# Ways to save money [The best timing to buy anything](money-saving-timing.md) [How to save on food and drinks](money-saving-fooddrink.md) [How to save on utilities](money-saving-utilities.md) [How to save while traveling](money-saving-travel.md) [How to save on having fun](money-saving-fun.md) ## Healthcare ### Preventative care If you have a balanced diet, multivitamins are a waste of money. Smoking and other tobacco products are prohibitively expensive and hike up health insurance costs. If you need eyewear, buy glasses instead of contacts. - Get glasses online or in and large department stores. - When your glasses break: - Apply clear nail polish to keep eyeglass screws from coming undone. - Use craft glue to secure the frames when they bend. - Invest in electronics tools to repair your glasses. If you use it, a gym membership or exercise equipment is far cheaper than a medical emergency. - Negotiate with the gym for a better rate, a few free months or for them to waive the initiation fee. Use generic prescription drugs whenever possible and price-compare between pharmacies. - A 3-month supply is usually cheaper than purchasing month-to-month. ### Unconventional health insurance alternatives Look into an HSA (Health Savings Account). - An HSA pairs with high-deductible insurance policies as a tax-sheltered savings account for medical expenses. - While an HSA rolls forward every year and gains interest, an FSA (Flexible Spending Account) loses unused money at the end of the year Join a health care sharing ministry. - Health care sharing ministries are voluntary charitable membership organizations that share medical expenses among the members. - They operate almost the same as conventional health insurance with different terminology. - Their rates are often half the cost of similar health insurance. Purchase a short-term health insurance policy that lasts about 1-11 months. Buy alternative insurance plans. - They can be fixed-benefit insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, etc. - They give cash directly. - If you do, max out medical and underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage to cut down on your health insurance costs. If you need primary care more than a few times a year, join a direct primary care practice for a monthly fee. Sign up for a telemedicine service where doctors answer simple medical issues via phone calls, email, or video chatting. ### When you must go to the hospital Visit cash-only doctors and retail clinics for primary healthcare. Research prices for services before paying for them. Work with a medical bill negotiation service. If you need surgery, use facilities that offer up-front "package" prices for self-paying patients. ## Personal Care Go to a local cosmetology school for pedicures, manicures, eyebrow shaping and most hair appointments: If you're nervous about your hair getting ruined, ask for a more experienced stylist trainee or request for expert supervision. Learn how to cut your hair, color it, and paint your nails: - Choose low-maintenance hairstyles. - Buy used hairstyling tools online and refurbished. Get massages at local massage schools or cosmetology schools. Use bar soap instead of body wash. Save on hair products: - When the shampoo bottle is nearly empty, set it upside down when you're finished showering. - Discount and dollar stores sell good-quality shampoos and conditioners. - Many stores offer hair sprays and lotions in the travel-size bins for you to test them. ## Clothes & Linens Don't buy more linens, blankets, sheets, towels, or comforters than you will use. ### Buying clothes Only buy clothes that match everything and will stay in fashion for a while. - Only get shoes with a purpose or associated outfit. Trade clothing with friends. Get clothing larger than your size and learn how to shrink them. - Shrink a leather jacket by wearing it in the rain or soaking it in water - Since feet grow by about 5-10% during the day, shop for shoes in the evening. - For shoes too big, carefully glue a piece of velvet flat inside the shoes. Only buy handbags that still look good after a few scratches. ### Maintaining clothes and accessories Stop a stocking run with clear nail polish. Keep button threads from unraveling with clear nail polish. If pants zippers keep falling down, flip it downward to "lock" it. - Run a key ring through the zipper, then loop it over the top button Rub stuck zipper teeth with a graphite pencil tip. Repair broken flip-flops by slipping a bread clip under the hole. ### When you think you've lost jewelry - Turn off the lights and shine a flashlight around the room to see it light up. - Stretch pantyhose over a vacuum hose and secure with a rubber band, then vacuum areas the jewelry may have fallen. ## Housekeeping & Furniture Instead of paying for high-end interior decorations, learn to make your own. Avoid buying new furniture: - [Restore your furniture](home-housekeeping.md) and [improve your decor](home-decorations.md). - Buy furniture used at yard sales to restore. - Avoid cheap particleboard furniture that breaks apart in a few years. Don't buy more dishes than you need for a nice meal with family and guests. Either buy dollar-store cleaning supplies or create at-home alternatives: - Make [alternative cleaning supplies](home-housekeeping.md). - Try using melamine foam (branded as the Magic Eraser). - Though it's counterintuitive, detergent pods space out how much laundry soap you use to make it last longer. ## Personal Electronics Don't buy premium electronics or ones that offer convenience and simplicity for a much higher cost (e.g., [Apple](http://www.apple.com/)). Always buy technology at least two years old. ### Maintaining your tech Keep laptops from overheating by placing two identical forks underneath it. Keep video game consoles from overheating by putting 20 oz bottle caps underneath the console. If keyboard feet break, use binder clips. Protect your