Sometimes when we think about trying to save money we really only think about things we should stop buying in order to save, and not the things that we could buy to save. There are hundreds of items out in the world that can help you save more money each and every day, and I needed to make a list of some of my favourites that I use personally.
Investing your money into items that can save you a ton of money in the long run is a great way for you to save without really feeling like you’re losing out on something. Let’s dig in to some of my favourite ways to save money by spending money!
Table of Contents
25+ Must Buy Items To Save You Money
1. Reusable Water Bottle
A reusable water bottle is one of those things that seems extremely expensive when you look at the $20 price tag but when you realize how often you’ll use it, it’s practically pennies! A reusable water bottle allows you to stay hydrated all day, everyday, and saves you from always having to buy a bottle of water for lunch at work or school. Imagine buying a $2 bottle of water 10 times, that’s not that hard to do, and that pays for the reusable bottle!
A bonus about a reusable water bottle is that it not only saves you a ton of money but it’ll make you healthier. You won’t need to be purchasing soda and other unhealthy drinks because you’ve always got water by your side! You’ll find yourself drinking a lot more water.
*Grab this 3 pack of contigo water bottles on Amazon!
2. A Water Filter
For a ton of cities around the world, tap water just isn’t drinkable without at least filtering it first. The normal thing for many people to do is just to buy a case of plastic water bottles and call it a day, but that’s not the only option!
You can buy a Brita Water Filter for less than $20 usually, and it can save you hundreds of dollars over the course of the year. If you grab one of these and the water bottles above, you’ll drink so much water and save a whole bunch of money!
Grab this Brita Water Filter on amazon!
3. A Soda Stream
If you’re anything like me, you find it hard to drink just water and can really use a bit of bubbly soda type beverages once in a while but they can get expensive and not be the healthiest. However, there is a device that can create some soda like beverages at home for way less expensive, enter the Soda Stream!
Grab yourself a Soda Stream on amazon!
4. An Instant Pot
An instant pot is a pressure cooker that makes cooking super simple, where literally anyone can do it. I’m no chef, seriously, I can’t cook, but I have made some delicious meals in the instant pot where I barely had to put in any effort.
Having an instant pot is a great way to save money because it makes making dinner so easy that you’ll no longer have the excuse to eat out and waste a ton more money.
Check out the instant pot on Amazon!
5. A Thermos
When I was working a regular job I would spend $10-20 a day on lunch and act like it was a necessary job requirement, but I didn’t think about how much money I was wasting. You can bring a hot lunch from your leftovers in a thermos and still enjoy great food without spending an extra $10 a day.
I now bring a thermos filled with delicious food whenever I go work at libraries, coffee shops, or even friends houses because I hate spending money on food!
Grab yourself a thermos on Amazon!
6. A Car Wash Kit
Car washes are one of those things that I try to avoid at all costs because it’s mostly an unnecessary expense, the rain can do some of the work, right? Well, sometimes rain isn’t enough and you need to put in a bit of elbow grease or pay an arm and a leg for a car wash. That’s why I got this car wash kit so I can easily wash my car with all the right tools on a hot summers day!
Grab Yourself a Kit on Amazon!
7. A Kindle
We all need to read books, it’s a really important part of life! However, books are insanely expensive if you purchase them new and can really take up a lot of space in your house. I’m a huge fan of my kindle, so I can read as many books as humanly possible without having an entire bedroom filled with books.
You can get books on your kindle for way less than what you’d pay at the book store and can even get a whole bunch of free books too! It’s a no brainer.
Grab Yourself a Kindle on Amazon!
8. Reusable Glass Containers
Of course, one of the easiest ways to save money is to bring your lunch to work or meal prep all of your dinners. In order to do this you need some decent containers that are diswasher safe, microwave safe, and freezer safe. I’ve found that glass containers last a lot longer (unless you drop them, haha) and are a better investment.
Grab yourself some awesome glass containers on amazon!
9. Reusable Shopping Bags
Pretty much every store out there these days is charging for shopping bags since plastic isn’t the greatest for our environment, so reusable shopping bags are a great alternative to paying for bags each time you go shopping.
Even better? These shopping bags have awesome handles that stretch out on a shopping cart so you can easily organize your groceries while you shop.
Grab yourself some of these bags today!
10. A Popsocket
This is going to be one of the things on this list that most of you probably have never heard of, but has saved me hundreds of dollars in phone repairs and replacements over the past few years.
