Tips to save money across all parts of your life : Life Kit : NPR

MARIELLE SEGARRA, HOST:

You’re listening to LIFE KIT…

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SEGARRA: …From NPR.

Hey, it’s Marielle. For a lot of us, this time of year can trigger a bit of a financial reckoning – like, all right, I spent a lot of money last year. I have a big old credit card bill coming due soon. Maybe it’s time to cut back. Easier said than done, especially if you’re living paycheck to paycheck. But we do have some ideas for you. On this episode of LIFE KIT, we bring you tips on how to save money. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but it’s a start, ’cause most of us don’t have unlimited funds, and when we find ways to save money, we’re giving ourselves the freedom to spend intentionally on the things we really want.

All right. One of the biggest expenses in any household is food. That’s why I’m going to start here. Takeaway one – look for ways to cut costs at the grocery store. One tip is to buy filling and flexible foods. Beth Moncel is the founder of Budget Bytes, a cooking blog, and she likes to use inexpensive, filling ingredients to bulk up her recipes. One of those is cabbage.

BETH MONCEL: Cabbage is so versatile because it can go with so many different flavors, and there’s a lot of different ways you can prepare it, and it’s so filling. Don’t forget about potatoes, onions, carrots. Even broccoli sometimes can be pretty inexpensive. So take a look in your produce aisle for the ingredients that are a little bit lower price and just try adding those into your recipes, and it will really increase the number of servings without increasing the cost.

SEGARRA: Lentils and other beans and legumes are another option. You can add them to chili and soup, and you can pair these cheaper items with the more expensive ingredients like meat.

MONCEL: So, like, if I make a pot of chili, normally, a recipe for chili will include a pound, at least, of ground beef, so something that I like to do is reduce that ground beef by half. So I’m still getting that beefy flavor and that satisfying mouthfeel of, you know, actually eating beef, but then I bulk up the recipe with extra beans or maybe even some extra vegetables if I have them. Sometimes pasta and rice. Those are all far less expensive per pound than beef is going to be.

SEGARRA: Now, Beth says, before you buy groceries, make a plan, and then stick to your list.

MONCEL: Having a plan before you go in is absolutely essential. Know what recipes you’re going to cook. Write down the ingredients for all of those recipes. Before you go to the grocery store, take that list to your kitchen and just double-check for each one of those items because you might not realize you already have some of those things on hand. And then, once you have this on paper and you go to the grocery store, you know exactly what you need. You can stay focused so I can get in and get out and get on with my day.

SEGARRA: You could even save money by changing what day you go to the grocery store. Kevin Curry is the founder of Fit Men Cook.

KEVIN CURRY: So first off, if you’re going to the grocery store, you know, like, the days where it’s really full. So I would just say that on Sunday, on a Monday, the grocery store is going to be stocked. So those are the days that you’re probably not going to see deals, right? So if everyone is shopping on a Monday, then you’re saying, all right, let me go in there on Wednesday and just kind of see what they have left. Right? The most important day, though, is right before the weekend. So I usually go on that Friday. Sometimes I’ll go in the morning. Sometimes I’ll go in the evening times. But just on that Friday, when the stock is really low and when they’re trying to sell these things, that’s when you start seeing a lot of the deals.

SEGARRA: Now, if you’re looking for discounted or free bakery items, you want to go at the end of the day.

CURRY: You want to go when they start cleaning up the area, so when they start putting up the meat and, you know, all that kind of stuff, when the bakery is closing and – that’s when you want to go, do you have any of – oh, yeah, sure. Here.

SEGARRA: If they don’t offer you a discount, ask. Also, Kevin says consider using apps like Flashfood or Too Good To Go if you want steep discounts on groceries. And if you are having trouble affording groceries, you have options. Look into what food banks are available in your area.

MONCEL: I think it’s a really great resource that is often overlooked, or people think food banks are for people who only have no food. But really, it’s, like, a bridge to help people through these tough times. So you don’t have to be getting all of your food at a food bank. Maybe you just need an extra couple of items to help get you through, you know, till your next paycheck.

