Are you having a hard time making ends meet? Have you tried everything you can think of but never seem to have any money left over at the end of the month? Well here are 8 painless ways to save money every week. That’s right I said painless! I promise these tips are fairly easy and you won’t even have to make any significant lifestyle changes.
First up, let’s start with that latte factor;
1. Make Your Own Coffee
Most of us buy an average of two coffees a day at around $2 a pop. By making your own coffee at home in the morning and taking advantage of the free office coffee you could easily save money. In fact, you could save up to $20 a week if not more.
Savings – Up to $4 a day or $28 a week
2. Or Switch Up Your Coffee
If you’re a latte or specialty coffee drinker and you need your Starbucks fix, try switching to regular coffee instead to save money.
Savings – Up to $5 a day for 2 coffees or $35 a week.
3. Brown Bag It
On average most of us spend about $10 a day on lunch so packing a lunch just three times a week could easily save you $30. And to make it extra easy just make a double batch of whatever you’re making for dinner and freeze the extras in 1 serving portions to take to work for lunch.
Savings – $30 a week
4. Walk Instead Of Taking Transit (Or Uber)
If you live close enough, walking to work or to appointments a few times a week can really help you save money. And as a bonus, you’ll get in those extra steps. Think about it. If transit costs you approximately $3 each way, walking could save you $6 a day. And if you often take Uber, you’ll save even more by walking.
Savings – $30 a week
5. Stop Buying Bottled Water
At an average of $3 per liter, not only is bottled water expensive it’s bad for the environment. To help save money, install a water filter on your tap and if your office doesn’t have a water cooler bring your own filtered water from home.
Savings – $21.00 a week
6. Invite Friends Over
Instead of going out every week, invite the gang to your place. Just staying in twice a month could save you up to $150. Going out for a nice dinner can easily cost anywhere from $35-50 a person so if you and your partner invited friends over and cooked (or even ordered in), the savings could really add up.
Savings – Up to $100 a couple per week
7. Eat At Home One More Time A Week
Studies have shown that the average family eats out or orders in 3 times a week spending an average of $30 – 40 a meal. If you cooked instead of ordering in just one of those days you’d save money and as a bonus, you’d probably eat a healthier meal.
Savings – Up to $40 a week
8. Cut Your Cable TV And Phone Bills
If you’re anything like me you’ve asked yourself (at least once) why you subscribe to over 400 channels when you watch the same 10-20 channels all the time. If you took a good look at it I’m sure you could cut some channels and save yourself at least $30-40 a month. At the same time examine your smartphone bill. Do you really need that large data plan? If you’re paying for 10GB but only using 3 each month, maybe there’s a lower plan you could change to. Most buildings have wifi these days so tapping into theirs is easy and you could save up to $60.00 a month. And if you’re one of the few who still have a landline, maybe it’s time to examine how often you use it. After counting, on one hand, the number of times every month I used my landline, I recently canceled it. Why pay over $65.00 (plus taxes) for a phone you never use?
Savings – approximately $41.00 a week ($165 a month) for downgrading both cable and smartphone plans and canceling a landline
Bonus. Quit Smoking
Okay, so this one isn’t painless. I know it’s a tough one but your body (& your bank account) will thank you for it! If you’re a smoker you’re burning through (pun intended) a lot of cash every month. With the average price of a carton of smokes around $120 in Canada and $70 in the US that’s a lot of money, you could put towards a very nice vacation or add to your savings account.
Savings – $120 a week / $70US a week
So there you have it! Eight painless ways to save money. Doing any one of these things will save you at least $20 a week but imagine if you did two or three of these or even all? Cha-ching!! Just imagine what you could do with all that extra cash every week!
Happy savings!
xoxo
Karen
For more savings tips check out 5 Ways to Save For A Mortgage Downpayment On A House.
An amazing list of money saving tips you have shared to help save for future. Keep sharing such informative and useful content.
Great post! I think we all struggle with trying to save money and make ends meet. These tips seem so practical and doable. I’m definitely going to try and implement some of them in my own life. I also like that they don’t require a complete overhaul of my current lifestyle. Thanks for sharing these valuable tips!