Money hacks to reach financial freedom

Personal Finance Money hacks

Automate your Savings

You don’t need to do all the work by yourself!
Nowadays, most saving accounts allow you to set up an automatic transfer. Why not do it? This action will make sure that a portion of your pays isn’t touched. I’ve set it up such that for as soon as my paycheck hits my current chequing account a portion of it is transfered to my high interest saving account! It’s been such a long time that I don’t even notice the missing money.
A note on Online saving accounts. They often offer a higher interest than main bank based account, mostly due to the lower overhead. An good example is the CIT Saving Builder account which offer a whopping 2.40% API if you deposit a 100$ per month in the account! This combined with the very low risk makes it very appealing even agains’t some low risk investment. Maybe now it’s a good time to open one up and automate your savings!

Create and Maintain your Budget

Budgetting is one of the staple of personal finance and one or the easy money life hacks. Why? Because, as it’s explained here it let you know what is your financial situation and how much money you can save or invest each month. It might not sound very cool or interesting to record numbers but it’s a concept that is very useful. Plus, you don’t need to do it the old school way, using paper. Technology is on your side!
Spreadsheets, apps, programs, there is a lot of possibilities out there to make your life easier. Mint and Wave are 2 good and free apps that will ease your mind because they can automate a lot of the bookkeeping you would have to do.

Ask for a raise

You are working hard and you’ve been doing that for a while? Maybe it’s time to go up to your boss and kindly ask him for a raise or a promotion! It’s not easy to that I reckon. However, it might very well pay off! But, if your boss is less then receptive to the idea, it’s time to shop around! Yes it’s a scary idea. Yes, it’s a lot of change.
However, by looking for a job description similar to yours will help the transition. There is a very high chance you will be able to find another work place that will pay you yo your fair value!

Save your Promotion

One of the best way to make some extra money is to get a promotion or a raise. With all the saving money tips and your budget, you are already in a very good position to put that additional money directly into your saving account.

A good idea would be to put it into an online saving account. Why? Simple. They normaly offer a higher interest rate since they dot have as much overhead as normal banks do! As such, opening up one with CIT makes a lot of sense! Again, they offer a 2.40% APY if you can save 100$ per month!

Also, remember that this will work only if you don’t increase your spending! As such, keep the same lifestyle as you have now, your future self will thank you for that!

Push saving automation to the extreme!

We’ve discussed automatic saving already (see above if you miss it!) But what if you could push it one step further? Could it be possible to save more? Look no further! In the US, there is a free app that can do just that! Trim is the name you need to remember. Not only can it automate your saving by putting your money into a special saving account, but it offers some other, very nice features:

• Unrequited membership cancellation;
• Cable, internet, phone bill negotiation;
• Transaction monitoring: Understand where your money goes;
• Personalized financial recommandation.

Some of those extra feature requires an additional cost, but it’s very low compared to what you can save! Also, if you are obsessed by your money safety, just like I am, you can sleep tight. Trim uses a 2 factors authentication and the same encryption level has banks.

No Spend challenge.

Ever tough of not touching your wallet for a complete day (including your electronic wallet!)?

It’s not as hard as you think it would be. And, if you prepare for it, it can be a like cutting butter with a hot knife!

Start with a workday, it’s easier than a weekend.
Here are some ideas:

• Walk or cycle to work;
• Bring your lunch;
• Bring your own coffee in the morning;
• Bring in some snacks.

Also, don’t be tempted to stop for grocery or the takeout on your way back. And please, don’t touch that delivery booklet or app and cook yourself a good healthy meal!
You will see how rewarding it is!
Plus you will save a nice sum of money if you can do it often!

Once you’ve become good at not spending for a day, try a on spend week and then a second week. Who know, you might end up being able to not spend for a whole month!

Knowledge is power.

