Today we are talking all about money saving tips and I’m so excited! This post was inspired by something I recently found to help me save money and it would be a shame not to share it with the world.
I will be starting medical school in the Fall of 2021 and as I write this (December 2020) I have had all things money on the mind. I recently paid off my last credit card that had $3,800 on it for the last two years (yay!). Now that that is out of the way, I have my sight set on building a savings for a move.
This post is all about money saving tips!
So whatever you are saving for I hope all the things I have been doing lately will help you as well!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure here.
Money Saving Tips
Easy Ways to Earn Money
1. Rakuten
Alright, no saving the best for last here. Rakuten is what I recently discovered when I was looking for ways to save money for myself and I can’t believe my broke a** has went this long in life without knowing about it!
I signed up THIS WEEK and already have $28 earned in cash back!
Being referred by a friend automatically gives you $20 so if you use my link HERE you will basically be paid twenty bucks just by stumbling upon this post! Crazy!
The other $8 came from a PetSmart purchase. My boyfriend and I have been putting off buying a bigger crate for our dog (I’m so selfishly cheap I know!) but PetSmart had a 12% cash back rate (not all of them are that high but a good handful are) so we went ahead and ordered it.
Obviously don’t go online shopping and end up spending more than you would, but if you find stores you already shop at this is an amazing way to save up some free money!
2. Swagbucks
This is another app where you can earn money via gift cards by simply taking surveys, playing games, and watching videos!
3. Rover.com
This site literally saved me when I graduated college and moved to California… with no job lined up!
On this site (also on Wagwalking.com) you can sign up to walk dogs and watch them at their owner’s house when the owners go on vacation or something. I charged around $30-$40/night for overnight stays and for someone who literally spent their last $10 on the background check to sign up it was GREAT money!
I lived in San Diego at the time and literally had my first gig within three days of creating my profile. It may be harder if you live in a smaller town, but definitely try.
Plus, clicking my Rover link above will also get you started with $20 already!
I’m not sure what I would have done without this opportunity back then! I continued to do it throughout grad school as well which is nice because dogs don’t really take that much attention after feeding and walking them.
You just hang out in some one else’s house and you can study to your heart’s content! Making money without sacrificing grades?! Yes please!
4. Credit Card Rewards
Okay, so I am in no way a financial advisor or anything like that. I’m just a 26 year old who has been trying to be smart with her money lately and I want to share what I have found.
I am lucky enough to have really good credit, so when I wanted to buy the iPad pro for myself (early splurge for medical school… before I knew for sure I would actually get in 🤷♀️🤣) I wanted the BEST deal I could get!
Hence where the credit card rewards come in because I was able to get this special sign up bonus for the Chase Sapphire card where if I spent $4,000 in the first 3 or 4 months I would get 80,000 points!
Guys!
That is $800!! For FREE!! I’m really passionate about free money if you couldn’t already tell LOL.
Now the caveat is that I didn’t need the credit care for my purchase. I had the money to buy it in cash so I didn’t have to worry about getting charged any interest in the end.
And since I already use my credit cards for every day purchases (to reap the benefits of cash back) I knew I would easily hit that mark after paying $2,000 for the iPad I wanted, magic keyboard, and apple pencil all together.
I just got that $800 sent to my bank account a few days ago and boy was it nice!
So, IF you have great credit and can take advantage of a sign up bonus like that then it is an excellent way to earn some moolah!
5. Tutor
Have a bachelor’s degree in literally anything? Then use it to your advantage and tutor! I have found my best tutoring gigs at Care.com, but you can also sign up or post your profile at Chegg, Varsity Tutors, Tutors.com, or Craigslist!
Sadly, working as an EMT for 10 months allowed me (at best) to just break even and not accumulate any more debt than I already had.
Quitting my job to work as a nanny/tutor though? I was able to FINALLY pay off my Discover credit card in three months!! I make $40/hour as a tutor and $34/hour working as a nanny/tutor to help the kids with their online school.
I made $17/hour as an EMT, worked MORE hours than I do now, and made LESS (obviously).
I rather be an EMT since it is good experience before medical school, but sometimes you have to think of what is best for your long term goals and choose the financially smart decision.
Take a look at what you could really change if you take emotions out of the equation!
6. Nanny/Babysitter
Same thing as above. If you love kids then babysitting on the weekends while the parents have date night is a GREAT way to earn extra money to save up. I also mainly use Care.com for this as well as a great Facebook group in my area so see if yours has any!
