Last Updated on December 21, 2023 at 8:48 pm
What is your best money saving tip? What practice has significantly reduced expenses for you?
Here is a compilation of responses from members of the facebook group, Asan Ideas for Wealth. Please do add your money-saving tip in the comments section.
Ashal Jauhari (read his interview here)
- There are only 2 kinds of people in the world.1. who first make the expense and then only save whatever is leftover.
2. Who first make savings and invest the same and then try to live whatever is left over.
Budgeting is required for category 1 people. Not for category 2 people.
- Dosti Pakki Kharcha apnaapna. Frienship is OKbut each one ‘ll pay his/her individual expense.
- Always visit the mall with a pre-planned list to avoid unwanted purchases.
Swapnil Kendhe
Join 32,000+ readers and get free money management solutions delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to get posts via email! (Link takes you to our email sign-up form)
🔥Enjoy massive discounts on our robo-advisory tool & courses! 🔥
- Shaving at home, quit smoking, using 2G internet, and tracking daily expenses in Excel. This has reduced my expenses by 5K per month.
Ramakrishna Sripathy
- 1st, I have a sheet for my daily expenses, takes 5 mins a day max & every month I spend 1-2 hrs at end ofmonth to analyse it. next, I follow income-saving = expense, for monthly provisions etc, we make a list & buy/stock rather than buy every week.
- buying vegetables/greens from roadside vendors/wholesale/farmer direct outlets is better than from air-conditioned vegetable shops – healthy & cheaper. no compromise on quality of veggies.
- check out this course for more of “irrational actions” we do : https://class.coursera.org/behavioralecon-002
- another means of saving/investment I do : I claim all the medical/lta/petrol/telephone allowances which comes to a good number at the end of the year (FY) . so once i get the amount, i put it in PPF in the 1st week of april itself.
Vinoth
- The best tip I’d say is, don’t follow others in areas you don’t need to.
That Neighbour might have a car and you don’t, but
a) you do not have to travel as much,
b) he probably has family wealth to spend or does not want to retire early like you or is naive about savingsThis is more difficult when applied to one’s partner, as he/she might have different wants. But it needs to be explained to your significant other, with some good analogies, and trying to convert their emotional wants, to practical needs.
Thennarasu Narayanasamy
- Buy medicines from http://www.healthkartplus.com/ (I use http://medihauxelifesaving.com/ and also a local distributor)
Ayush Patkar
- I too have learned to trim my hair and beard at home. I also do my own laundry. I get all my medicines from Care Pharmacy which gives 11% discount on the final bill. I have switched to a postpaid plan in my mobile phone so that way i save at least 400-500 bucks per month cause i make STD calls a lot. I have downgraded DTH pack cause i do not watch TV at all! I tracked expenses for 3 years in a row and then i got terribly frustrated and i stopped doing it. Now i only make sure that i save enough and then go for monthly expenses.
Deepak R Khemani
- A better option to healthkartplus is www.medguideindia.com all options of drugs with brands/generics/combination. superb site check drug-compare prices with generics and then buy.
Jeetu Jordan
- One line from Ashal Jauhari which cut my life long expenses when ever you buy any stuff just ask yourself ” what you want and what you need”
Madhusudan Kota
- Expense manager app is very useful for tracking expenses
- I found out that buying shampoo sachets is more economical than using a bottle.
Vignesh Bhaskar
- My father buys some medicines thru normal local outlets and my company provides a discount of 10 percent on all medicines from appollo pharmacy. Every IT company has a tie up now a days with many. As we are using ATM we can check the expenses there itself. I don’t calculate much on that expenses part as long as I am doing my sip.
Sridhar Sattiraju
- here are infinite ways to cut your expenses but I will give a finite laundry list:
1. Books – because I buy in hordes and suffer from a disease called Sundoku – which means one buys more books than what he reads, I found a way to procure my books from distributors at one-third mark-down – this I have been doing since my 12th class.
2. Become bald early – this alone has reduced my trips to the Barber by a third. In my twenties, I used to go to barber once in a fortnight. Now I go to the barber once in two months. I cannot cut my hair, because I can’t seem to find it. My barber knows.
3. I buy medicines on discount from the wholesale markets and always drive a hard bargain.
4. Ditto for groceries – buy it from the biggest wholesalers in town. Vegetables I buy from the farmer’s bazaar called Rytu Bazaar.
5. Having a cook at home can cut down your restaurant bills by 75 per cent. We used to go out and eat once in a week, now we go out only when our cook skips work.
6. Entertainment – films are a big hole because we graduated from single-screen to multiplex entertainment. Because I review films for part-time living, my honorarium helps me recover the movie expense. A better way is to reduce your impulse viewing and go for movies selectively. The rest can be more or less seen on channels within 100 days of the movie’s release.
7. Petrol – plan your visits, work from home, carpool. Do anything to rationalise your petrol cost. We fired our driver and brought down our expense by Rs.12000 pm. Now we hire a driver on need basis for four hours duty – works remarkably well.
