Save money from your expenses

Save money from your expenses

Too many people spend money they earned…
to buy things they don’t want…
to impress people that they don’t like”
Another article about saving money? Hang on! Nah this is not about saving money from your pay check or income. You can still keep spending money as you wish. Then what’s this article about? It is all about saving through spending. Confused?
I am going to share few hacks or tricks that I follow to save money from my spending. It is all about spending in the right way. The tricks I suggest here are tried out and result yielding ones.
Note: Before I list the hacks, do understand instant money is just an illusion. To save money or to create wealth patience is the key.

Debit cards :
Do you spend a lot? Here is a trick to save money from it (At least Re. 1 for every Rs. 400 you spend) From now on do all your spending using a debit card, but before you do that make sure that your debit card is linked with a loyalty program. Now a day’s most of the banks offer debit cards linked with a loyalty program to earn reward points. The sad truth is most of us never utilize it.
On a rough note if you spend Rs.15,000 every month that includes groceries, provisions, clothing and others you can earn a minimum of Rs. 35 every month (Do you think it’s less? Just calculate it for a year it is almost Rs. 400 which is equal to three months worth prepaid recharge)
Be it monthly expenses, recharges, mobile phone purchase or anything use debit cards. This would help you to save a lot of money every year.
There is an opportunity to double your reward points. You can club the reward points offered by few shops, retailers, showrooms with the debit card rewards to double your earning.

Shopping:
We always spend a lot in shopping. There are few ways to save money through shopping. First let us start with provisions and home needs.

Loyalty programs: When it comes to provisions and home needs find a super market that offer loyalty points for every purchase you make. There are a handful of super markets in every town that offers this. Make sure to quote your loyalty program number every time you make a purchase. This might range from 1 point per hundred spent to 5 points per hundred rupees spent.

Buy in bulks: When you purchase provisions make sure you buy the bigger ones. For example instead of purchasing a small toothpaste tube of 50g which costs Rs .15 you can buy 200g which would cost you between Rs. 50 -Rs. 55. Here instead of spending Rs. 60 for 200g you will be spending Rs. 55. Whenever you buy products, that has long duration for expiry, buy in bulk. Through this you can save a lot of money. This would work for soaps, toothpastes, talcum powder and lot of other products.
Another simple trick is to buy sachets instead of bottles. In general, bottles cost more than sachets, since the cost of bottle is included in it. For example 340 ml of Clinic Plus bottle costs between Rs. 135 to 150 (Rates change in retail stores and whole sale stores), but a 6ml sachet of the same Clinic plus costs Re. 1. With Rs. 135 you can buy around 800 ml of shampoo in sachets. Moreover super markets give products with MRP at whole sale price. So you get products at reduced price.

Note: Prices may vary; the price mentioned above was checked using online retailers.

Products with altered MRP: Never buy food items like Rice, Dhal, pulses, millets and others in super markets. Buy them from a whole sale shop, where you can buy at low cost. Generally the super markets raise the price of these items by packing it themselves and marking higher price on the pockets. So it’s always better to buy these goods from a whole sale shop.

Doubling the rewards: Always pay using a debit card in super markets and in whole sale shops (If available), this would give you reward through super market loyalty program and the debit card loyalty program.

Online rewards: Off course this has become quite a trend now, using online portals and apps for transactions is the best way to save ample money.

Recharges and bill payments: There are a handful of online portals and apps to do prepaid recharge, bill payments of any type. Create an account in two or three apps; this would be enough to get rewards every month. Apps like Freecharge gives flat cash backs every month. On average this app gives away Rs. 10 as flat cash back. There are other apps that offer monthly cash backs. Try two or three that you trust for regular cash backs.

Money transfer: Stop using NEFT for money transfers less than 1 lakh. UPI has become popular tool to do simple money transfers. Try using Phone Pe, GPay or other UPI apps. You can earn cash backs for transferring money. (Not on every transaction). These apps give you extra credit for referring your friends and family to join the app.

Credit cards: I haven’t listed credit card in the above tricks, since credit cards are meant for credit expenses. If you pay your credit card bills on time, then using a credit card in place of a debit is an excellent option. Credit card rewards are higher than debit cards, but make sure to pay your credit card bills on time or you will end up with looses.

These are few of the methods to save money through our spending. Have tested them myself and have repeated the benefits. If there is any other method that I have missed or the ones which you tried with good benefits do share it in the readers feedback. I am looking forward to read your tricks.

Note: The real benefit of learning something comes when we share it with others. If you are happy with the tricks above, do share it with your friends and family. Let them utilize the benefits.
– Prakash Parasuraman, Web Developer / Blogger, sayhi@ekatha.in