat for a week in advance.

By doing this, you avoid multiple trips to the grocery store.

You also avoid last minute spending on take away meals.

If you don’t know where to start, I recommend using this $5 meal plan service. For only $5 a month, you get a meal plan delivered to your inbox every week!.

Your meal plan will include healthy wholsesome meal-prep recipes + a shopping list, with every meal designed to cost no more than $5!  

Try the $5 Meal Plan (and get a Free 14-Day Trial when you sign up here!)

3. Cut down the number of times you eat out.

Imagine you have pizza night (~£40) every Friday night, 4 times a month (Total: £160).

Then you also have Chinese take outs (~£30) every Sunday night (Total: £120).

Then…you also buy your work lunch (£6 x 20 working days)= £120.

You will be spending £400 on only take outs which adds up to £4,800 per year.

Save this money for other things by cooking most of your meals at home. It’s also healthier since you have control over what goes into the food.

Not sure what recipes to cook at home? Check Pinterest for ideas. I also highly recommend the $5 meal plan which is for free for 14 days. You won’t regret it. 

4. Take your lunch to work

You can freeze leftovers for later and pack it up as Lunch.

I use these reusable premium tupperware which I bought on amazon for my lunches. They are great for saving left overs and for taking food around.

Negotiate and lower Your Bills

Many people are often spending a lot more on bills and subscriptions than they should.

Do you have Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon prime video all at the same time? Do you also have subscription services for makeup, wine, and clothes? and do you use all of it?

A recent survey showed that 42% of people continue paying for subscriptions they have stopped using.

Same thing happened to me with a clothing subscription service 2 years ago. I kept paying £35 every month when I did not need it. Ouch!

Get creative! and cut as many of these as possible.

You can get free view TV. You can also make one-off payments for movies when you really want to watch them. Netflix costs can also be slashed if you share with another family. 

Here are some ways to lower your bills: 

7. Cut down on subscriptions that are no longer useful with TRIM

Get the TRIM app here.

TRIM will review your account statements and identify recurring charges. 

It’ll then send you a text asking if you would like to cancel subscriptions.

If you say yes, it’ll help you cancel.

TRIM saves users in the UK over £120 on subscriptions and has saved it’s US customers millions of pounds. 

Why not try it out to save you some money?

Try TRIM to keep track of and cancel subscriptions.

8. Lower your home and insurance bills using MoneySupermarket

MoneySuperMarket can help you save up to £350 on your car insurance. Just put in information about your car and it will compare over 152 top car insurance providers to find you the best rate, for free!.

What’s more, if you already have well priced insurance, they’ll offer you a price match deal and £20 gift card. So essentially, using them can help you switch or reassure you that you have insurance at the best possible price.

Compare home and auto insurance rates with MoneySaverSupermarket, and then make the switch to lower your bills. 

9. Lower your internet bill and save up to $50 a month with a simple phone call

You can ring up your internet provider requesting for a better deal. Sometimes if you ask to cancel your contract, you get offered a better deal!

This is all I’ve ever needed to do to lower how much I pay per on my phone bill per month. 

If your provider is not willing to negotiate, explore switching to a different provider or to a less expensive plan that suits your budget.

10. Lower your energy bill – money supermarket can help again.

There is so much going on with the energy market. Energy prices have shut up so much that heating now costs more than food. 

If you are already locked in a tariff, you can use MoneySuperMarket to run a comparison across providers to see where you can get the best value for money. MSM will get in touch when more choice and switchable deals are available on the market.

Check out MoneySuperMarket to see if you can save money on your current tariff.

11. Don’t be quick to buy the latest phone model

You can buy phones that are a couple of years behind. Replacing your  phone every year with the latest model  is not a frugal way to live on one income.

A cheap SIM-only monthly contract will also save you some money.

12. Be Frugal at the petrol station! 

Save money on fuel by checking your tire pressures regularly. 

Also avoid filling your tank on the motorway as fuel is a lot more expensive at motorway stations than in towns.

Pay off your debt

13. Pay off your high interest debt with a balance transfer credit card.

It would make so much difference if your debt had 0% interest. If you’ve not done this in a while, look through your bank statements to determine how much you are paying on your credit card interest; 10%, 15% or 17%?

Balance transfer credit cards can help you lower your credit card interest rates to zero for a period of 12-18 months. Meaning for an entire year, you will pay no interest and can focus on clearing your actual debt. 

You can find several secure balance transfer cards here . Read the fine print and save yourself from interest charges.

14. Ditch ‘Buy now Pay Later’ 

What’s the best way to spend money without feeling like you’re spending money? It’s through buy now pay later (BNPL).

At least a credit card will show you what has been spent.

But buy now pay later doesn’t reflect on your account.