This is one of my favorite concept. Indeed, the more you know about a subject the easier it is to understand the concepts behind it and the better you become at making informed decision. By becoming financialy literate and learning how to manage money you will be able to act and react in such way that you will feel yourself in total control of your financial life. There’s a saying that states that you don’t need money to be happy… maybe it’s true for some people. However, even if happiness is not for sale, being financialy free will help you concentrate on the finer things in life!

One of the steps to become financialy free is to learn and keep on learning. This list of book is a very good way to start! They help me quite a lot on this journey to financial freedom!

Shopping and grocery

Zero waste to Save Cash

Maybe you didn’t noticed, but more and more shops and groceries are giving more and more incentive towards zero waste:

• You migth get some rebates for bringing your own containers when buying fruits and veggies
• Buying some food, such as spices, in bulk, is normaly less expensive;
• Some stores even have the facilities to fill your own giant water bottles;
• Use reusable bags instead of plastic bags. These shops and groceries saves money on transportation for bulk item and item with reduced wrapping , and will pass some of these saving to you. The side effect of those good habits it that you will also help out the environment by producing less waste.

Get some money back for your shopping

Even if you don’t like to spend money, You’re gonna shop any way. Isn’t it cool to be able to get a little money back with every transaction? Ebates is the unconditional champion, both in the USA and in Canada! You can go on a shopping spree and use the links given by Ebates and get up to 10% of your money back! Incredible!
There are other numerous apps that will give you some cash back: Swagbucks and Mypoints are two of my favorites.
Also, they give you much more options then just cash back! You can watch videos, play games and do surveys to receives extra reward points. You can easily make a couple hundred dollars every few months. Checkout51, Ibotta are a bit different but totally worth the try! These applications allow you to scan your receipt and get some cash back based on some items! You need to try them out.
Also, don’t be affraid to combine offer, I once had close to 25% cash back on some items by combining Ebates, Checkout 51 and my wonderfull cash back credit card!
####Related Articles

• The complete guide to Cash Back;
• Cash back and survey website to make money.

Meal Planning to reduce waste.

Cooking is one or my passion, specially BBQing.
However, often I end up cooking whit what I have instead of what I need. Basically, I often have the wrong ingredient.
In comes the meal planning! Planning what you are going to cook and eat for a whole week will make sure that you end up missing ingredients or that you won’t end up with too much, causing waste. Also, planning ahead your week will make sure that you don’t end up picking up or ordering food at your local restaurant! Another saving point! When planning your meals, don’t forget to look at your local grocery deals for the week! Also, some apps like Checkout51, contains cash back offers for groceries.

Cook at home

This one goes hand in hand with the previous point. Once you have planned your meals, finish doing your grocery, start prepping your food at home. Preparing and cooking your meals at home, will make sure that you don’t bust your grocery budget by buying lunches and dinners. If you have done most of your “mise en place” before hand, it will ease your life once you come back home from your hard work day! Cooking will then be a breeze and a pleasure, not a hasle!

Stick to your list

You are doing a list of ingredients and food you need before going to the grocery, yes?
If not, you better start doing it! However, making a list just to make a list won’t serve any purpose at all nor will it saves you any money.
You need to stick to your list when you are shopping! Why? Because it will prevent you from buying articles that you don’t really need and you just want on a whim.
Most often then not, when you buy a food product that you don’t need it has a good chance ending up rotten and wasted. Reducing waste saves money.

Don’t do your grocery when hungry.

I’m sure you’ve heard that countless time, but it’s always good to be reminded.
Except if you have a very good discipline and that you stick to your list, you will end up with more food that you really need. Your stomach sends signal to your brain when you are hungry, survival instinc kicks in and you actually buy more then required.

Drink more water, but don’t buy it.

In most city, potable water is directly accessible from the tap. Even in location where tap water is not free, it’s still much less expensive then a bottle of water. Also, by replacing high calorie sodas and juices, you will not only save money but it will be better for your health!
Did you know that to make a single litter of bottled water, it can take up to 9 litters of water? Also, making plastic bottle is a process that creates CO2 and most of the plastic bottles are just thrown away and not recycled, ending up in the ocean.