SEGARRA: All right. So food is the necessity, obviously, but you can often spend less on it while still meeting your needs. The same goes for other fixed expenses like housing and transportation. If you want to save a lot of money – maybe because you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck right now, or you have debt to pay off, or you have a savings goal like you want to buy a house, see where you can make big changes to your fixed costs.

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SEGARRA: That’s Takeaway two. Kristin Wong is a journalist and author of the book “Get Money.” She says finding cheaper housing, for instance, can save you a lot more money than just trying to cut back on coffee and other small purchases every day.

KRISTIN WONG: If you get a roommate or move to a cheaper place, those major decisions are going to save you so much more money. They’re harder decisions to make, obviously, but they give you more bang for your buck.

SEGARRA: Kristin did this herself once.

WONG: You know, I was one of those millennials that boomeranged (laughter) and moved back in with my mom when I was paying my student loan. I paid it off so much faster, and I saved so much money. And I’m very lucky my mom doesn’t charge me rent. We come from this culture where my mom would still have me living at home if she could. But sometimes, you have to give up what you think life should look like to think about what it could look like.

SEGARRA: Because she made this choice, she was able to get out of debt and focus on her career. Now, when it comes to transportation, maybe it’s an option for you to take public transit more, or you might decide to move somewhere closer to work so you save money on gas. And if you have a car, shop around for car insurance every year. Look online. See if you can get better rates than what you’re currently paying.

OK. Now we’re going to talk about what you do with your discretionary income. That’s what’s left over after you pay for food, housing, transportation and other needs. There’s a lot of stuff we buy because we want it, not because we need it. We often do this when we’re stressed, which might be, you know, always, or when we’re looking for that hit of dopamine. I do this all the time. I am not judging. Takeaway three – to stop yourself from going overboard and making a bunch of impulse purchases, make a plan and keep track of what you want. Tiffany Aliche, also known as The Budgetnista, wrote a book called “Get Good With Money.”

TIFFANY ALICHE: I impulse shop as well. But what I’ve learned is to impulse shop within parameters. So I give myself a weekly, if not monthly, budget of where I can buy things within that budget. That’s why I teach people to say, well, how can we do that responsibly? What does that look like? Is it $25 a week? Is it $50 a week?

SEGARRA: So look at your budget. After fixed costs like rent and insurance and utilities and groceries, what do you have left over? How much of that needs to go toward your debt or your savings? And then how much money do you have to play with? That’s your fun budget. Now you decide what you want to spend that fun money on. Tiffany offers this framework – like it, want it, love it.

ALICHE: So love is long-term joy – joy that’s going to last you a year or longer. Likes are short-term joy. That means less than a year, I’ll have forgotten about this thing. And wants are just instant gratification, where not even a day later, I’m not going to be interested in this thing.

SEGARRA: She says try to spend your money on the love-it items.

ALICHE: And if I don’t have enough at the end of the month, then I really shouldn’t be wasting any money on likes or wants.

SEGARRA: Another helpful technique is to make a buy list. This tip comes from Paco de Leon, author of “Finance For The People” and owner of a bookkeeping agency. She keeps a list of all the items she comes across online or in stores and wants. That candle, those cute magnets. That face cream that you’re sure is going to change your life. And she puts them all on the list.

PACO DE LEON: And then I have these rules, right? The rule is I cannot buy anything on the buy list until it’s been on the list for as little as 24 hours. Really, for me, it’s, like, a month, right? If I still feel some kind of way about this object in one month and it’s on my list, I’ll buy it. There’s been very few things I’ve bought off this buy list. It feels good enough to just put it on the list. And I think it confuses my brain, and it feels good. It feels like I’m buying it without buying it.

SEGARRA: Y’all, I’ve tried this, and it’s wild how you look back at some of the things on the list a month or two later and think, I can’t believe I was going to spend my hard-earned money on that. It’s like the spell has broken, and now I can think clearly.

