If you’ve landed on this article about money hacks, chances are you’re looking to work on your finances and start really committing to making a change. First off, I’m proud of you. Finding money hacks to make things easier is a great place to start working toward a better financial life.
We all work hard for our money, so obviously we’d like to keep a little bit more of it at the end of each month. It’s important to learn that you don’t need to spend countless hours to keep morea of your money, it can be as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Table of Contents
1. Get a No-Fee Bank Account
One of the simplest money hacks I have is to STOP throwing money at banks and let them get richer while you get poorer! What’s the best way to do this? Well, to use a no-fee bank account, of course.
There are new no-fee bank accounts out there popping up all over the place and doing just this one simple hack can save you around $15 per month in bank fees. Really awesome, right?
I’m a firm believe that you shouldn’t have to pay money to be able to use YOUR money. So, free banking is a must in my eyes.
If you’re Canadian, I highly suggest using the no-fee bank Tangerine! It’s the bank that I use for my personal banking because they’re free, easy to use, and have great customer service. And BONUS, if you sign up using my orange code 50681730S1 you can get $50 for FREE when you deposit your first $100!
2. Get Cash Back
If you’re trying to figure out awesome money hacks it’s really time that you start hacking your way to huge amounts of cash back when you buy things online. And it’s as easy as signing up for Rakuten! You can get up to 10% cash back at thousands of online stores including Amazon, Sephora, Walmart, and more.
There is no easier way to get cash back than by using this free service. I’ve gotten over $300 worth of cash back from Rakuten over the years and it’s my favourite way to save money on big purchases.
3. Answer Surveys for Money
Are you ever just sitting on the couch and worrying about money? Wondering why your bank account has less than $5 in it? Well, why not take that time and do some proactive to get a few more dollar bills in your bank account.
One of my favourite ways to make money from my couch without a huge time investment is doing online surveys! These surveys have made me a few hundred dollars a month in the past and helped me pay for things like textbooks when I was in college. My favourite survey website? American consumer opinion! They have a huge variety of surveys to answer and are a great company with great rates.
4. Make a Meal Plan
This may seem kind-of obvious, but meal planning is a serious money hack. If you ask 100 people what they waste money on most, it’s probably FOOD! I always love to admit where I’m lacking and buying food is a huge one. I am always in one of two camps, I either buy too much food and end up with a bunch of spoiled food in my fridge or I don’t buy enough and end up eating out too often.
So, where’s the hack? Well, it’s in $5 Meal Plan! This service will send you a detailed meal plan and a grocery list each week so it takes the guess work out of meal planning. And even better? You can get your first two weeks free!
5. Get Paid to Walk
When I first heard of this app, I honestly thought it was too good to be true. How can someone pay you to walk? Well, when I got my first payout, I was shocked that it actually worked. The app is called Sweatcoin, and you can earn sweatcoins for every step you take outside.
It’s a really great app because not only can you earn a bit of money from it, you are also forcedto spend more time outside if you want to actually make money from it! You can try out Sweatcoin for free!
6. Drink Tons of Water
One of the biggest ways I used to waste money in University was buying just about anything that isn’t water. I’d spend $5 on a drink when I could get water from the fancy University water fountains for free. The second I stopped buying this kind of stuff the amount of money in my wallet grew so quickly!
This even works at home too, I love using my Brita water filter so I can save money on water with it actually tasting good too. Even at restaurants, most places will give you water for free instead of a $2 soda.
7. Make Investing EASY With WealthSimple
One of the best ways to start growing your wealth is by investing, obviously. However, investing is a really hard thing to get started with because it’s complicated and it often seems like it’s a rich, old person’s game. Thankfully, there are awesome companies like Wealthsimplethat are changing the way investing is done for people like you and me.
Wealthsimple is awesome because they have no yearly fees and no minimum account balances so you can start investing with just a few dollars if that’s all you can afford each month and you’ll see it grow. It’s an awesome service that I use monthly!
Not Quite an Adult readers can get your first $10,000 worth of assets managed for free if you sign up for wealthsimple using our link!
8. Use Acorns to Invest Your Change
This might be the best money hack I can think of, since you literally don’t have to do anything. Acorns automatically invests your spare change. How? Well, they connect to your bank account and round up your purchases and invest the difference.
