Incredibly Easy Ways to Save Money While Shopping continues the series on Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Life.
See here for what this series is about, and scroll to the bottom or click here for a list of other entries in the series. Also see the end of the post for details on submitting your own incredibly easy life-improvements.
Note: Some links here are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission when you purchase them, at no additional charge to you. I only suggest things I honestly believe in.
Incredibly Easy Ways to Save Money While Shopping
Easy ways to save money are the best ways to save money.
There are tons of money-saving tips you can find online.
Some of them are good, and some are bad. But most involve time, effort, or sacrificing things you enjoy.
If you can save money with strategies that don’t take any ongoing effort, willpower, time-commitment, or sacrifice, that’s far better.
Here are 17 incredibly easy ways to save money on items you buy.
1. Buy higher-quality razors, and make them last by occasionally running them backward on your upper arm
When a razor gets dull, it’s because of microscopic warping of the blade.
You can straighten out the warps by running the blade backwards on your upper arm about twenty times.
Picture yourself shaving your upper arm. Now run that mental video backwards. That’s what you should be doing. If you’re worried about cutting yourself, you aren’t picturing it right.
Do this with every week or so with better quality blades – the ones that are around $3/cartridge. I use Schick Hyrdro 5. My wife uses Gillette Venus. And the cartridge will last until the plastic wears out. At least three months, and often far longer.
I have a friend who just celebrated his razor cartridge’s second birthday. I guarantee he’s spending less on razor blades than you are.
(Assuming you actually use razor blades to shave, obviously.)
2. Buy higher quality shoes – it will save you money in the long run
Don’t buy $20 shoes.
They’ll wear out in six months.
While $50 shoes will last three years.
Over those three years you would have spent $120 buying $20 shoes every six months.
And the $50 shoes are much more comfortable and better looking as well.
Exceptions are semi-disposable flip-flops, shoes that will be worn rarely, and children’s shoes that will be quickly outgrown. It’s fine to go cheap on those.
3. Use the Honey browser extension
Honey is a free browser extension that looks at your shopping cart when you’re making a purchase, searches the web for any coupon codes, and automatically tries them out.
It doesn’t always find discounts that work. But when it does, it’s free money for zero effort.
4. Check the Amazon app before making purchases at stores
If you’re at a store and about to buy a pricey item that you don’t need in the next two days, quickly look it up on the Amazon app.
If it’s significantly cheaper on Amazon, might as well save some money.
(Though it’s rude to do that if you get extensive help from a salesperson to make your selection, or enjoy the atmosphere of the store.)
5. Buy cheap alcohol for mixing
If you’re an aficionado who enjoys expensive liquor, also buy some of the cheap plastic bottle booze.
If you’re mixing it with juice or Coke, you won’t be able to tell the difference.
Besides, it just seems wasteful and wrong to squander your high-end fine alcohol on a mixed drink where you can’t appreciate it.
Save the good stuff for drinking straight.
6. Don’t have brand loyalty except for things you really like
If you like Coke more than Pepsi or (shudder) the store brand, buy Coke.
But for most products, you really can’t tell the difference.
Any brand of toothpaste will clean your teeth as well as any other brand.
So just grab whichever one is on sale for $1, instead of paying $4 for “your” brand.
And do the same with everything else at the grocery store, unless you’ve tried the store brands, knock-offs, and alternatives, and know there’s one particular brand you genuinely do like best.
7. Buy in bulk
(Submitted by anonymous reader)
You can often save a lot of money by buying non-perishable items in bulk. Getting the mega-pack of things like toilet paper, soda, kleenex, etc will be much cheaper. Whether you do this at a grocery store or you go to warehouse stores like Costco or Sam’s Club.
One caveat about Costco: Sometimes they have great deals, especially on their Kirkland house brand. But other times, they only carry the more expensive name brands. For items where the cheap generic is just as good, you may be better off getting the cheap generic at a grocery store rather than buying the expensive name brand in bulk at Costco.
8. Check the per-unit cost when grocery shopping
Buying in bulk isn’t always the best deal. Especially when different brands come in different sizes.
If you look at the price tag on the shelf, there should be a smaller number below the price that tells you the per-unit cost. This will be per ounce, per gram, or some other unit specific to the product.
This lets you easily compare prices without having to do the math yourself.
9. Make fancy coffee drinks at home
(This is a repeat of advice in Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Health, so I’ll keep it short)
You’ve heard it a gajillion times before: Don’t spend $5 a day on fancy coffee drinks. But if you really enjoy your fancy coffee drinks, there’s an alternative.
Buy your own Torani syrup and flavored creamers.
Then you can make fancy coffee drinks at home for a fraction of the price.
Plus it’s much healthier, and will save you time. Wins all around.
10. Don’t drink bottled water
Bottled water is a scam.
It’s just free tap water that they’re charging you for.
Drink your own tap water for free. If you don’t like the way your tap water tastes, use a filter.
Buy some reusable bottles. You can get some on Amazon here for $7, or go to your local WalMart and pick some up for $1.
11. Don’t be a connoisseur of wine, alcohol, chocolate, coffee, etc.
I know nothing about wine. It’s never been a topic I had the slightest interest in. If you were to name a style of wine, I could probably identify if it’s red or white, but I can’t guarantee that.