We’ll have more tips on how to save money when LIFE KIT returns.

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SEGARRA: OK, so we’re setting boundaries with ourselves, right? The next step is to set them with other people. It’s easy to overspend because of social pressure. Takeaway four – when you’re out to dinner with friends or going on a group trip or you’re just asked to contribute to a gift for somebody at the office, be clear about your financial needs, what you’re able to do and what you’re not. Let’s say you’re going to dinner with friends. Chef and food writer Kiki Aranita recommends talking about who’s going to pay the bill ahead of time.

KIKI ARANITA: I think you need to manage expectations and be very clear, especially if you are inviting somebody out and there’s any concern of financial hardship or not being on the same financial footing. You need to make it very clear who’s going to pay upfront. I don’t think it has to be much more difficult than that.

SEGARRA: So before you even get to the restaurant, check in with a text – hey, are we all OK splitting the check evenly? Of course, you can also say something during the meal. You know, if you’re at brunch with your friends and everybody else got the bottomless mimosas except for you, speak up.

ARANITA: Just be like, hey, guys, I didn’t drink. And usually, that is enough to be like, oh, right. Let’s reconfigure the bill a little bit to make it more fair. It should be fine if you just speak up. The problems only arise when somebody doesn’t speak up.

SEGARRA: Opting out is an option, too. Otegha Uwagba is the author of a book called “We Need To Talk About Money.”

OTEGHA UWAGBA: So I either opt in to the occasion as a whole or I opt out. So, like, because I think it can be really tricky to kind of navigate the bill-splitting situation. So I’m either like, OK, well, I’m going out for dinner, and this is going to cost me, or, I can’t really afford this at the moment, so I’m going to skip dinner. Maybe I’ll meet them afterwards for drinks. And just be quite honest about it.

SEGARRA: She says talking about finances is like a muscle, and we need to exercise it.

UWAGBA: I think kind of building up the ability to say, hey, this is slightly out of my budget. Do you mind if we go somewhere cheaper, or do you mind if maybe one of us cooks at home? You know, I can host you guys at mine. And the more you do it, the easier it gets.

SEGARRA: Now, this muscle will give you the strength to say no when you have to. Because people in our lives are going to ask us for money sometimes, and it can be awkward to decline. Maybe your coworker says, hey, we’re all going to go in on a gift for Timmy (ph) – you know, Bob’s son. It’s his kindergarten graduation. We’re going to get him some coloring books and a hula hoop and a big bouncy ball. If you could Venmo me, like, 50 bucks, that should cover it.

I ran this example by Stacey Vanek Smith. She’s the host of the “Everybody’s Business” podcast from Bloomberg Businessweek. She suggests saying something like this.

STACEY VANEK SMITH: That is so sweet. I love that I work on a team where we, like, are this thoughtful. Financially, I can’t do that right now. I don’t have that extra money right now. I’m so sorry. I’m happy to help in other ways. I could book something, or if there’s something I can do that doesn’t involve money, I’m more than happy to help and – or pitch in in any way I can.

SEGARRA: And she says if that ruffles some feathers…

VANEK SMITH: They have a right to their own thoughts, as wrong as those thoughts may be.

SEGARRA: (Laughter).

VANEK SMITH: Money is this, like, stand-in for so many things for people. And it gets tied into feelings of, like, security, freedom, possibility, adventure, opportunity, intelligence – all this stuff. And so, when people are talking about money, they’re almost always talking about something else, and it’s not usually what you associate with money. So if I associate money with, like, security, and you, like, make some comment to me about how I spend my money, it’s probably coming from a place of you seeing it as possibility or something else.

SEGARRA: Generosity.

VANEK SMITH: Yes. So, like…

SEGARRA: Yeah.

VANEK SMITH: …We’re actually not speaking the same language, even though we think we are. ‘Cause money is like an abstraction, a value.