Let’s say you spent $18.10 on dinner delivery, Acorns would round up to $19 and invest the remaining 90 cents for you. If you sign up using my exclusive link, you can get a free $5 bonus just for singing up!
9. Use Paribus to Get Price Adjustments
Have you ever had the great experience of buying something full price only for it to go on sale the very next day? Yeah, this happens to me often and it sucks every single time.
Paribus is here to help! This company monitors your email receipts and checks for price adjustments so you don’t miss a sale on something you’ve purchased recently. They even put in the work to get the refunded money back for you so you don’t even have to lift a finger.
10. Use ClassPass to Get Discounted Workout Classes
If you’re anything like me working out is hard enough to get done, and even worse when you have to do it completely alone. That’s why I love taking workout classes, but workout classes are insanely expensive.
That’s where classpass comes in! You can get access to tons of different workout classes for a lower price than if you were just to go to a regular class AND you can try classes you’ve never even heard of.
11. Use Digit to Save The Right Amount
Sometimes, saving money can be really stressful because it’s hard to find out what the correct amount of money to save is. Have you ever put $20 in your savings account only to remember you have a bill due and now don’t have enough money? I’ve been there.
Digit is a service that analyzes your spending habits, and your bill payment schedule to automatically transfer over the perfect amount for you to save that you won’t even realize is missing. You can even create specific things to save for (like a trip to paris, or a new car) and have your money go straight into those accounts.
12. Use Trim To Cancel Subscriptions
We’re living in a time where just about every single company has their own monthly subscription service and they add up quickly. You can spend hundreds of dollars each year on subscriptions alone. It’s kinda crazy!
We don’t actually need most of the subscriptions, but sometimes it can be hard to let go. That’s why I love Trim, it’s like having your own personal finance assistant that can help manage your money and let you know which subscriptions you should cancel and even has the ability to cancel them for you.
Sign up for Trim for FREE today!
13. Do a Savings Challenge
A really awesome way to jump start your money saving activities is to try a money saving challenge! These types of challenges can help you figure out a simple way to save a few dollars a day (or week) that doesn’t require a ton of thinking or even a ton of money.
It’s your lucky day, because a few weeks ago I wrote an entire blog post outlining the 10 Money Saving Challenges You Need To Try!
14. Purchase Household Goods at Dollar Stores
Have you ever noticed that a ton of the household products (i.e., paper towel) that you buy at the grocery store or drugs stores are available for purchase at dollar stores as well? And the quality is usually pretty similar? Yeah, it’s the best.
You can get tons of things, like cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, and so much more at a dollar store for a fraction of the price you’d pay at a full-priced store! It could save you hundreds of dollars a month.
15. Get FREE Amazon Gifts Cards
In the current day, you can get just about anything you need on amazon and usually at a pretty heavily discounted price from some brick and mortar stores. This is why getting free amazon gift cards is a great way to save a bit of money on things that you need to buy anyway.
An awesome place to earn free amazon gift cards is Swagbucks! You can earn swagbucks to redeem for gift cards by answering surveys, watching videos, and more. It’s a completely free service to use too, try out swagbucks today!
16. Automate Your Money
“Don’t save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving” – Warren Buffet
The above quote is something that I think about every single time I’m writing one of these articles, and it really makes me think. Most people who try and save money attempt to do so AFTER they’ve spent half of their paycheck which is obviously not the best way to do so.
This is why automating your money is an awesome thing to do so it feels like you never even had that money to begin with! You can easily set up an automation from your checking account to your savings every time you get paid so that a certain amount of money goes straight into your savings before you have a chance to spend it.
You can always move some of the money back if you actually need to, but it’s nice to know that your money will start growing without you having to do anything.
17. Sell Old Clothes on Facebook
When most of us do a serious closet clear out, we tend to just go and donate all of the clothes. Well, this isn’t the greatest for our wallets! If you really want to have a bit of extra money to save, you should at least attempt to sell some of it on Facebook Marketplace!
Obviously, you won’t get the full retail value of items you bought since they are used, but you can usually get around 25-50% of what you paid for it and people will come to you to pick it up! It’s a win-win!