Always carry around a reusable plastic or metal water bottle. Since I made the move to a nice reusable metal bottle, I have saved a few hundred box from that trick alone!
Also, you will make a good move for the environment! There are location where there is a high concentration of chlorine due to the filtering process is quite annoying. If you are in such location, I suggest using a Water filter or a Brita Pitcher, as it will reduce chlorine taste quite substantially.

Save money going generic

There are product that everyone knows because of the superb marketing promotion they are doing. Did you now that marketing is really expensive? In comes the “No Name” product, the generic brand which has pretty much no promotion.
As such, it is much less expensive. There are product that you migth not want to change for those generic products.
However, when you look at product such as cleaning products, cans, spices, toilet papers and others, there are basically no difference between generic store brand and others.

Buy in season food.

I don’t know for your location, but I find that buying strawberries in the winter is quite expensive… And they are for a good reason! Due to our harsh winters, we cannot grow strawberries in the winter.
As such, they need to travel a very long distance to get to the grocery from Mexico. And, transportation is very costly, which is added to the price tag.
By buying local and seasonal, you can and will lower your grocery bill. As an added benefit, it will be good for the local economy and it will lower the carbon footprint since the product doesn’t have to travel that far. However, know your local product and producer, even if it’s out of season, some product are still grown locally in greenhouse year long! We have an excellent local tomato grower that has several greenhouses and sell them year long at a very reasonable price.

BYOL (Bring your own lunch)**

As disscussed here bringing your own lunch at work is one of the easiest way to save a lot of money every year! I won’t go deeply in the maths (just go here if you want that) but you might be saving between 1000$ and 3000$ depending on your location and lunch bringing frequency.
Bring your own lunch and treat you with a nice holiday! Or even better, invest it and watch it grow!

Reusable cofee mug.

Although there are a lot of improvement/R&D in the area of disposable cofee cup to make them recyclable, most of the cofee shops around the globe don’t use recyclable ones.
Also, most of them will give you a discount if you bring your own reusable/travel mug since you save them a couple cents too.
As such, you would be doing yourself and the environment a favor! And, while your at it, why don’t you make your own coffee at home before heading out? It might be seen as a big upfront investment, but in the long run, your coffee machine will serve you well and will save you quite some money! A nice combo grinder and espresso machine or a combined super machine will give you anything from a cappuccino to a double espresso!

Go ahead and treat yourself with some home made good quality cofee!

Do your shopping online

Nowadays, you can buy anything, or almost, online. And yes, you can do your grocery online!
Be it from your local grocery or from program such as Amazon Fresh or Amazon Pantry, there are plenty if ways to do your grocery online! You are sceptic that you will be really saving anything? Think otherwise! There are numerous way you will save money:

• Online grocery is often less expensive;
• You will save on gas;
• You will save a lot lf time and time is money!

Also, all of that not only applies to grocery, but to pretty much every shopping trip. Most of the items you would buy in a brick and mortar shop are also availlable online! It’s true that if you go to the mall to get an item you will have it faster. But, as you probably know, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime not only will you save money due to the free shipoing, but on most articles shipped by Amazon, you will have next day delivery (depending on location obviously)**. Again, time is money and saving a few hours might give you more time to try some extra money tricks or more time looking at your investment strategy. There are numerous other major shops that offers online shopping experience such as Walmart and Best Buy to name a few.

Monitor Price Drop on Amazon

You have probably noticed it before, but product prices on Amazon tend to fluctuate a lot during the year. Not only are there special, like Amazon Prime day and rebates, but sometimes another sellers has it listed for less. As such, you simply need to add the product you want to your watch list and monitor it’s price.
When the price goes down, it’s yours to grab!

Try shopping on AliExpress

If you don’t need the item right away, you might want to look it up on AliExpress, you would be surprised at the amount of items that are actually coming from Sellers on AliExpress but housed at an Amazon distribution center. Often, you can have it for substantially less on AliExpress if you are ready to wait.