SEGARRA: All right. Next up, takeaway five is to save money by avoiding unnecessary fees and interest. One way to do that is to set up autopay for your bills and credit cards. You can do that online or by calling the company or bank’s customer service number. Neale Mahoney is an economist at Stanford.

NEALE MAHONEY: Set up autopay so that, you know, when you’ve got a lot of other stuff going on, things are already in place, and they’ll take care of themselves. And you’re going to save yourself, you know, the $35 fees three times over for screwing things up.

SEGARRA: He points out that you should only set up autopay if you can keep a buffer in your checking account so that you don’t overdraft and get hit with overdraft fees. Another tip – look at what fees your bank is charging you, and if you can get better terms elsewhere, consider switching banks. Here’s personal finance expert Yanely Espinal.

YANELY ESPINAL: Fees – definitely going to be lower and better at credit unions in general compared to major banks. But I would say, now you’re starting to see key players in the major banking space completely eliminate maintenance fees on a month-to-month basis or offer you free ATM usage. So the one major bank that I actually use, the way it works is I’ll put my debit card into the ATM machine and, say, they charge me, you know, $5 fee right there on the spot. I’ll say, yes, I accept the fee to get my cash. But then, at the end of the month, the major bank will deposit the $5 fee back into my account. So they will reimburse you for ATM fees, and a lot of major banks are starting to do that now.

SEGARRA: The point here is comparison shopping is your friend. You can do it for insurance, for banks, for investment funds – you want to look for the expense ratio; that’s how much you’re being charged every year on fees – and, of course, for any other purchases you make. And most of these purchases are not urgent, so take your time, do a little research and find the right bank or product for you.

OK, one last takeaway, takeaway six – your medical bills are not set in stone, and there are ways to lower them. First off, you want to see if you qualify for financial assistance, which is also called Charity Care. Nonprofit hospitals are required to offer this, and a lot of for-profit hospitals do it, too. It’s based on your income, and you could have your bill lowered or eliminated entirely this way. If you don’t qualify for that, you can still negotiate. So call the billing office, ask them for the settlement amount – what it would take to close the bill out that day – and often they’ll give you a discount of 20 or 30%. You can also just tell them, look, I’m having a hard time paying. I’m going through a difficult time financially. Can I get a discount? This is generally the mentality with getting a discount on anything, as Brian Vines from Consumer Reports told me…

BRIAN VINES: You have not because you ask not.

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SEGARRA: All right, it’s time for a recap. Let’s get saving. Takeaway one – cut costs at the grocery store by using inexpensive, versatile, filling ingredients like cabbage, broccoli and lentils. Also make a plan before you go shopping and stick to it. And if you find you’re unable to afford groceries, look for food banks in your area, even if that’s just as a supplement to what you buy at the store. Takeaway two – if you want to save a lot of money, maybe because you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck or you have debt to pay off, or you have a savings goal, like you want to buy a house, see where you can make big changes to your other fixed costs, like housing and transportation.

Takeaway three – to stop yourself from going overboard with impulse purchases, make a fun budget, keep track of what you want and maybe wait a day or a month before you buy that thing. Takeaway four – whether you’re dining out with friends or going on a group trip or you’re asked to contribute to a gift for somebody, be clear about your financial needs – what you’re able to do and what you’re not. And takeaway five – save money by avoiding unnecessary fees and interest. Set your bills to autopay and shop around for banks and insurance companies and investment funds with the best terms. And takeaway six – save money on your medical debt by seeing if you qualify for financial assistance or by negotiating.

For more LIFE KIT, check out our other episodes. There’s one about how to create a financial self-care routine and another on guidelines for lending money. You can find those at npr.org/lifekit. And if you love LIFE KIT and you just cannot get enough, subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org/lifekitnewsletter.

This episode of LIFE KIT was produced by Sylvie Douglis and Clare Marie Schneider. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan, and our digital editor is Malaka Gharib. Meghan Keane is our supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andee Tagle and Margaret Cirino. Engineering support comes from Ted Mebane and Gilly Moon.

I’m Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.

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