4 Easy Ways to Save Money on Day to Day Spending

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Many of us want to save money, but we’re also trying to juggle busy lives, with jam packed schedules. Lots of money saving methods can seem a little intimidating for beginners, who are just looking for easy swaps to save a little more each month.

Here are four easy ways to save money that are super simple, and require minimal sacrifice. Master these new daily habits, and your wallet will thank you!

Eating out with a discount

The mark up on food when eating out can be high, but we all deserve to enjoy a meal out from time to time!

There are lots of ways to save money when eating out, most of which involve advance planning.

By downloading loyalty apps, checking for NHS discounts or signing up to restaurant discount schemes, you are guaranteed to save a significant percentage of the cost of your bill.

You could also try to eat at restaurants when they run special offers; early bird offers from 5pm for example, or weeknights when 241 offers are common.

It takes a few minutes to check the restaurant websites and your apps just before visiting a restaurant, but you can make some seriously huge savings. It’s worth it!

Making the most of reduced food

Supermarket food that is close to its sell by date is usually marked with yellow or orange stickers, and then moved to a reduced section of the fridge or shelf.

An easy way to save money is to check this reduced section every time you visit your local supermarket, to see if you can find any hidden gems. Lots of food can be frozen, so you can pick up items to fill your freezer and defrost for easy meals during the following week. Milk, meat and ready meals are often found in this section, and are all freezer friendly.

You can also pick up fresh fruit in this section which can be pricey, as well as reduced sandwiches, and vegetables. 

Shopping the reduced section is a simple way to stock your shelves for a fraction of the price, as long as you’re happy to get a little creative with whatever you are able to find. 

Sundays, and the days before bank holidays are great for reductions, as there is more likely to be surplus food to sell cheaper when shops are due to close for a period of time.

Grabbing freebies as treats

Even if you’ve got hard core savings goals and plans in place, we all deserve a little treat every now and then to keep us going.

One way to ensure you’re still allowing yourself a few extras is to claim any freebies available.

There are all sorts of free things you can get your mitts on, including free coffee, tea and hot drinks, free birthday food and drink, free flowers and more. Once you start looking for free stuff, you’ll notice opportunities everywhere!

It’s really satisfying to get something for free when you’re saving hard towards your goals, and it’s an easy way to stay motivated and on track.

Personal finance content creators often share daily freebies, as well as money blogs and websites; the offers are varied and change every week! 

Don’t buy, DIY

We all pay for convenience in today’s society, and in certain circumstances, it can be a useful way to save time.

However, if you find yourself relying on convenience items a little too often, it can be good to challenge yourself to go back to basics.

You could try this by:

• Preparing your own fruit and veg instead of buying it ready chopped
• Swapping your professional beauty treatments, such as manicures or pedicures, for DIY alternatives instead
• Agreeing to exchange handmade cards and gifts to mark celebrations, instead of feeling the pressure to purchase expensive presents
• Washing your own car instead of paying to visit the drive through car wash
• No longer buying water and other bottled drinks on the go, and refilling a reusable water bottle instead

These habits may seem like small changes that will only save a little here and there, but many tiny swaps can be powerful! Just a few pounds saved per day, several times a day, can add up to hundreds of pounds saved each month.

About the author

Taryn is a money and lifestyle blogger at savinginlondoncity.com who is on a mission to share the best money saving tips and tricks with her readers. Taryn discusses the best ways to explore the capital on a budget, whilst saving towards her long term money goals, which include saving for a house deposit, travelling the world and investing.