chargers by running the cord through an old pen spring. Protect your mobile device's screen from water by putting it inside a plastic bag. Blow the dust out of your computers at least once every six months. Extend the battery lives of computers: - Turning off the flash on a phone's camera improves battery life, even when it's unused. - Turning on and off a phone burns more battery than just putting it in airplane mode. - To extend a laptop's battery life, keep the battery between 40% and 80%. - Use your phone only when it's not charging to keep the battery from getting ruined. Store batteries in the freezer in sealed plastic bags to double their lifespan: - Even if you don't store them in the freezer, put them in the fridge for a day before using. - Rechargeable batteries will charge a little inside the freezer. Test your batteries before throwing them away: - Drop the battery six inches above a flat surface: it's still good if it barely bounces, but is dead if it jumps a few times. - Lick your finger and place on one end, then put your tongue on the other and check if you feel a tingle. You can occasionally substitute a different battery: - If you only have one battery, use a steel screw on the other side to close the circuit - To use an AAA battery in an AA battery slot, put a small wad of tinfoil on the positive side of the AAA battery If you ever lose your phone or tablet: - Ring, erase or lock it remotely with Android Device Manager, which even works in Silent Mode. - if you lost an Android OS phone, and it's on vibrate, you can tell it to ring from the Google Play Store. - You can also Google search "find my phone" to locate your Android. - Apple customer support can often find your phone if you call them. Play [Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ) to test all the sound ranges for a blown speaker. ### Improvising electronics accessories Make a hoodie into a laptop case: 1. Center the laptop on the jacket. 2. Wrap the bottom of the jacket over the laptop. 3. Close the hood over the top and tie the strings together. 4. Tie the hands together to make it into a sling. Reuse a glasses or sunglasses case as a phone accessory case. Use a can warmer to hold a portable hard drive. Make an armband for a music player out of a tube sock. Extend the length of your phone or laptop charger with Christmas lights. Make a phone/tablet stand: - Cut a groove into the packaging the device came in. - Bend a paperclip into a stand. - Use an old cassette tape case. Make a spiral cord by wrapping a cord around a pen and blow-drying it for 5 minutes. Create amplifiers instead of buying speakers: - Laptops: cut a plastic cup in half and put it over the speakers. - Attach plastic cups to the ends of a toilet paper or paper towel roll and cut a hole in the roll. - Tablets: cut a slit into half of a tennis ball. Make a phone holder with push pins. ### Save on software Find [free/open-source (FOSS) software](legal-ip-floss.md) instead of paying for proprietary or closed-source programs. Convert an old computer to [Linux](https://www.linux.com/) instead of upgrading (get [Ubuntu](http://www.ubuntu.com/) if you have no experience with it). Download the iOS Free App of the Week to get it for free, even if you don't plan to use it. ## Pets Adopt your cats and dogs from shelters instead of paying a retail store or mill. [Understand your pet](fun-pets.md) to save veterinary bills on easily fixable animal problems. Learn animal biology to understand what they must eat: - Look for more affordable options than premium pet food. - Avoid gourmet pet food since it's usually not worth the price tag. - Avoid generic or discount pet foods because they're usually nutritionally deficient for your pet. Train your cat to use the toilet with a relatively simple and affordable kit to save on cat litter. Brush your pet a few times a week and bathe them when possible to reduce grooming costs: - Large pet stores will groom pets for *far* less than a boutique. Don't buy pets expensive toys, since they're more likely to play with the box. Stay on top of routine veterinary care to avoid massive bills later. ## Professional Services If you're able to wait a few days, or know a product is being shipped from a location within a few hours' drive from you, always opt for the lowest-priced shipping option. If you're willing to take the time to learn, you can do many professional services yourself: - Home repair - Housekeeping - Lawn care and landscaping - Pest control - Minor auto repair For many services like law, accounting, or insurance, familiarize yourself with a basic understanding of that industry and its idiosyncrasies to prevent a service provider giving you an unnecessary product. If you *do* need professional services, only hire experts for that particular niche: - Consider who gives referrals and reviews when assessing their judgment. - People often trust a public metascore, but that score can be easily manipulated, so use a more reputable rating service or ask [experts](professionals.md) you know. If you purchase a ring of steel, ask for them to ship the drop (the round circle punched out inside the ring) to you as well. ## Gifts Even if someone unexpected gives you a gift, stick to your gifts list. Make more meaningful, less expensive gifts for others. - Homemade gifts never risk making people feel the gift was too elaborate or valuable. Artistic gift ideas: - Busy board decorations - Homemade cards, letters, or notes - Picture framed of you with them or a scrapbook/photo album - A personalized T-shirt - An "I appreciate you" jar - Self-made works of art like stories, poems, paintings, or sculptures - Jams or jellies - Homemade bread - Soup mixes or cookie mixes in decorative jars - Baked cookies or snacks - Homemade sugar scrubs - Lotions, bath oils or scented candles - Decorated journals - Spice basket - Small plants - A blank recipe book with your favorite recipes written in the first