Do you Really Need it?

That’s the first question you should always ask yourself when you are about to but something. We live in a world were buying is almost compulsory. Most of thing we buy, we don’t really need them… As such, if you are about to buy that super expensive watch that look super nice on your wrist, but you already have 9 others at home, you should ask yourself… Do I really need it?

The cell phone upgrade loop

Let me tell you something, you don’t need to always have the latest super smartphone that just came out on the market, no you don’t!
The longer you keep your cell phone, the higher the saving! Keeping up with the latest phone will only ensure that you pay a huge premium all the time! Not s good idea if you want your financial freedom.
Keeping your older phone on a bring your own phone plan will make sure that you are not paying a premium (up to 30$ a month in canada) and you will still be able to do phone calls and even surf the web!
The Iphone i am writing this post on is over 3 years old and it works perfectly fine!

Create your own gift

Maybe that one is not for everyone. However, everyone has a special skill set that could be used to either create a gift or offer something as a gift.
As an example, I have given “Cookies in Jar” to some younger family member for them to learn how to bake (and est some pretty damned good cookies as a side benefit). They were pretty happy about it!
Also, a very good friend of mine is a mechanic and he offers oil change and brake changes at a very good discounted price and sometimes only for the price of the parts. Think about what you are good at and offer your skills instead of a gift.

Give a chance to second hand items.

There are numerous boutiques and shop around every city on the planet that sell antique, second hand and used items. You cannot imagine the saving you can do by looking and buying those items.
Be it clothing, housewares or piece of furniture, there is a lot of those items that can be useful.
Specially old wooden furniture. Lots of people will discard or sell them because they ate slightly scratched or because they don’t fit in their home decor anymore.
Often, you just need to remove the paint, sand them and either paint of tint them for them to shine in a new found glory!
Don’t be shy to go into these store and start saving.

Items to use only once.

Have you ever bought something that you new you would be using only once?
Next time, ask your friends and neighbor if they have this item and if you could borrow it. You would be surprised that most will be happy to lend it to you for a few days! The same concept applies to books! Also, there are librairies where you can borrow eBooks for a few days, just get an tablet or a Kindle and start borrowing books from your local librairies! Also, you can use Amazon Bookstore and Audible to get access to free books!

Housing and transportation

The Bigger, The Better? Not really

Having a bigger house is always a blessing, no? More living space, bigger closets, bigger outdoor space… Bigger is not necessarily better! Housing is known to be one of the most expensive line on a budget. And even if it’s for a good reason, you should be targeting a bigger house. According to most mortgage brokers I’ve met, you should never spend more then 33% on housing. And, it makes sense. Not only a bigger house will be more expensive, but there are other consideration that will increase your housing spendings:

• Increased insurance cost;
• Increased Energy cost;
• More space to fill, increased spending to fill that space;
• Higher maintenance and repair cost (a bigger roof cost more to replace);
• etc.

If you don’t spend the money on a bigger house, maybe you could use it to invest in real estste if you want to be a landlord.
There are several ways to invest in Real estate. As such, you wont be spending more but you will earn more!

This moto also applies to your transportation.
Indeed, having a bigger, more expensive vehicle will only increase your monthly spending.
You really need to ask yourself if you really need that big pickup truck to do only 20km commute to work per day… A smaller vehicle means:

• Less fuel consumption;
• Lower insurance cost;
• Lower maintenance fee.

Get rid of your wheels

If you want to go even further, you could get rid of your vehicle altogether. In most of the major cities, you will have good public transportation system that will easily bring you from A to B.
Now, I’m not saying that you absolutely need to sell your car right now and never buy one again. However, by limiting it’s use, you are lowering your cost.
Also, it’s a good opportunity to put your unused car to service using Turo!
It’s an awesome car sharing service were people can rent your car for a fee. There’s a great guide here.

Rideshare if you must use it.

