These 6 Things Save Me A Ton of Money

And I don’t have to follow a budget.

Despite what you have been led to believe, you don’t need to sacrifice the quality of your life in order to save a lot of money. To be completely transparent, some of the things that I do to save money have made my life a lot easier.

I want to share with you 6 things that have saved me a lot of money as I know they can save you a lot of money as well.

Working out at home

Gym memberships are so expensive now. Before the pandemic hit, I think I was paying around $80 per month for a gym membership. Surprisingly, that was one of the cheaper memberships in my area.

The pandemic really opened my eye. I didn’t need a gym membership to get in a solid workout. I went to Walmart and bought a few sets of dumbbells and began doing workouts in my living room. There are so many videos you can follow along with on YouTube that are 100% free of charge. And the cost of the dumbbells? The dumbbells cost less than one month of my memberships fees.

Also, when it’s nice out, I like being outside. I don’t want to pay a lot of money to be in a building full of sweaty people. I want to be outside, soaking in the fresh air, hiking, golfing, and just going for a nice walk or run.

You don’t need a fancy gym membership in order to get in great shape. Buy yourself a set of dumbbells and start working out in your living room. If it’s nice outside, take your exercise outdoors. With how expensive gym memberships are, you can use that money elsewhere.

Making meals at home

This is honestly such an easy way to save money.

Once I started limiting how much I was eating out, I really began to see how expensive eating out truly was. On a low week, I was still spending more than $100 as I would eat out at least once every other day. It didn’t help that I tried to make them relatively healthier meals, and healthy meals tend to be more expensive than your McDonalds or Burger King drive-thru.

Instead, I began cooking in bulk. I go to the store every Sunday night, buy groceries for the week, and spend half of what I was when I was eating out. You would be surprised at what you can get for $50. I’m not having to eat the same meal either. I will usually buy chicken, pork, fish, some potatoes, rice, an assortment of veggies, and other things. While it takes me an hour or two to cook the meat once I get home, it’s also saving me a lot of time during the week.

Economy traveling

I love traveling. It seems like I am visiting friends in other states at least once every other month. As we all know, traveling can be expensive. This is why I choose to use an airline rewards credit card. I’m not saying this is something you should do, but I accumulate miles when I make everyday purchases, and can use those miles to get free or discounted flights.

On top of that, I never sit in first-class. I am always in the back of the plane and usually end up getting the entire aisle to myself. I guess you could say I have even more room than passengers in first class.

But in all seriousness, I pay very little for my travel. I buy the cheapest airline ticket possible, and then I just stay with friends wherever I go. Really my only expenses are on food and beverages.

Canceled various subscriptions

I had way too many subscriptions I wasn’t using. I had a subscription for Amazon Prime (I still do because Amazon is life), Hulu, Misfit Market, AppleTV, I think I even had one for YouTube TV, as well as several others that I never used.

As you can see, I really like watching TV.

Yeah, it was excessive. After going through all of the various subscription plans I had, I finally cut it down to three: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and AppleTV (only because of Ted Lasso).

Subscriptions usually cost very little so you don’t even second-guess getting them, but when you are subscribed to 10 different services, that adds up quickly! I am saving an extra $150 per month just from cutting various subscription plans.

Downloaded money-saving apps

My favorite money-saving app is definitely GasBuddy. Right now, gas is $3.19 a gallon where I live. With GasBuddy, I have a debit card that is tied to my bank account and gives me deals on gas. For example, one of the deals right now is $.25 cents off a gallon when I use my GasBuddy debit card. So while others are paying $3.19 per gallon, I pay $2.94. It might not seem like a lot, but it adds up quickly.

Another app I really enjoy is Ibotta. Ibotta helps you save money on grocery store trips, and you can also save when you shop at retail stores, pharmacies, and various restaurants. You can also get cashback when you shop on Amazon. Once your balance on Ibotta gets to $20, you can cash out your savings and send the money to either PayPal, your Venmo account, or your bank account. Essentially, you are getting money back on things you would already buy.

Paid off my credit card debt

I’m joking, I’ve never had credit card debt (thankfully) and I don’t ever intend on having credit card debt. That’s because I don’t buy things I wouldn’t be able to pay cash for.

If you are somebody who does have credit card debt, what are you doing?!?! Get that sucker paid off!!! Do you know how much of your hard-earned money you are giving the banks?

Currently, the average credit card interest rate is 16.13%. That means you are having to pay the credit card companies 16.13% of your current debt each and every single month. If you have $1,000 in credit card debt, that’s $161.30 you are giving the banks every month. You are simply wasting your money.

If you want to start saving more money, stop buying things you can afford and pay off your credit card debt. This is where Dave Ramsey gets it right, cut those things up and never use them again. You work way too hard for your money to be giving it to the banks.

If you are interested in wanting to find more ways to save money, check out the stories below.