We all know we should save more money. There are many blogs and articles on how to do this online. Most of them offer simple words such as take an extra $20 from your paycheck and put it into a savings account and don’t touch it. All of them are all good ideas. There are lots of ways you can save money without thinking about it too much. Some are more creative with their personal finances than others and some take a little bit more time than others. But if you are looking to save money you need to learn to do them all. Here are a few things you might not have thought about too much. Of course, you might already know them, but we think if you learn one new thing from an article it has been a valued article. Let us know what you think.

Make a budget

You can’t do anything without a budget. Until you know what money you have coming in and what money you have going out, you have nothing to measure by. Make a budget so you have all of your expenses written down so you know exactly how much you need to exist on every month. Once you know that, then you can move on to the next steps.

Write it down

Every expense you make you should write down, even if it’s only buying coffee at a local food truck, write it down and how much and when. Though this may seem silly, you will be quite surprised at what this can tell you every week. If you really want to know if you are overspending on things you don’t need, just hand that to somebody that understands money and budget and ask them. If you’re embarrassed a hand it to them then you are probably overspending.

Weekly review

After you have made your budget, you should set a time every week to go over your weekly spending. Once you make a budget, it’s very easy to forget it, but if you set time, even if it’s only 30 minutes every week at the same time to go over it, you will find that you follow your budget much better. So, keep on top of your spending weekly.

Coupons and more coupons

There is a whole coupon culture out there. There are sites that list all the coupons for your local area including the ones in your newspaper. Those sites will also tell you any specials and which coupons to use from which section of the newspaper as well as many other details. If you join the coupon sites, you will find that you can spend less than half or sometimes even a quarter of what you would have spent normally on the same items.

Can I live without it?

The question to always ask yourself is can I live without it. When you going to buy something, the thing you have to ask yourself is if you can live without it. That’s sort of the keystone to saving money.

Make it at home

Trying to make as many things at home as you can instead of buying them all when you are out. Although this is fairly self-explanatory and on pretty much every budget site there is, it’s important to repeat it. Take a thermos of coffee to work and the coffee costs you about five cents for a cup, as opposed to $1 to $4 at a coffee shop. That does not seem like much it adds up.

How much a year

A good question to ask yourself is how much does this cost me for the whole year. As an example, you grab a breakfast sandwich from a fast food place on the way to work every day, and it only costs you $4. Well, in a year that breakfast is costing you over a thousand dollars. That sort of changes your opinion on how cheap that morning sandwich is doesn’t it?

Never buy something the same day

If you want to buy something, never buy it the same day. If a salesman is trying to sell you something they want you to buy it right now. A salesman is very good at making you want it and making you feel guilty or feel you are going to miss a deal if you don’t get it right away. If you set a rule for yourself that you cannot buy anything the same day that you hear about it, you’ll find that the next day you are not so hot to buy it as you were. It’s a good way to save money on big purchases. In fact, a nice trick is to carry something that you want to buy In a store, an impulse item, around the store for a bit. If you want to buy something, hold it and walk around while shopping and think you will buy it, and then before you buy, decided if you really need it and put it back. You will find it’s actually easier to put back as for a short while you “owned” it as you walked around with it, and the glow has worn off a little. Then if you really want it, come back the next day.

Sales and patience

Sales will always come. Everywhere will have a sale at some point. If you want something, especially a big ticket item, have patience and wait for a sale. You can save a considerable amount of money by just having patience.

Buy in bulk

Another one that’s quite simple is buying in bulk. If you have enough of something you can even buy at wholesale. This only works for something that you going to use always anyway, but it can save you a considerable amount of money over the year. Again, go back to how much does this cost me for a year.

Shop by price only

Yes, we all have our favorite brands, but for a little while, just shop by price only, especially groceries. If the lowest price is not acceptable move up to the next price until what you’re buying is acceptable. This is also helpful when you can’t decide between two different items that you want to buy. Pick the cheapest one and you’re done.

Buy quality

Although in the previous if we said buy by price only, there are some things you can save money on by buying higher quality. Clothing is a good example of this. Generally, over time, buying higher quality clothing and shoes will save you money over buying cheaper quality clothing and shoes. They don’t wear out as fast.

Warranties

Every time you buy an item that has a warranty make sure you keep the warranty card and file it. Keep the receipt. You will be surprised at how much you can save by just getting something fixed on warranty even 10 years later. Your future self will thank you

Home Warranty

Another money saving technique is a home warranty. Home warranties protect you against the costly repairs and replacement expenses that happen when household appliances break down. They also insure you against losing money on the normal wear and tear of systems like the plumbing and HVAC unit that will inevitably happen inside your home.

Lifetime warranties

Many companies offer lifetime warranties on what their products are. There are many companies that have clothing and shoes that have lifetime warranties on them. You can look up online for what has lifetime warranties, there are even special websites that will tell you what companies have a lifetime warranty is and which ones do not. Imagine how much money you save when you only have to buy that backpack or pair of hiking boots once in your life.

Utilities

Start looking at your utility bill and treating it like a game. Most electric bills have tiered pricing so if you can get you are electric use down to a certain point the drop-in money can drastic. Play the game of getting your utility bills lower every month. Also, check for certain programs based on your age or location or income that might also give you help. There are so many of them it’s quite surprising.

These are just a few ways that are simple to save some money. Some of them more obvious than others, but they all work. Really the most important thing you can do is getting the money-saving mindset. It’s easy to say you will save money, but until your mind is thinking about saving money all the time you aren’t going to have much success.