7 ways to save some extra money
You could save hundreds this year...
“I can’t go on that trip, I don’t have the money.”
It’s a common problem. You are fortunate enough to get paid every two weeks, you can pay your bills but you never seem to have enough money for “the extra”. A trip to Mexico, a new coat or a new television. If you’re interested in saving/making a little bit of extra money – here are seven suggestions.
Forego your morning coffee run
Canadians drink over two billion cup of coffee every year and one of our coffee chains is closely tied to the identity of the country. However, with an extra large coffee costing almost two dollars, you could save yourself a crisp Lyon Mackenzie King every month by switching to home-brew.
Average monthly savings: $50/month
Don’t shop hungry
If you’ve ever gone to the grocery store with an appetite, you have probably walked out with more than your list full of food. Alison Jing Xu, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, published a paper establishing the link between hunger and shopping. Xu determined that hungry participants tend to acquire more food/non-food items compared to their fed counterparts. Xu summarized her findings; “…if they go shopping on an empty stomach, they might spend more money than they intend to.”
Average savings: $40/month
Change your credit card habits
Credit cards allow us to shop online and make larger purchases but having credit doesn’t necessarily mean that you should use it. By changing your habits around paying your credit card immediately, you avoid the risk of forgetting to pay your bill and you can adjust your budget on the fly.
Average savings: varied
Do a membership audit
Membership are inevitable. They offer great benefits, but are you getting your monies worth?
- A Costco membership costs $60/year
- A gym membership may cost $600/year
- A magazine subscription may cost around $50/year
If you aren’t using your memberships/subscriptions to the fullest, it may be time to consider cancelling. For a gym membership, you could consider a home option and you could always buy magazines on the newsstand if you’re only reading them occasionally.
Average savings: $10-20/month
Cut the cord
After careful consideration, a lot of people are either downgrading their cable packages or cutting cable all together. Based your personal viewing habits, it may be a good way to save some dough. If you are only watching sports, for example, you may be able to move to a sports-specific option like Rogers NHL Gamecentre or a more general option like Sportsnet Now.
A combination of a sports service, Netflix and an antenna may give you a very similar experience to cable based on your viewing habits and location.
Average savings: $50/month
Quit smoking
In addition to being bad for your health, smoking is also bad for your wallet. With an average price of $10/pack in Ontario, you could easily save $40 a month by quitting.
Average savings: $40/month
Get to flippin’
Author/speaker/investor Gary Vaynerchuk proposed that 2017 become the year of the flip with the #2017FlipChallenge. Gary hypothesizes that if you spend a few hours of spare time every week buying and flipping items on eBay/Kijiji, you can make an additional $20,170 by the end of the year. Use your expertise and your smartphone to make some extra dough this year.
Rock 95 makes it even easier for you with our Garage Sale website!
Warning: this video contains some coarse language
Those are seven ways to end the year with a little more money in your pocket – how do you save extra money for “the extras”?
CC image courtesy of Images Money via Flickr