8.Healthcare expenses – I have realised that preventive healthcare is the best. But some expenses have to be non-discretionary to prevent a big hole in your pocket in later years. Hitting a gym at Rs.2000 pm will reduce your long-term medical expenditure. Taking medical insurance even when you are in group medical care of your employer helps to preserve the continuity. There is a statistic that says that 63 per cent of all medical expenditure incurred by a person occurs in the last year of his death. That should seal why we should not worry about this expense while doing our best to postpone the eventuality.
9. Using a payback card helps to add points to spend the expenses incurred on a credit card.
10. Having a broad idea about the heads of expenses helps a lot to bring the unnecessary expenses. Have a firm idea whether the expense you incur is a. revenue expense b. discretionary or non-discretionary expense c. asset-building expense or asset-depleting expense d. an expense that can enrich your business or strengthen your career or meet a happiness need of your family e. an expense that is avoidable or doesn’t need too much of head-breaking. f. an expense that merely reflects your status or social approval which goes down drain after the moment g. any expense that could add or reduce an income
11. Buying an Ipad definitely reduced my mag-buying or book buying. Digitalising all the content I want to read now on IPad has saved me atleast Rs.25000 pm. I funnel all these expense savings into a savings account meant for holidays. Because an expense saved is incentive for holiday.
12. Car-buying. This is an area I don’t compromise on what others feel. I just upgraded to a second modified Wagon-R after nine years of plying successfully. Picking a car that gives good mileage and saves lakhs of rupees on spares and maintenance is worth more than buying cars for the looks or status. I bought a Wagon-R nine years back for Rs.3.50 lacs. I traded in recently for Rs.1.90 lacs and paid the same for a brand new car of same model having incurred less than Rs.30,000 during the whole of 9 yrs.
13. Using power-saving equipment and power intelligently is the biggest expense-saver. Whenever climate changes from winter to summer, don’t use heater and AC simultaneously. When summer ends, don’t use heater too soon. Use sunlight wherever possible including scope for solar appliances.
14. Well, lastly, don’t worry about expenses all the time. Work on the capacity-building aspects and incur all expenses in that direction. Then you will never feel like sweating the small stuff. This is my last hard-learnt lesson. Happy Spending.
A K Anand
- Fuel, I feel, is the biggest thing one should target at saving. If done properly, one can save a lot.
- One thing I always insist on doing – Bargain, bargain, and bargain. I think that it is a very good money-saving tip. Why, even George Bernard Shaw did it in his time also! Read on – In a train there was a hoity toity lady with him. He asked her what she does. Reply – I am a socialite into high fashion. Shaw says – will you sleep with me for a million pounds. She says – Yes. Shaw says – what about for ten pounds? She angrily replies – what do you think I am – a common whore? Shaw says – what you are has been established. I am only negotiating the price!! SO ALWAYS BARGAIN, ALWAYS NEGOTIATE. Come what may. After all, you are only saving your hard-earned money.
Dr. A K Singh
- Avoid carrying your Credit card, or even Debit card while visiting shopping center’s or Mall’s. Only cash will kind off restrict your spending habits.
- Switch to bicycle.. you will save money on fuel & also on health (directed at me!)
- Bargaining with the vegetable seller who sells directly from the farm, is not worth. I am always amazed when I see rich ladies spend so much money on lavish parties/kitties/lipstick/& all those shit, but they bargain for 2Rs, 5Rs from poor vegetable sellers (who barely make Rs100/200 per day).
Ravi Kiran Monigari
- I reduced my expenses by around 1k per month by implementing good driving techniques. Now I get 26+ KMPL on my Maruti Ritz. I use to get 17 to 19 earlier, then I started implementing few techniques then my mileage never went down 26KMPL.
- I follow few basic tips that everyone knows but tends to ignore them:
1. Be smooth with the controls, treat the accelerator and brake pedals like you’re giving them a massage.
2. Avoid using clutch in maximum occasions, and when required a soft touch is sufficient in most cases.
3. dont shift gears frequently, be on a constant gear. If vehicle is throttling dont drag it on same gear, instead shift to lower gear.
4. Switch off engine at signals, I made it a habit to switch off engine at signals, for sure it makes difference in overall mileage.
5. Use AC only when necessary, try to breath fresh air
6. Fill in petrol during early morning time before 8am (density of fuel will be more in cold conditions)
7. Calculate mileage readings from Full tank to Full tank basis
8. Dont try to overdrive unnecessarily. We have a tendency that if Autowala is trying to overtake a car, the car will suddenly jump in speed, try to avoid it and let him(autowala) go.
9. dont accelerate during downhill, go in neutral -disagreement about this! Poovannan Seeni states that it is risky (along Dr. A K Singh) and in fact fuel inefficient! Please do your own research.
10. Try avoiding acceleration during uphill(not steep uphill), go in 1st gear without acceleration. You will observe that a car moves even during uphill without acceleration
11. In bumper to bumper to traffic situation, dont use brake and clutch for standstill. Better shift to neutral and pull of your legs from clutch and just use brake.
