Financial life hacks and frugal living tips that make sense in today’s world, so that you can spend less money and save more.
I’m about to give you a checklist of financial life hacks to do one by one.
And you should take these seriously – they give you the power to your spending down by hundreds of dollars each month.
Are you ready for the challenge?
POOF! Challenge issued to you.
So let’s get started.
Financial Life Hacks
Ready for my best financial life hacks? The kind I routinely use in my own life?
Here we go!
1. Cook a Meal on Grocery Shopping Night (Ahead of Time)
I grocery shop on Monday nights after my husband gets home from work.
Since it takes me two hours or so (I run other errands, too), I got into the habit of picking up convenience foods or fast food for us to eat for dinner.
Adding an extra $20 or so onto our grocery bill each week.
Instead, I started making sure we have leftovers from Sunday to eat on Monday night, OR, cooking something ahead of time (like one of these freezer meals).
That’s like $15 savings every single week.
2. Find Low-Chemical & Healthy Products at a Fraction of the Cost
I’m on a simplicity and health kick, trying to clean up the products that we use so that there are fewer chemicals coming into our lives.
Granted, I’ve been on this kick for years – like I ditched most cleaners almost two decades ago in favor of good ol’ vinegar and water.
But I want to go even deeper.
And you know what? Those types of “clean” products can be SUPER expensive.
So, I got creative.
I downloaded the free Yuka app and started scanning products at the Dollar Tree.
You are going to be just as surprised as I was!
I found several bath and hygiene products that score GOOD to EXCELLENT, that are just $1.25-$1.50 each. SCORE!
Low-chemical products AND they cost less than the chemical crud we were buying before.
Hint: Yesss…you should download this app and then check the products you’re currently using. Eye-opening, at least for us.
That’s one of my ultimate new financial life hacks and frugal living tips for this year.
3. Use the Half Rule
Earlier this year, I wrote about The Half Rule. And it got a lot of people’s attention.
J. Money even asked if he could feature the article on his site, and I agreed!
Here’s The Half Rule:
Cut the amount of product you use in half, and see what happens.
Does it still perform like it should? Then keep it at the new, half-level. Do you need to add a bit more to it? Go ahead and do it.
It’ll help you fight inflation. It’ll cut your grocery bill down without having to stop buying the products that you like.
And you’ll start to have some money left at the end of the month.
That’s because we’re all using too much product. It’s like product use inflation (where we keep using more of a product to try and get the same amount of use and pleasure out of it).
Read more about it here.
4. Use this Woman’s Eating-from-Home Hack
Creator @saadiqimani has voiced what many of us have experienced but not necessarily recognized a pattern around: if you get home from work and change your clothes to something comfy, it’s kind of game over for the night.
The likelihood of you cooking for yourself, cleaning, etc., is much less.
SO, instead, she’s been keeping her work clothes on while cooking dinner for herself.
The result?
She saves lots of money each week by eating dinners in and having leftovers to eat for lunches. All because she figured out a hack to motivate herself to get the food cooked.
Great tip! It’ll help you do a 30-day no-eating-out challenge.
5. Switch to a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)
What if I told you that you could get the reliability of Verizon’s mobile network for a fraction of the cost?
This is pretty much the financial hack of these times.
It’s by using a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) like Twigby, which buys network space from Verizon and then gives access to it at a major discount.
I found that I could pay just $25-$35/month on the unlimited plan, and keep my phone number and phone.
Uhhhh – what?!?!
Learn more here.
6. Do a Zero-Spend Room Refresh
Do you remember when you were a kid and had $0 to your name, but you were dying to have your room look different?
So, you just kind of cleaned everything up, organized, and then rearranged all the furniture. And it felt SO good and NEW?
We crave NEW. Which usually means spending a good chunk of money.
But what if we take spending money off the table and satisfy the craving anyway?
Just like this woman did for her friend.
7. Hack Your Digital & Other Subscriptions
I feel like we’re paying a lot in subscription fees…and last Saturday, I decided it was time to do something about it.
I downloaded our last bank statement, then cropped off the account number information (also, my AI is set to not allow our conversations to train the model).
Then, I used this prompt: “I want you to go through this bank statement, and find out all the subscriptions we’re paying for, the amounts, and the company/what it is.”