Last year, I emptied out a bunch of clothes from my University days. All of my fancy business school clothes that I had to wear for presentations needed to go since I was running my own business and wearing sweats or pjs every day. So, I sold all of it on Facebook and made over $200 in a day. It was awesome.
18. Cook in BULK and Freeze
Something that we don’t seem to do as much is actually prepare for our future selves when it comes to food. We’d rather make food for one meal and then eat out when we don’t have anything in the fridge.
Now imagine this, you get home from a long day at work and all you need to do is open a container from your freezer and heat up an awesome meal you made last week.
Not only does cooking in bulk save you money since you aren’t eating out, it also saves you money because you can cook things that are currently on sale instead of just buying them a few weeks later when the prices change. I’m a huge fan of having extra food in my freezer, seriously, try this one out.
19. Have a No-Spend Week
One of the simplest ways to save money is by just not spending it. Simple, right? How do you make that happen? Well, a great way to make it work for you is to have a no-spend week, or even a no-spend month.
A no-spend is when you only spend money on things that are absolutely necessary for you to live. For example, rent, utilities, gas, car insurance, etc. This means you can’t eat out, you can’t buy clothes, and you can’t go and grab a coffee. You’d be amazed by how much money you can save in just a few days while doing a no-spend.
20. Collect Spare Change in a Jar
This may seem really old-fashioned but having a jar to keep spare change in is an awesome hack to save money easily. It’s one of my favourite ways. I currently have $100 in a jar in my bedroom and I don’t ever touch it, automatic savings account! It’s the best.
Since we’re deep into the 21st century, we rarely use cash anymore which makes us have a bit of a harder time saving smaller amounts of money easily. If you make a conscious decision that every time you end up with change in your pocket, you throw it in a jar, you can easily save a few hundred dollars a year.
21. Save by Buying Out of Season
Obviously, this isn’t something that you could do with food because when food is out of season you end up spending more money. I’m talking more about clothing items, and activities that you may want to do in a few months.
For example, if you know you’re going to need a new bathing suit next summer, why not buy one on clearance in October instead of paying double for the same one in June? Seems logical, right? I’d say so! You can do this even easier now with online shopping because you can find just about anything on clearance all year round.
22. Make Your Own Cleaning Products
Has any one else noticed how expensive name brand cleaning products are getting? I swear it’s getting out of hand! One of the simplest ways to save money on things you need to have is to take a few extra steps and just make your own cleaning products!
Here’s an article all about how to make your own cleaning products!
23. Track Your Budget with Printables
Most people have tried a budgeting app once or twice and find it really hard to keep it consistent and remember to check the app and that’s why a good hack is to just do it the old fashion way. Pen and paper, baby!
Using paper budgeting tools instead of online tools can make you actually take some time to think about your money instead of just having it set up with your bank accounts and not having to actually do the work! Doing the work is the way to go.
You can grab a copy of my Budgeting Binder for just $5!
24. Monitor Your Credit Score
When it comes to your money, one of the biggest (and most common) mistakes people make is not paying any attention to their credit score. Not only do most of those people have a lower credit score, they also don’t notice when there are serious mistakes on their credit report.
It only takes a few minutes a month, but it’s a simple process that you can do for free. You can use websites like Credit Sesame to track your credit score and see how you’re doing with all of your debt accounts all in the same place!
Try Credit Sesame FREE and Start Tracking Your Credit Score
25. Use The 30-Day Rule
If you’re an impulse buyer (like me) you may need a little thing called the 30-day rule. Basically, it’s just a way of postponing any major purchases you may make by forcing yourself to really think about it for 30 days.
You can read more about the 30-day rule here!
Bonus Tip: Be Grateful
One of the simplest money hacks you can implement into your day to day life is to just be more grateful for what you do have. How is this a hack? Well, taking some time each day to truly be grateful for what you have can do a little thing to your brain and actually convince you that you need less.
You can do this in a number of ways, you could journal about how grateful you are for your life, you could do affirmations about money, and so much more. Just being grateful is the world’s greatest hack!
Final Thoughts
I really hope you enjoyed these money hacks and you learned something or took one of these and made the first step to change your life! If you have any money hacks that you use that you think I missed, be sure to leave it in the comments below so everyone can enjoy it!
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