Admit it or not, being frugal is a difficult trait to adopt especially if you want to satisfy the inner child in you or to experience the things you have been deprived of when you are still a kid. The rampant social media usage exposes people on different hobbies and interest which catches the interest of the users, so it tempts them to spend and experience stuff that piqued their curiosity. However, even these things are enjoyable, you need money to experience these luxuries in life.
If you are from low to middle income class or you do not have a generational wealth, you should consider saving up for the future, may it be for an investment or an emergency fund. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with splurging on your interests but there will always be a limit for everything. With this, you need to employ some budgeting in your expenses to be wiser in handling your own money. The best time to save is now! It may be difficult to start but little by little you will appreciate why saving is a must in life. If you had a luxurious year, the upcoming year should be an ideal time to be frugal with your money or at least, limit your expenses. Experiencing the best does not always entail spending so much money. If you are still naïve on how to be thrifty, you do not have to worry. We know how tempting it is to spend for an item we always dreamt of like limited edition shoes or stuff from luxury brands especially when we have FOMO or the fear of missing out. But there is this saying, “save for the rainy days”. Perhaps, none of us want to experience a big financial problem before we realize the importance of saving, right? The simplest ways to be financially literate is being a wise spender and saving a portion of your earnings. But how can we be a wise spender? Here are some tipid tips that you can adopt if you plan to start tracking your expenses and want to change your spending habits.
Tipid Hacks for Your Daily Meals and Groceries
- Plan your weekly menu ahead of time
Deciding what to eat helps in budgeting your finances. By planning your weekly meals, you can keep track of the spendings to make in cooking or buying that meal. If you have a weekly plan, you can easily adjust it especially if you realize that you are overspending on some meals or there should be other food options to choose which are more cost friendly. Additionally, preparing your own meals are more cost efficient than buying ready-to-eat foods from fast food chains or restaurants. Plus, you can choose to use healthier ingredients which is better for your health.
- Pack your lunch and snacks
I know, I know, preparing your lunch and snacks is time consuming rather than buying meals from the restaurants near your workplace. But the reality is you do not have to prepare your entire meal every morning. You can cook dishes ahead of time and heat them when you need to eat them. Of course, you just have to choose dishes which are not prone to food spoilage or can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. Besides, preparing your own meal is satisfying rather than buying from restaurants. There is a sense of fulfillment and independence because if you prepare your meals, you will most likely use natural ingredients. Additionally, preparing your dishes is the best tipid tip because more often than not, the price of a restaurant meal is equal to two or more meals when you prepare your food by yourself. Chances are, you will also have an extra budget to prepare another dish of your liking.
- If possible, buy in bulk
There are products in your grocery list that can be bought in bulk. Buying in bulk often gives you a huge discount though you need to have a huge amount to grab this type of deal. This is very useful when buying detergent powders or cleaning products because the cost per gram or per liter gets lower as you choose to buy the larger option.
- Avoid going to the grocery if you are hungry.
If you are hungry yet you still go to the grocery, there is a higher chance to buy something that out of your grocery list. Being hungry makes you crave for food so when you roam around the grocery store, you will see a lot of food which makes you crave for it. The worst case is to buy it because it just looks delicious in your eyes. So always go the grocery after eating a proper meal to avoid splurging on unnecessary goods.
- Learn to make your own coffee
Coffee is becoming a usual drink for the younger generation. But most of them drink coffee from reputable and expensive franchises like Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and many more. If you are really a coffee lover, you should try learning to make your own coffee and exploring different methods to make such drink. Knowing that coffee is like a meal which you cannot miss out every day, you are definitely spending so much when you purchase your drinks from the identified brands. Imagine, if your favorite coffee is worth PHP 200 pesos and you drink it every day for a week, you are roughly spending PHP 1000 pesos per week. In a month, this may total to PHP 4,000 and in a yearly basis, its estimated total cost is PHP 48,000. See how expensive it is? With that amount, you can buy something like an appliance which will be useful or a coffee maker to start learning to prepare your own drinks.
- Have a list of your must-buy in the grocery and stick with it
If you do not have a list of what you should buy, you can be easily derailed from your priority buys especially if you are not used to grocery shopping. If you do not have a list, you might get curious of the products that caught your attention which you might eventually buy even if there are more important purchases to take. So, it is important to have a list then if you have extra or you want a simple way to pamper yourself, that is the best time to do a spontaneous grocery shopping.
Tipid Hacks for Your Monthly Bills and Subscriptions
- Cancel Unnecessary Subscriptions
This might be best way to cut off expenses. Right now, it is easy to get tempted to subscribe on different streaming platforms because of the unique content for each option. However, realistically, with your busy life, you cannot digest most of the contents in your subscription. So, make up your mind which streaming platform to retain or if everything should be cancelled especially if you are currently happy with free contents from YouTube or other free media like television.