Because of my ignorance, I can go into a store, grab a random bottle I know nothing about except that it costs $3, and enjoy drinking it.
Someone who really knows wine and has put in a lot of effort to refine their pallet would think that bottle was complete swill.
They’d need to spend $60 to find something they enjoy.
We’re both drinking something we enjoy, but I’m spending 1/20 as much.
So who’s better off?
It’s the same with chocolate. I prefer a $0.50 Hershey bar to fancy gourmet high % cacao. I’m also perfectly happy with instant coffee.
But this isn’t the case with hard alcohol. I can’t enjoy cheap whisky or vodka. (Unless it’s mixed with something. See #5 above.) And I regret that I’ve refined my taste buds so that’s the case.
If you’re young, avoiding becoming a connoisseur is incredibly easy. You’d have to put effort into failing at that plan. Just don’t try to become an expert, or get into fancy stuff.
If you’ve already failed at this, there isn’t an easy way to go back.
12. Join a local “Buy nothing” group to get used items for free
(Submitted by anonymous reader)
Facebook or Nextdoor should have a “Buy Nothing” group for your neighborhood, where people will give away items they no longer want, or offer to make trades. It’s an easy way to save money.
Plus it’s a great way to meet your neighbors.
(Note: I haven’t tried this myself, but it sounds like a good idea.)
13. Buy cheap or mid-range items. Never top of the line
Sometimes the cheap version of whatever you’re buying is good enough. Sometimes the cheap version is hot garbage and you’re better off paying more for higher quality.
Which is the case will depend on the specific item. There’s no universal rule for this.
But while there’s often a huge difference in quality between the mid-range version and the cheap version, there’s almost never a significant difference between the mid-range and the super expensive version.
The premium versions are just for rich people with more money than sense who assume the most expensive thing must be best.
Don’t fall for that, and never go above mid-range on anything you buy.
14. Buy and sell things online (Especially for students and parents)
(Submitted by anonymous reader)
eBay isn’t just for collectors. You can find a lot of bargains there, and you can sell your unused items. The same is true with Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.
This is especially useful for students and parents, who tend to go through a lot of expensive stuff that they only need for a limited time.
15. Use Instacart to compare grocery prices – even if you aren’t getting them delivered
(Submitted by anonymous reader)
You generally don’t think of Instacart as a way to save money. It’s a way to spend money for convenience.
But you can use it to check the prices of items at various grocery stores in your neighborhood. Comparison shop from home, then use their prices to decide which store to go to.
16. Use sites, apps, and browser extensions like Rakuten, Ibotta, Popcart, SoftShopper, and Library Extension
(Submitted by anonymous reader)
A reader suggests these sites/extensions:
Rakuten is a site you visit before doing any online shopping, that lets you earn loyalty points that you can cash in for rewards.
Ibotta is an app you log purchases into to earn rewards.
Popcart compares prices across many online stores.
SoftShopper is an app where you scan barcodes and it tells you if the product is available somewhere else cheaper.
Library Extension tells you if a book you’re looking at is available at your local library.
Note: I haven’t used any of these, and can’t personally vouch for them. There may be downsides to using them. But the reader who suggested them thinks they’re great.
17. Use your library card
Most libraries offer eBooks and eAudiobooks that you can check out and download from home for free. So no need to pay for that book/audiobook you’ll only read once.
Many of them also offer movies, so you don’t have to pay for rentals.
And you can even go down to a local branch and check out a physical book, like when you were a kid. (At least, if/when they’re open for regular in-person business.)
By the way, if you want to read The Weight Loss Habit but don’t want to pay for it, most libraries let you request that they add books to their collection. You’ll have to go to your local library’s website to find where to make that request. For example, here’s the page for the Los Angeles Public Library.
Incredibly easy ways to save money put you on track toward a better life
Let’s be realistic. None of the suggestions here are going to instantly transform you from poor to rich.
But put together, they could easily save you a few hundred dollars a month. Without any effort, willpower, time-commitment, or sacrifice.
And that’s a few hundred dollars that you could invest, or save toward a vacation, or spend on things that will make you happier.
Or it could mean you don’t have to work as long hours, or stress as much about paying bills.
Either way, incredibly easy ways to save money are incredibly easy ways to make your life better.
Do you have any thoughts on the items on this list?
Or suggestions of others to add?
I’d love to hear from you.
If you have suggestions of incredibly easy ways to be happier, or any other ways to improve your life, please send them to me so I can include them in a future entry. You can comment here, e-mail stevenraymarks at gmail.com, or tweet/DM to @YourselfHelping.
Other entries in the Incredibly Easy series:
- The Incredibly Simple, One-Sentence Guide to Investing
- 10 Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Health
- 10 Incredibly Easy Ways to Be Happier
- 11 Incredibly Easy Things to Stop Doing to Be Happier
- 15 Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Sleep
- 13 Incredibly Easy Ways to Improve Your Finances
Like learning about easy life-improvements? Subscribe to Five Boosts to receive five weekly suggestions of articles on easy ways to make your life better. You’ll also receive a free copy of 24 Ways to Improve Your Life, featuring summaries and analysis of 24 of the top self-help books.
[…] 17 Incredibly Easy Ways to Save Money While Shopping […]