Money saving tips that actually add up

First, find out where it goes

Saving tips work best when they're aimed. Track every purchase for one month, including cash, and total it by category. Most people find one or two categories that are much larger than they expected, and those are where to start. Our guide on how to track spending has a routine that takes a few minutes a week.

Cut the big fixed costs

Housing, transport and insurance are usually the largest lines in a budget. They're also the ones people rarely revisit, because they're paid automatically. A single change here can beat a year of small sacrifices.

• Shop your insurance every year. Car and home insurance prices often creep up at renewal. Get two or three quotes before you renew, and ask your current insurer to match. If you have an emergency fund, a higher deductible can lower the premium.
• Review your phone plan. Compare what you use with what you pay for. Prepaid and smaller carriers often run on the same networks for less, and many people pay for far more data than they use.
• Call about internet and TV. Ask what promotions are available to existing customers, or whether a slower plan covers what you do. Asking to cancel often brings a better offer.
• Look at the full cost of your car. Payment, insurance, fuel, parking and maintenance together can be a household's second-largest expense. If you have two cars, or rarely drive, it's worth working out what life with fewer would cost.
• Prepare for your rent renewal. Check what similar places nearby rent for. Landlords often prefer keeping a reliable tenant to finding a new one, which gives you room to negotiate.

Audit your subscriptions

Subscriptions are designed to be forgotten. Go through two months of card and bank statements and list every recurring charge: streaming, apps, cloud storage, memberships, delivery passes, software. Then, for each one, ask whether you used it in the last month.

• Cancel anything you haven't used. You can always sign up again.
• Rotate streaming services: keep one at a time, binge what you want, then switch.
• For services you'll definitely keep, check whether paying yearly costs less than monthly.
• Check for duplicates, like two music services or cloud storage from two companies.

Spend less on food

Food is the biggest flexible expense for most households, and the one with the most small decisions in it.

• Plan four or five dinners a week before you shop, starting from what's already in the fridge.
• Shop with a list and stick to it. Ordering groceries for pickup makes impulse buys harder.
• Bring lunch a few days a week. Even partial days add up over a month.
• Watch delivery costs. Fees, menu markups and tips can add a lot to the price of the same meal. Picking up yourself avoids most of them.
• Stop throwing food away. Freeze bread and leftovers, and cook the oldest things first.

There's much more on this in how to save money on groceries.

Stop paying to have money

• Avoid bank fees. Monthly account fees, overdraft fees and out-of-network ATM charges are often avoidable by switching accounts or turning on low-balance alerts.
• Pay credit cards in full when you can. Credit card interest rates are high, so carrying a balance can cost more than any saving tip here will recover. If you have balances, paying off the highest-rate one first saves the most interest.
• Keep your emergency savings somewhere that pays interest, separate from your everyday account, so it grows a little and isn't spent by accident.

Shopping habits that save

• Wait before buying. For anything that isn't essential, add it to a list and wait 48 hours, or 30 days for bigger items. Many things stop seeming necessary.
• Unsubscribe from marketing emails and turn off shopping app notifications. Fewer prompts means fewer purchases.
• Buy used for things like furniture, tools, sports gear and kids' clothes.
• Compare unit prices, not package prices.
• Use cashback and coupons only on things you'd buy anyway. A discount on something you didn't need is still spending.
• Try a no spend weekend. It's a good reset. See the no spend challenge for rules and a printable tracker.

Lower bills at home

• Adjust the thermostat a couple of degrees, and use a schedule so you're not heating or cooling an empty home.
• Switch remaining bulbs to LED.
• Wash clothes in cold water and air dry when you can.
• Turn off devices that draw power on standby, like game consoles and older TVs, with a power strip.
• Check whether your utility offers time-of-use rates or free energy audits.

Make saving automatic

The tips above free up money. Moving it somewhere you won't spend it is what turns that into savings.

• Pay yourself first. Set an automatic transfer to savings for the day your pay arrives, so it happens before you can spend it. How to budget your paycheck walks through it.
• Raise it with every raise. When your income goes up, increase the transfer before you get used to the extra money.
• Watch your savings rate. Income minus spending, divided by income. It's the single number that shows whether all of this is working.

One warning

Cutting too much at once is the most common way saving plans fail. Pick the two or three changes that save the most, do them well, and add more later. A plan you keep for a year beats a strict one you abandon in March.