It makes impulse buying too easy.

What’s worse? it  can quickly become expensive when you miss a payment.

A recent study found that one in three consumers who use buy now, pay later have fallen behind on one or more payments, and 72% said their credit score declined due to BNPL.

If you don’t need an item don’t buy it.

If you don’t have money for a non-essential item, skip it.

Save on travel

15. Get cash back when you book flights, hotels, airport transport. 

One app I can recommend you try on your next trip is WayAway.

It’s an app that gives you cash back on all major travel and accommodation brands. 

It also helps you find cheap flights and can suggest destinations that meet your budget.

Using WayAway, you will earn cashback for every flight, hotel, car rental and airport transfer booked through the app (IOS or Andriod).

It’s really simple to use.

Get started with wayaway online here or  get the app here for convenience. 

You can get 10% of your first booking with my code ‘Earnmore’.

Sign up to WayAway here

16. Use a Credit Card (Everything Is 1% Off!)

The thought of using a credit card scares most people, and honestly, if you are bad with debt and impulse buying, you can stay away when it comes to buying things with credit cards.

However, with the right approach, credit cards can be very rewarding to  you. 

When you use your credit card to make a purchase, you get between 1-2% percentage of your expenses back. Although 1-2% may not seem a lot for one transaction, it surely adds up making it easy to earn up to £1000 every year.

Certain travel credit cards will give you airport freebies i.e. free checked in baggage, free premium lounge access, cash back on tickets (in addition to the cash back you get when you use the wayaway app.

Comparethemarket is our favourite place to find new credit cards because they have a list of most of the cards offering the most cash back.

Check out the comparethemarket travel credit cards here

17. Travel off-season 

Most top holiday destinations have peak seasons and at these times, they are very expensive.

You save so much money visiting similar places off peak times. However, we know it’s not always realistic to book an off-season holiday – due to kids or work commitments. So why not consider visiting ‘less popular’ places for holidays during peak periods like summer. For example, you could go to Malta, Greece or Budapest instead of Paris.

You can also use TripAdvisor, Budget airline websites or the WayAway app to find less pricey/discounted holiday packages.

18. Plan your trip ahead of time to save money.

Planning your trip way ahead of time, at least up to a year ahead can give you up to 50% or more discount.

19. Save on transport and food on your holiday

On your trip, walk around where feasible, and do a lot of free fun activities like walking tours and sight seeing of historic monuments and museums.

Also stay at a place with breakfast included. If in Europe, cafe meals are great and inexpensive.

Save on shopping

20. Get 15% off when you subscribe to monthly delivery of must-have items. 

Do you buy pasta, rice, coffee, dishwashing liquid, canned beans etc. every month?? Do you know you can get them delivered straight to your home for 15% off!! if you sign up for an Amazon Prime Account (if you don’t have an account, get a free 30-Day trial here). This will save you £100’s every month! It’s a really easy hack to save more money that people don’t talk about.

Stock up on groceries and save with Amazon here. 

21. Avoid single use plastics to save money

Instead of buying single used bottled water, get your self a really good looking reusable water bottle or a water pitcher at an affordable price. These cost nothing compared to single use bottled water. 

22. Buy non-perishables in Bulk.

Join a wholesale club like Costco.

Use Amazon’s bulk food section or their subscribe and save store.

Stock up on non-perishable staples when they are on sale and save tons of money.

23. Get store cards and coupons

Don’t use coupons for your shopping? Download a free coupon app because you’re missing out on discounts. Many of your favourite stores have coupons and store cards that can get you anywhere from 5 to 20% discount on your shopping.

24. Save up to 15% On toilet essentials

Next day delivery is not the only perk of Amazon Prime. Your Amazon Subscribe and Save account will allow you to save 15% on everything you buy! Check out Amazon Subscribe and Save, and start saving 15% on the necessities!

25. Save by shopping during off season

Yea, the best time to shop for winter clothes is….you guessed right…not during winter.

Shopping during the off season or at the end of season is a REAL MONEY SAVER.

Summer clothes are dead cheap at the end of summer and just before it starts getting cold. Likewise for winter clothes- you want to buy them during the end of winter, just before summer.

 DIY saving tips

26. Fix things yourself to save money

Need to fix plumbing?, mow your lawn?, paint your door? or sew a seam?.  Sometimes, before you ring the handy man, you can try YouTube first. Save money if it’s something you can fix yourself, get a professional if it isn’t or if it will just take you too long to get it done.

We hope these 25+ hacks have given you ideas on how to manage your money or at least confirmed you are on the right track. Don’t forget to download your meal plan or sign up to the 30 day saving challenge worksheet. They’re both free. Longer term, I’d recommend the $5 meal plan service.

Thanks for stopping by!

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