few pages - Tea or coffee - Coupons for you to do things for them - Silly inside jokes between the two of you Wrap your gifts in tie-dye newspaper or cut-out paper grocery bags turned inward. Use the 4-gift rule with children at Christmas: 1. Something they want 2. Something they need 3. Something they wear 4. Something they read ### When giving flowers Buy flowers besides roses or the season's most popular flower. Buy flowers at supermarkets or local florists instead of professional florists. Unless you're buying *many* flowers, the membership/loyalty program is not worth the cost. Avoid giving flowers on holidays that use plenty of flowers: - Christmas/Hanukkah - Mother's Day - Valentine's Day - Easter/Passover - Thanksgiving ### Gift cards Research what that person enjoys. When in doubt, get a card for something universally helpful like a grocery store, hardware store or large department store. Shop gift card resell sites that offer used or unwanted gift cards at a discounted rate. Nobody turns away cash. When receiving gift cards: - Treat the card as if it were money in the store and buy items on sale or marked down. - Avoid reckless spending from the extra degree of emotional separation from the cash. - Buy a gift card from a different store with that gift card. - Sell your card online or re-gift it by reloading the balance to round it out. ### Christmas gifts Keep track of the family members you want to gift to. - Consider sending a card for extended family members. Casual friends don't expect Christmas gifts, so don't get them anything elaborate. If your kids give to someone in a classroom, they should give to everyone. - It doesn't have to be extravagant and can be as simple as taping a candy cane to a handmade card. Coworkers don't expect gifts, even if they give to you, but you should formally thank them. Cut out the stocking stuffer tradition. Skip the family portrait Christmas cards. ### Valentine's Day gifts Instead of giving an extravagant gift, put the money into an IRA in their name. A handmade gift is usually more meaningful than expensive items, especially if your partner shares your attitude on finances. Buy standard-priced high-quality chocolate bars instead of the heart-shaped boxes. Save diamond jewelry for a more meaningful day (e.g., an anniversary). Try a non-holiday time of year to fly out to family, or have them fly out to you. ## Decorations Make decorations yourself whenever you can. Throw out bad or worn-out decorations, but keep the portions still intact for repurposing. Buy decorations and supplies for the next year's holiday immediately after the holiday ends. Sell or gift unwanted decorations to others. Christmas decorations: - Make Christmas parties more informal to save on costs. - If you enjoy lights, mind how much you decorate with them. - Get an artificial tree instead of a pine tree. ## Vacations Find free ways to take vacations: - Raise funds for a worthy cause. - Get a travel scholarship. - Take up a challenge and get sponsored for something intense. - Enter a contest. ### Saving on lodging Price shop hotels with a discount room-filling service. Use the same hotel or chain frequently to occasionally get promotions or discounts. You can save hundreds of dollars by choosing somewhere half a mile away from the city's central tourist region. Request a corner room to get a more spacious room for the same price. Call the hotel directly: - The 1-800 booking site often goes to a corporate office with fixed prices - Hotels can pay a commission of up to 30% to online booking sites - Keep their adjusted price when directly negotiating a price with a hotel - Direct negotiation has risks: - Booking directly with a hotel loses the leverage a good intermediary may give you if something goes wrong - Cheap customers are the first people to lose their room if the hotel overbooks Try to use independently owned hotels because they're the highest-quality in the world and are far more likely to give you a discount. Hotel tipping is mostly out of style but if you do leave one, put it under the pillow and leave a note to clarify who it's for. If you ever lose your phone charger, ask the front desk of your hotel because they often have extras that other people have left.\ Alternative lodging arrangements: Only get a timeshare if you're budgeting a vacation every year for decades. Rent out your home while you're away. Rent a local guest house instead of a hotel. - Try renting from a local host through a room-sharing site. House-swap with someone in the classified ads for where you want to stay. Pack a tent and camp in someone's garden. Couch-surf through an internet posting. Look at renting a portion of a monthly classified ad property if you're staying there for more than two nights or have a large group. Try a work-for-rent arrangement. - It's usually not as bad as it sounds, especially if you do it for a few months. - Go organic farming through a network like [WWOOF](http://www.wwoof.net/). - Crew a yacht or cruise ship. - Work at a hostel. - House-sit for someone advertising it online. Track your spending in a small notebook to avoid going over budget. Be courageous when haggling everything, especially when you're not in the West. Only collect souvenirs you intend to use as decorations when you get home. In foreign countries, eat at local establishments instead of familiar places: - Ask around for the best places. - Outdoor vendors often have the most affordable food. Visit anywhere that serves alcohol during happy hour (which varies based on the country). Depending on the country, you may be able to rent out a kitchen. ### Traveling cheaply Depending on the region, you can walk or hitchhike. Keep track of all your receipts to dispute strange fees. Look into whether a country has a weekly or monthly tourist rail pass. Try an unconventional transportation solution, like touring overland on a motorbike. Rent a car if train tickets are expensive.