- Use cost-efficient appliances
If you have a complete set of appliances at home, this tip might not be helpful at all as it lets you incur another cost. However, if you plan to replace an appliance in your home, make sure to buy the cost-efficient models like inverter air conditioners and refrigerators. It might be costly than regular models, but it lets you save on electricity costs especially than electricity rate fluctuates most of the time.
Aside from this, you should unplug unused appliances. Take note, unplug and not just off the switch. Even it is unused but still plugged, it consumes a little bit of electricity so if your appliances are not being used yet it is still plugged, you are consuming a substantial amount of electricity which will increase your monthly electricity bill.
- Share subscriptions with your family or friends
Fortunately, streaming platforms are rolling out family subscription packages which is very cost-effective compared to individual subscription. If many of your friends, family members or relatives enjoy the same streaming platform with you, subscribing into this type of package is the best option to take to have savings on your monthly subscription fees. Likewise, your friends or relatives who subscribed with you will pay lower fees, so it is a win-win situation for anyone in the group subscription.
Tipid Hacks for Your Personal Expenses
Personal expense is a broad category for budgeting. However, in this context, let us classify personal expenses as something important yet easy to overspend on like gadgets, clothes, and many more. Here are the tipid tips for your personal expenses.
- Stop following the trends and faking your lifestyle
Of course, we always want to experience the best and most luxurious lifestyle in this world. But realistically speaking, not all of us have the opportunity to enjoy such. There is nothing to be ashamed of living within your means or not having branded products. It is better to have a complete set of your basic needs rather than choosing to purchase branded products which you cannot sustain in the long run. Social media may have changed our satisfaction with our purchases but if we are practical and we truly know are means, you do not have to feel belonged with the posts of your online friends by faking your life. Each one’s life is unique with one another. Not everything we see online is the standard way of living and enjoyment. We must always remember that enjoyment and satisfaction are subjective. However, it should not cost our sanity or cause headaches outside the online world.
- Monetize your hobbies and interests
Learning a skill or spending time in your hobby cost you money to enjoy such activities. Yes, it helps with your mental health as you can relax, and it gives you personal growth. But if you have an opportunity to make it like a part-time job, why not do it right? Especially for expensive hobbies like carpentry, videogames, and many more. Some of the ways to monetize your interest are accepting commissions and vlogging. The internet made these activities accessible so if you have the time and you have the guts, make the most out of it. Earning from what you love is the dream of everyone because you enjoy and learn more while earning profits which might fund your living in case that you become bigger, let’s say you reached 100,000 subscribers in YouTube or you started a business out of your hobby.
- Invest in Best Value Gadgets
This might be one of the best tipid hacks to have in life especially that we are living the digital age where gadgets are becoming a daily necessity. Indeed, technological innovations are too fast so almost every year, the flagship models of technology brands get easily replaced by newly improved models. However, it does not mean that what you bought loses so much value or its performance is considered crappy compared to the newer model. Additionally, best value does not always mean low price. The best value gadgets are those that will serve your purpose of buying such for the upcoming years without thinking of upgrading to the newest model every launch. For example, in smartphones, if you are not gaming at all or you can still play the games you want with your phone, why bother with the newest release? For laptops, if there are new CPU releases or new models, should you buy it even your current one serves its purpose?
Forget about trends and FOMO. Practicality should be prioritized. Remember, having the best value gadget is the one which will not make you upgrade for every new generation that releases. Of course, finding the best value will take a lot of research because you need to have a slight tech savviness to understand which is which among the options in the market.
Being Frugal Opens Bigger Opportunities
We all want to see the fruits of our hard work but if you are financially literate, you know how hard it is to earn money. Blood and sweat are often what you sacrifice to have better pay and save up for your needs. We deserve to experience the best in this world but experiencing the best does not entail that we spend on luxuries to the point that we have little to no savings. Being frugal will be more appreciated in times of need like emergencies. We must avoid lifestyle creep or the situation wherein our luxuries are becoming a necessity as our earning increases. One root cause of lifestyle creep is following the trend. There is nothing wrong on enjoying the trends but if impairs your financial capacity or your potential to be more financially literate, then it is time to adjust your lifestyle and live within your means.
Nonetheless, another benefit of saving up is having an allotment for investment opportunities. If you have enough or you want to start investing to have a passive income, real estate is the best choice. Bria Homes, one of the leading real estate developers, offers affordable house and lots and condominiums which is perfect for rental businesses or diversifying or investment portfolio. It also offers a flexible financing methods like bank loans and Pag-IBIG housing loans. To learn more about its offers, you may visit their website or contact them through their Facebook page.
