These days, we are all on the hunt for ways to reduce our spending. While some costs are easier to trim than others, some require a bit more effort. I’m striving to preserve more of my hard-earned money, preferably with minimum effort. Doesn’t that sound appealing? However, reducing household expenses can be quite challenging and time-consuming. Here are some methods I’ve discovered to cut home costs with minimal effort.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
A good starting point for trimming household costs is your subscriptions. Everyone has them, some more numerous than others. Often, we may lose track of some subscriptions, ones we’ve stopped using or those whose fees have escalated unnoticed.
Unfortunately, there’s a handy app to help with that!
TRIM
Trim is a useful resource to help manage subscriptions. When you run this service on your PC, it scans all your bank and credit card accounts looking for recurring payments. Once it detects a subscription, it assesses where and if it can help you save money on your subscriptions.
Then, Trim takes over the government of negotiating reduced subscription fees on your behalf. If it can’t get them lowered, and you no longer want the service, it will initiate the cancellation process. Or, if you simply don’t want it and don’t want a negotiation, it will cancel it straight away.
Does that not sound like a dream? No more long hours spent on the phone with customer service representatives, arguing over fees or trying to cancel a service?
SHOPPING
We all have to shop for everyday things each month – restock toiletries, replace a gadget or appliance, and so forth. The cost of these regular purchases can pile up. I’ve learned some handy tricks that have helped me save money in this area.
IBOTTA
The Ibotta app has won my vote since I first came across it 3 years ago. Some months it can save much more than other months, depending on their current promotion and what my needs are for the month.
This platform operates as an app on your phone, with a large list of stores on the app. You can search for your desired store if not readily available.
Selecting the store reveals all their items with a backlight reward. You can pick each reward you’re interested in to add to your ‘bucket’, ready for redemption when needed.
To redeem, photograph your store receipt via the ‘redeem’ function. Ibotta then prompts you to confirm items from your bucket on the receipt. Some items may require a barcode image, others just need to be accepted.
Complete the process and watch your reward enter your account on the same day, usually.
Once you have $20 in rewards, you can withdraw it via PayPal, Venmo, or as a gift card. I usually opt for an Amazon gift card since many of our household toiletry items are acquired from them.
EBATES
I also love Ebates, a browser extension and app for shopping. The extension usually auto-activates when you visit a shopping website.
Ebates reveals the active rebate percentage and prompts you to activate it. Activation is as simple as clicking the provided button.
A tip: various categories on Ebates may occasionally offer greater rewards. For an example, Amazon. The cash back percentage can differ across categories on Amazon, and sometimes there’s no rebate.
You don’t have to collect your rewards from Ebates, unlike Ibotta. Instead, you’ll receive a ‘Big Fat Check’ deposited into your linked account every three months.
I personally prefer this as I merely need to hit the activation button.
PARIBUS
Paribus is another useful application for trimming home costs.
Firstly, sign up for Paribus. Then, connect your email and primary spending accounts. Let Paribus examine your purchases for subsequent price reductions. If prices have decreased, they refund the difference to your account.
Note they deduct a 25% commission from the refund, the rest is yours. I accept this as it’s money back to me without any painstaking effort.
FOOD
Whether you’re a single person or a parent to many hungry mouths, feeding can be pricey! It can be a tough category to cut costs.
Several apps can be useful on this front.
E.g. Ebates, Honey, Ibotta, Receipt Hog.
These hardly take up my time to scan or activate, hence are quite worth it in my opinion.
You could also save some food costs via services such as:
$5 Meal Plan, Blue Apron.
These either provide budget-friendly menus for a month ($5 Meal Plan), or deliver cooking boxes to your home (Blue Apron). Both streamline and potentially cut down costs from meal-planning and preparation, thus alleviating your budget and potentially your stress too.
Tips to Save Household Expenses
Truthfully, various options exist for cutting home costs. Personally, I prefer apps and extensions that seamlessly blend into my life.
They make my life easier and support me to conserve more money. For me, that’s a win-win!
So, do you have any effortlessly practical ways to scale down home costs? Share your experiences on smartasset.com.