Easy Ways to Cut Expenses
7. Starbucks
I couldn’t do a post about money saving tips and NOT talk about coffee. I feel like Starbucks spending habits applies to so many people!
Okay, so you have a few options here depending on how much you INSIST on having your coffee everyday.
My first suggestion: ask for an espresso machine for Christmas or birthday! This is the best of both worlds because then you don’t have to pay for it AND you still get your coffee every day for WAY less (the cost of the bag of coffee like once a month).
My second suggestion: buy a Keurig or espresso machine yourself for ~$80. It seems counterintuitive to spend money to save money, I know but in the long run it saves a LOT of money.
For example…
My caramel macchiato that I like to get at Starbucks costs $5.45 after tax. So let’s pretend that I don’t get the occasional birthday cake pop as well, and just spend that each day I get coffee from there.
In only 15 days, that comes out to $81.75!!
And believe me, in one month I definitely went to Starbucks more than 15 times before we had an espresso machine. My boyfriend got ours for a getting into medical school present and it’s definitely not $80, BUT there are definitely cheaper ones out there.
We had a roommate last year and he the Mr. Coffee espresso machine below and I loved it!
8. TV/Cable
Who even needs cable these days with Netflix?! If you are a sports fan then go to a friend’s house to watch your games. This is an EASY $60+/month expense that you can do without for a while!
Even better is using your Aunt’s Netflix login info so you don’t even have to pay for that either (yes, that is what I have literally done since college)!
9. Heat/AC
Our electric bill last month was double because the first thing I do in the cold mornings is turn on ALL the heaters. Do I need to though? NO!
If you want to save money then start bundling up in the Winter and snuggling with your dog! Or at least don’t have the heat running all night and only turn it on long enough to get warm in the mornings.
An easy way to save ANOTHER $60+/month! Between heat and cable that is over a hundred dollars a month in savings and we got more saving money tips to go!
10. Groceries
The easiest way to save money without being super conscious about coupons, deals, etc. is just to plan out your meals ahead of time and buy groceries ONCE a week.
The alternative is going to the store 2-3 times throughout the week and if every time you add a few things that you don’t really need but are just craving in the moment, then that is money spent that could be avoided!
When you buy it all at once you prevent any random buys, plus you have your meals planned for the week which is really nice!
11. Monthly Subscriptions
So I mentioned Netflix instead of cable earlier, but if you ALSO have Disney Plus, Hulu, AND HBO then it would definitely be smart to pick one and cancel the rest!
In addition, you can use the app Trubill which will tell you ALL the monthly subscriptions you have. This is a great way to look at everything and decide what you can easily cut out to save money.
You may even have some active subscriptions that you totally forgot about and need to cancel!
12. Making a budget
You may have been expecting a post about money saving tips to really emphasize budgeting, but I don’t personally do this all the time. It is nice though to even just make a temporary budget so you can see what you spend in each category!
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to finances. It is good to be aware of your spending habits and so you can see what isn’t necessary when it is time to save money.
13. Eating out/Ordering in
For a while I was on a SERIOUS sushi obsession and I was spending $22.35 on UberEats to get my favorite sushi ordered to me. I was doing it 1-2 times per week for a while and going back through and looking at how much that adds up to is crazy!
If you are trying to save money, I suggest going in and deleting the app right now! Save your favorite order for special occasions for a while and even then make yourself go pick it up when you do order it!
Even ordering out LESS vs. cutting it out cold turkey will save you A LOT!
14. Gas/Carpool
I was reading the 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris recently and he mentioned how you could probably last longer without a job than you think. He mentioned that you could pause your car insurance payment for a while and park you car in the garage if you absolutely had to and start taking the bus and carpooling.
So even if you don’t go that drastic and stop driving completely, you could save a lot in gas my carpooling more and driving less! Also, I have gotten gas REALLY cheap in the past by using my Kroger rewards and getting up to $1.00 off of my gas. (Kroger is the same as QFC and Ralph’s depending on where you live).
Definitely, take advantage of those rewards and make your money work for you!
15. Shopping
My Achilles heel these days is online shopping at Hollister, Abercrombie, and going to Target on the weekends and spending waaaay too much (even though I just went there for two specific things)!
Go through your checking account and credit card spending and see what you have been spending too much on. Add up how much you spent on shopping in a four week period and make it a goal to spend half that in the next four weeks!
Thanks for Reading!
I hope these money saving tips helped give you more ideas on how you can add to your savings or start paying away on some pesky credit card debt!
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