Imagine this, you’re laying in bed on your phone and you’re scrolling through social media and BOOM you drop your phone on your face and it bounces off your beautiful face and lands screen down on your floor and smashes. Well, guess what? That wouldn’t have happened if you had a popsocket!
A popsocket connects to the back of your phone and is just extra support to hold your phone with more than just your pinky fingers to make sure you have a more secure hold on your cell phone. They also come in all sorts of different colours and styles and can be completely customized!
Check out popsockets on amazon!
11. Bobby Pin Container
Any girl reading this will 100% understand the struggle of bobby pins just getting up and walking away, only to never be seen again. They end up everywhere when you don’t need them but you can never find one when you do need one. What’s the best way to combat the horrible tragedy of bobby pin disappearance? A bobby pin container, of course!
This small purchase has saved me money over the past few years because I haven’t been buying new bobby pins every few weeks and I always know where they are!
Check out this bobby pin container on amazon!
12. Hair Cutting Scissors
I think I’m officially done with haircuts, I know, that sounds weird. I don’t have a very exciting hair cut and I don’t think I ever will, so last year I decided to start cutting my own hair and have saved over $200 by doing so. You can grab yourself a pair of easy to use hair cutting scissors and give yourself a little trim in between hair cuts by following youtube tutorials! It’s easy to learn.
Check out these hair cutting scissors on Amazon!
13. Hot Beverage Thermos
We all need coffee to survive each day, right? I don’t know what I’d do without caffeine. However, I am the type of person who refuses to pay more than a dollar for a cup of coffee or a tea because I know I can save tons of money by making it at home.
If I need to bring my hot (or cold) drinks outside my house, I use a hot beverage thermos that can keep it hot for up to 36 hours so there’s no middle of the day freezing cold coffee situation!
Check out this hot beverage thermos on amazon!
14. A Slow Cooker
One of my favourite ways to save money is to cook some meals in a slower cooker when I know I won’t have time to cook dinner that day. If I didn’t have my slow cooker, I’d end up ordering food and spending money that I didn’t really have.
Now, I have the opportunity to throw some things in a slow cooker before I start my day and smell that deliciousness all day long while it cooks!
Check Out This Awesome Slow Cooker on Amazon!
15. A Deep Freezer
One of the best ways to save money is to plan ahead for your meals and start doing freezer meals that you can keep in a deep freezer! These are different from a regular freezer because your food can usually be kept way longer in a deep freezer compared to a regular freezer! This means you can make freezer meals for a few weeks ahead of time and really save money on eating out and throwing away food.
Check Out This Deep Freezer on Amazon!
16. Vacuum Storage Bags
Sometimes we need to keep our stuff stored for a few months in order to save a bit of cash, for example, buying things like winter coats off season can really save us money, but where do we store them? Well, vacuum storage bags are a really great option for keeping a lot of stuff in a small amount of space.
Grab Yourself Some Space Saver Bags on Amazon!
17. Snacks for your Desk
Do you ever find yourself at work absolutely starving and have no snacks in sight? I’m a huge fan of having a variety of healthy snacks at my desk at all times so I don’t go out and spend money on food I don’t really need.
You can buy things like almonds, protein bars, and more!
18. A Smart Power Bar
We are officially in the future, our entire homes will soon be connected and smart! You can even get smart power bars that are seriously cool. These power bars are wifi enabled and you can download an app to control them from your phone.
You can set timers for certain electronics so your smart power bar will turn the power to them off until you turn it back on, or the timer runs out. Did you know that even if your electronics aren’t on, they are still sucking power? YUP! It’s a huge waste of money and a smart power bar could be the answer.
Grab yourself a smart power bar on Amazon!
19. A Basic Tool Kit
When things break in our homes, we often call someone to come fix them because we aren’t equipped with the types of tools we would need to get the job done. However, most of these small tasks are actually super simple and all you need is a simple screw driver!
Having a basic tool kit in your home can stop you from paying a handy man to fix things all the time, and you can learn a lot of interesting life skills while you’re at it!
Grab yourself a tool kit on Amazon!
20. A Programmable Thermostat
With a programmable thermostat you can set your house to be the greatest temperature when you’re home and allow it to automatically turn down the heat or air conditioning when you won’t be home (i.e., during work hours). This is an awesome way to save money because you won’t even notice it’s happening.
Check Out This Thermostat on Amazon!
21. Rechargeable Batteries
Although we don’t seem to use batteries as often as we used to, they are still a necessary item to have around the house for things like your television remote. Buying batteries every few months can really add up and throwing them away isn’t the best for the planet.