12. Always switch to Instant Mileage calculator meter on your dashboards, it will give instant reading of mileage at any given point time. Keep this value in mind while accelerating.
13. Take your car to visit its doctor(workshop) for servicing at regular intervals, delay in servicing can cost to one’s pocket and also decreases fuel efficiency
14. Check tyre pressure at regular intervals, low on pressure decreases fuel efficiency.
Im using Maruti Ritz ZDi from 18 months and I made a habit of following these rules from Nov’2013 and could see drastic change in mileage. Please check my FB profile, I have made a thread to note my monthly mileage and I made it public so those who are not on my friends list can also view
Sunderarajan Padmanabhan
- I try to ensure that lights and fans are switched off when i leave a room. it not only saves some money for me, but could also be saving a few tigers in the bargain!
Over to you: What is your best money saving tip?
🔥Enjoy massive discounts on our courses, robo-advisory tool and exclusive investor circle! 🔥& join our community of 7000+ users!
Use our Robo-advisory Tool for a start-to-finish financial plan! ⇐ More than 2,500 investors and advisors use this!
Track your mutual funds and stock investments with this Google Sheet!
We also publish monthly equity mutual funds, debt and hybrid mutual funds, index funds and ETF screeners and momentum, low-volatility stock screeners.
- Do you have a comment about the above article? Reach out to us on Twitter: @freefincal or @pattufreefincal
- Have a question? Subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.
- Hit 'reply' to any email from us! We do not offer personalized investment advice. We can write a detailed article without mentioning your name if you have a generic question.
Join 32,000+ readers and get free money management solutions delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to get posts via email! (Link takes you to our email sign-up form)
About The Author
Dr M. Pattabiraman(PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over ten years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), Linkedin, or YouTube. Pattabiraman has co-authored three print books: (1) You can be rich too with goal-based investing (CNBC TV18) for DIY investors. (2) Gamechanger for young earners. (3) Chinchu Gets a Superpower! for kids. He has also written seven other free e-books on various money management topics. He is a patron and co-founder of “Fee-only India,” an organisation promoting unbiased, commission-free investment advice.Our flagship course! Learn to manage your portfolio like a pro to achieve your goals regardless of market conditions! ⇐ More than 3,000 investors and advisors are part of our exclusive community! Get clarity on how to plan for your goals and achieve the necessary corpus no matter the market condition is!! Watch the first lecture for free! One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos! Reduce fear, uncertainty and doubt while investing! Learn how to plan for your goals before and after retirement with confidence.
Our new course! Increase your income by getting people to pay for your skills! ⇐ More than 700 salaried employees, entrepreneurs and financial advisors are part of our exclusive community! Learn how to get people to pay for your skills! Whether you are a professional or small business owner who wants more clients via online visibility or a salaried person wanting a side income or passive income, we will show you how to achieve this by showcasing your skills and building a community that trusts and pays you! (watch 1st lecture for free). One-time payment! No recurring fees! Life-long access to videos!
Our new book for kids: “Chinchu Gets a Superpower!” is now available!
Must-read book even for adults! This is something that every parent should teach their kids right from their young age. The importance of money management and decision making based on their wants and needs. Very nicely written in simple terms. - Arun.Buy the book: Chinchu gets a superpower for your child!
How to profit from content writing: Our new ebook is for those interested in getting side income via content writing. It is available at a 50% discount for Rs. 500 only!
Do you want to check if the market is overvalued or undervalued? Use our market valuation tool (it will work with any index!), or get the Tactical Buy/Sell timing tool!
We publish monthly mutual fund screeners and momentum, low-volatility stock screeners.
About freefincal & its content policy. Freefincal is a News Media Organization dedicated to providing original analysis, reports, reviews and insights on mutual funds, stocks, investing, retirement and personal finance developments. We do so without conflict of interest and bias. Follow us on Google News. Freefincal serves more than three million readers a year (5 million page views) with articles based only on factual information and detailed analysis by its authors. All statements made will be verified with credible and knowledgeable sources before publication. Freefincal does not publish paid articles, promotions, PR, satire or opinions without data. All opinions will be inferences backed by verifiable, reproducible evidence/data. Contact information: letters {at} freefincal {dot} com (sponsored posts or paid collaborations will not be entertained)
Connect with us on social media
- Twitter @freefincal
- Subscribe to our YouTube Videos
- Posts feed via Feedburner.
Our publications
You Can Be Rich Too with Goal-Based Investing
Published by CNBC TV18, this book is meant to help you ask the right questions and seek the correct answers, and since it comes with nine online calculators, you can also create custom solutions for your lifestyle! Get it now.Gamechanger: Forget Startups, Join Corporate & Still Live the Rich Life You Want
This book is meant for young earners to get their basics right from day one! It will also help you travel to exotic places at a low cost! Get it or gift it to a young earner.Your Ultimate Guide to Travel
This is an in-depth dive into vacation planning, finding cheap flights, budget accommodation, what to do when travelling, and how travelling slowly is better financially and psychologically, with links to the web pages and hand-holding at every step. Get the pdf for Rs 300 (instant download)