There are numerous ride share opportunity and services out there. Instead of always being alone in your vehicle, you could ask your coworker to hop on and share the cost!
Don’t forget to include not only the fuel cost, but your driver’s license fee and other fees!
Another solution would be to register your wheels on Uber and become one of their drivers! When your off to work, look if someone need a ride that correspond to yours and take that rider! Who knows, you might get a loyal customer!
There is a great guide to optimize Uber income.

Shop around

My friends think I’m crazy but every year I go shopping for insurance. No, it’s not fun…  it’s not something I really enjoy, but I make sure that I get the best deal and the lowest insurance fee as possible.
How long have you had yours? If it’s more then a year, then it’s time for you to think to shop around. At a bare minimum, knowing the competitors price will give you leverage when you call your insurance company or broker to renegotiate your price. That statement also apply, depending on where you live, to utilities. Never forget that when there is competitors, there’s a chance for you yo get a lower price.

Lower your utilities usage

In line with the previous point, lowering your energy and water footprint will lower your cost and allow for substantial savings. Using home automation is a good way to start. Indeed, with a Nest Learning Thermostat or Mysa Thermostat can help you regulate the temperature in your home when you are not there, saving you quite some energy. And, if you use that in conjunction with Smart Plugs and Smart Power Bars you can significantly reduce energy cost when you are away from home. Also, an automated watering system, based on a Wifi Controller and Drip Irrigation system can save up precious water and again, save money.

As an added benefit, your energy efficiency and reduction quest will be very good for our Mother Earth. Every step you take to reduce your energy footprint is a gain for the environment.

Cut the Cable

Maybe it’s time to reevaluate your situation vs the cable company. Are you paying a hefty price for a service you don’t really use?
It’s probably time for you to look other options such as: *Netflix *Amazon Prime (yes they offer a huge streaming variety)**;

Also, it might be a good time for you to reduce the amount of TV and shows you watch.
Think of all the time you could spend on other thing such as looking for more ideas to make money, understanding passive income and generating new passive income streams or learning a good investment strategy.

Insulation

I live in a place where we have a great difference in temperature between summer and winter is 40C (104F) to -40C (-40F). Insulation is not only good, it’s a life saver!
Making sure that your home is adequately insulated will save you tons of money! Make sure that the caulking around your window is good and well done, there are extra insulation that can be added to windows during winter.
If you have an older home, you can take a look at blown insulation for your roof and walls. If you are going to do some home renovation, you might think about changing your windows and doors. These are expensive to replace, but not only do they add value if you want to sell, for the time you will stay in this house, it will save you money.

Maintenance and repairs, the DiY way.

House and apartments need maintenance and they need to be repaired.
There are a lot of items that you can fix yourself! Yes, it’s scary. Yes, you need to learn how to do it. But, did you know that Google and Youtube contains most of the information you need? Try it out! You would be surprised at the amount of little fix you can do yourself. Here are the things I have learned to be very useful:

• Repair and update wooden furniture;
• Change a light switch;
• Change a light furniture;
• Install new faucet for both the kitchen and bathroom;
• much more!

However, for big plumbing and electrical work, which can be hazardous, I would still call an expert.

Smart is the way to go.

Start using a Smart Thermostat to save while keeping your comfort level. Nest learning thermostat is one of the best smart thermostat on the market.
Not only does it provide you a plethora of controls over your heating and cooling, it also learns from your own behaviors to set the temperature to a comfortable level without you having anything to do! Also, it can serve as so much more then that and be a home security and safety hub linking to Google Nest Cameras and Smoke Detectors. And, if you want to go further, it can be integrated to some Smart Home Hub such as OpenHab yo control even more of your smart home. Buy yours now and start saving while keeping your own comfort!

Go LED on your lights!

Did you know that a single LED bulb can last over 10 years?
Also, did you know that they use far less energy then their non LED counterpart?
LED bulbs and lighting made a huge jump in the last decade, becoming cheaper and cheaper becoming much more affordable. You don’t have to make the jump for all of your ligth, but you should start with the most used ones first and then change them one at a a time. If you want to go a step further, you can look for Smart LED, like the Philips HUE.
Not only can they be used to save even more energy, they can also help you create the perfect environment for every situation. Again, these can be tied into your home automation brain for added versatility.