Purchasing some rechargeable batteries is a really great alternative so you don’t have to keep buying new batteries, and you can just charge them up! It’s a win win!
Grab Yourself a Set of Rechargeable Batteries on Amazon!
22. A Low-Flow Shower Head
Did you know that most of the water that comes out of your showerhead during the 10-20 minutes you spend in the shower ends up being entirely wasted? Like doesn’t even help clean your body!? It’s kinda silly how much water comes out of a showerhead sometimes, you can save a ton of money on water costs by switching over to a low-flow shower head!
Check out this Low-Flow Shower Head on Amazon!
23. A Coffee Maker
Buying coffee at a place like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts every day is a really expensive way to get your daily fix. That’s why you should definitely get yourself a decent coffee maker.
Just by making your own coffee at home you can definitely save a few hundred dollars a year and make some really awesome coffee too!
Check Out This Coffee Maker Combo on Amazon!
24. A Food Saver
Food waste is a huge reason why we spend so much money and never actually get to enjoy it! There’s probably so many things in your freezer that are covered in freezer burn and may never even be eaten.
A food saver is an awesome way to prevent freezer burn and can save you hundreds of dollars a year on food waste, especially meat which is the most expensive thing to buy at the grocery store! This device will vacuum seal your food so it can’t get freezer burnt quickly enough, awesome right?
Check Out The Food Saver on Amazon!
25. A Space Heater
You know those days in the fall where it’s too warm to turn the entire house’s heat on but it’s too cold to do nothing? Well, why not try out a space heater and just warm wherever you are in the house instead of spending tons of money to heat the entire home?
A space heater is also an awesome option if you have people in the home who prefer different heat settings. For example, if you like it warm but your spouse likes it cold, you could use a space heater in the room where you’re spending time without making it worse for the other party!
Check Out This Space Heater on Amazon!
26. An Herb Garden
An herb garden is one of those things that few people have, and the ones that do have a true love for their herbs. We all use things like basil and parsley in our food to make it more delicious, and having fresh herbs in your house will only make that even better.
Plus, growing your own herbs is a lot less expensive than purchasing them at the store and can give you more satisfaction than just sprinkling some from a store bought jar.
Grab this herb garden kit on Amazon!
27. A Quality Phone Case
We spend a lot of time on our phones these days which means that we kinda need them to not be broken, and dropping our phones can break them so easily, it sucks. However, if you have a quality phone case that will protect the edges of your phone you can save yourself a lot of hardship.
It always makes me sad because my iPhone looks so much more beautiful when it doesn’t have a case, but I’ve broken too many phone screens in my time as a smart phone owner so it’s time that I will forever have a case on my phone.
Grab This Otterbox Phone Case on Amazon!
Final Thoughts
Spending a bit of money so you have the opportunity to save a ton of money can be a really great way to get yourself in a better financial position fast. Want something else to read? Here are a few articles I think you might enjoy:
Vanessa says
This was a good read! Sometimes investing in strategic items is the best way to save!
Taylor O'Halloran says
It really is! Thanks for stopping by
Suzanne says
Thanks for sharing! I agree that the water related items are a great money saver, as long as you remember to bring the water bottle with!
Taylor O'Halloran says
It’s always the worst when you have the supplies but forget it at home and end up buying water anyway haha
Tom says
Being a big coffee drinker, it took a period of working from home to realise how much I was spending on ‘take out’ coffee when in the office. I have just got myself an ecoffee cup to remind me to make my own and even when I do stop at a coffee house, the drink is cheaper for bringing my own cup!
Taylor O'Halloran says
I used to work at a coffee shop and we gave discounts to people with their own cup as well! It pays for itself
Sarah says
OK, OK, this may have been the push I needed to go ahead and get an Instapot! Great list — thanks!
Taylor O'Halloran says
Do it! We had a kitchen remodel and ate only from an instant pot for three monthsb
Kimberly Love says
Do you think the Brita container properly filters the water? Ive worried its not enough and that’s why I keep buying bottled water.
Taylor O'Halloran says
It definitely does! I’ve been using one for years on and off and I think it tastes better than bottled water.
Oh to Be a Muse says
I use pretty much everything here except for the bobby pin holder (I should get one) and the thermos. I love my popsocket, too!
Taylor O'Halloran says
Popsockets are LIFE CHANGING. And Yeeeessss, the bobby pin holder is the best, get your hands on one
Kylie says
OMG the bobby pin container is genius. I swear i lose these all the time
Taylor O'Halloran says
Right? If they have a home they can’t escape…