Perplexity Pro gave me a handy table to quickly see all our subscription and recurring fees on a monthly basis.
Immediately, I emailed the Greenlight app to nix that $5.99 (since I’m an affiliate of theirs, I asked for it as a courtesy, and they agreed). I did the same with the $5.00 Acorns/Gohenry subscription charge, and am waiting to hear back.
We discussed (felt like ad nauseam!) the $18.35 monthly Disney+ subscription, and decided it’s the least used out of all of our streaming services. So, we cancelled that.
Then I texted my husband about the three recurring Apple charges each month ($2.99 and $12.99) to see what they are and make sure someone still needs them. He does.
Finally, we figured out that Verizon Fios offers an ad-supported Netflix subscription and HBO Max for $10/month, and that would save us money from our subscriptions. PLUS, we lowered our tier to the first one (since we barely watch TV). Our total savings per month here were $37.99, AND they’re giving us a $200 gift card in 30 days.
Over one year, that will be a total savings of $676.08 back into our pockets (plus the $200 gift card). Now we’re talking!
Hint: there are also apps that do this for you, like Trim and Rocket Money, which will also go ahead and negotiate on your behalf with your cable company.
8. Strip Instead of Buying New
Y’all…our towels are funky. And exfoliator-rough.
And I just learned how to fix that: strip the towels.
You can also strip any clothes (like musky-smelling workout clothes).
Check out this woman’s video, which single-handedly saved us from spending another $50-$75 on a new set of towels.
9. Cash In Your Receipt Cashback Apps
I’ve been using Ibotta, Fetch, and ReceiptPal for years to scan in my receipts and get points/cash back.
Now, it’s time to actually use them to make a meaningful dent in our grocery shopping this coming month.
Currently, I’ve got:
- Fetch: 36,368 points, which will get me a $25 Walmart gift card
- Ibotta: $0.00 (doh!)
- ReceiptPal: 20,755 points, which will get me $50 in Amazon gift cards
That’s $75 to our bottom line, all for scanning our receipts after I go grocery shopping once a week.
YES!
Hint: if you don’t currently use these, sign up NOW, and take advantage of all those points from shopping for the holidays.
10. Use Grocery and Restaurant Expiring Food Apps
You know how sometimes you walk into a grocery store prepared food aisle and there are clearance stickers on the foods that need to be eaten today (which is perfect, because you can eat it for lunch)?
Be more intentional about this by, say, picking up dinner on a Friday night of food that needs to get eaten.
Do this by signing up for a grocery or restaurant expiring food app and keeping your eye on it.
Here are two:
Just look at these Surprise Bag deals people snagged in my area today!
11. Learn to Self-Care On a Small Budget
I’m a Mama of a boy, a business owner, and my husband travelled a total of 6 months out of last year.
I’ve learned that self-care is non-negotiable.
It never used to be a thing. But then it became how I could be the best Mom, a good business owner, and a supportive wife.
But you know what? Self-care options that most people try to sell you are pretty expensive.
The truth is, you can engage in self-care daily, without spending much at all.
My favorite frugal ways include:
- A bath in a clean bathtub. I’m not even kidding – I shower, and haven’t had a bath in probably a decade. It turns out, lying in a tub full of really warm water is just wonderful self-care.
- Reading a delicious book on our chaise. I clean the chaise and reading nook area. Then I place the book I’m SO excited to read on it. Right next to a really cozy blanket. The anticipation of a quiet, cozy reading time later in the day is enough to keep my spirits up.
- Prep nutritious and YUMMY food a day or two ahead of time. An extreme example of this is when I prepped a Pamper Myself Day. A more weekly example is when I make two of these to snack on over the next two days.
- A walk in the woods, alone. I developed a fantastic routine of going to these woods near our home twice a week while my son is in school, and walking 2-3 miles.
So inexpensive, or even free. And WOW, these simple self-care routines have nourished me this past year.
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Amanda L. Grossman is a writer and Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®), Plutus Foundation Grant Recipient, and founder of Frugal Confessions. Over the last 13 years, her money work has helped people with how to save money and how to manage money.
She’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, LifeHacker, Real Simple Magazine, Woman’s World, Woman’s Day, ABC 13 Houston, Keybank, and more. Read more here or on LinkedIn.