Close the blinds.

Blinds are not only used for privacy, they also have a very useful insulation purpose. They prevent the hot sun rays heating up your place during summer and they prevent the cold air from the windows to cool down during winter. And, if you want to push it further, you can install some motorized blinds to automate your comfort and privacy based on the time of day.
As an added benefit, if you have plants in your home, they will thank you for opening up the blinds some times during the day.

It’s time to declutter your space.

Clutter is some form of pollution. It’s a visual problem that I found disturbing at the minimum.
I have problem concentrating when there are too much stuff around that have no purpose or out of place. As time goes by, I feel like I’m becoming more and more of a minimalist. Take the time to look at the clutter around you and ask yourself if it has any purpose. No? Out it goes! At the same time, why not try to make some cash from it? You could potentially do a garage sell or even sell them online! There are numerous local website around the world to sell used stuff. Someone thrash is someone else’s treasure!

Stop loosing your plants.

There are numerous people in my entourage who lost quite a handful of plants while on vacation or business trip.
Mostly due to the lack of water. There are numerous ways where you can automate your plants watering. While doing so you will save money not having to replace them.

Travel hacks to save money

Travel in group

That’s not an easy one for a lot of people, but the more you are in a hotel or cruise ship room, the less it cost per person. Also, if you are like us, our room is more like a base camp to shower, change and sleep. We want to make every dollar count so we spend time exploring and doing activities.

Shop local.

You would be surprise the premium tourist have to pay for even the simplest of things. Sometimes, shopping like a local and going a bit further from the tourist area will give you some very nice savings. Also, visiting local website might be easier and less costly then international one when setting up activities. Another good plan is to buy a local sim card for your cell phone instead of using the international data plan of most carriers, you would be surprised at the lower cost, specially if you stay there for a long time.

Try housesitting

What is housesitting? It’s a service that you use when you are away from from and you want someone to look after your house.
Yes it mean having strangers in your house looking after your stuff. It seems a big leap of faith but it is pretty safe. That being said, why would it save money traveling?
Simple. Be the house sitter! There are numerous house sitting services in many countries. As such, you could house sit a very gorgeous place in an exotic country you wanted to visit and it would be free! These are some of the best house sitter website for abroad vacation:
Some will ask you for a small annual fee, but with the saving you will make, it’s s no brainer!

Use Airbnb to save in lodging.

Everyone knows Airbnb. It’s a great way to save money at almost any destination in the world. Also, if you don’t mind sharing space with other, some renters are Airbnbing all the rooms in an apartment, so you are in to meet some other great adventurers! If that’s not your cup of tea, there are always people who rent there whole apartment or house. As such, you have all the options you need.

Use Turo to get wheels at your destination.

Turo is to car what Airbnb is to rooms and house. As such, you can find fantastic cars for a much lower price you should pay at a regular car rental. While you are at it, you could even list your car on Turo while you are in vacation, you don’t need it, let it work for you!

Save money by searching incognito.

A friend of mine, who travel a lot for both business and pleasure, gave me a trick to book lower fare for air ticket, sadly it doesn’t seem to work for a cruise… Airlines and other booking center all use cookies (every one does).
Part of the “work” of those cookies is to identify flight and routes you search often. Once they have this information it’s really easy for them to keep increasing the price the next time you search for that route or flight.
Is it fair? No!
However, you don’t need to play fair either… you only need to go into private mode! All browsers have a built in incognito or private mode that delete cookies from session to session. Basically, airline and booking company will always see you as a new customer. As such, you will be able to save substantially.

Conclusion

There you go! I hope that you have learn some tips and tricks to save and earn some extra money. I also hope that I have given you the push you needed to take your personal finance into your hands and that you will start your journey to financial freedom.