Tips to save money across all parts of your life

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0:22Lulu Garcia-Navarro:Hey, it's Marielle. For a lot of us, this time of year can trigger a bit of a financial reckoning. Like, alright, 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 is a start. because 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.

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2:42Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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 monsell is the founder of budget bites a cooking blog and she likes to use inexpensive filling ingredients to bulk up her recipes one of those is cabbage cabbage is so

3:05Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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.

3:30Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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. So like if I make a pot of chili, normally a recipe for

3:44Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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

4:05Lulu Garcia-Navarro:per pound than beef is going to be. Now, Beth says before you buy groceries, make a plan and then stick to your list. Having a plan before you go in is absolutely essential. Know what recipes you're going to cook.

4:17Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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.

4:37Lulu Garcia-Navarro:You can even save money by changing what day you go to the grocery store. Kevin Curry is the founder of Fit Men Cook.

4:44Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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 a Sunday and 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.

5:24Lulu Garcia-Navarro:Now, if you're looking for discounted or free bakery items, you want to go at the end of the day.

5:29Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.:You want to go when they start cleaning up the area. So when they start putting up the meat and all that kind of stuff, when the bakery is closing, that's when you want to go, do you have any of, oh yeah, sure, here.

5:43Lulu Garcia-Navarro:If they don't offer you a discount, ask. Also, Kevin says, consider using apps like Flash Food 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.

5:59Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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

6:14Lulu Garcia-Navarro:extra couple of items to help get you through, you know, till your next paycheck. All right, so food is a 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. That's takeaway two. Kristen 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.

6:55Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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. Kristen did this herself once. You know, I was one of those millennials that boomeranged 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.

7:30Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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. Okay, 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.

8:03We often do this when we're stressed, which might be, you know, always, or when we're looking for that hit of dopamine.

8:09Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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.

8:25Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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?

8:48Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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.

9:09Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.:So a 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.

9:26Lulu Garcia-Navarro:She says try to spend your money on the love it items.

9:28Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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.

9:35Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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. 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. If I still feel some kind of way about this object in one month and it's on my list, I'll buy it.

10:13Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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. 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 LifeKit returns. This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast, Choiceology.

10:48Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.:Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash podcast. This message comes from the Arbor Day Foundation. For more than half a century, the Arbor Day Foundation and its global network of more than a million inspired individuals, businesses, and community leaders have united behind the power of trees to help solve some of the planet's most pressing problems. From Michigan to Madagascar, the Arbor Day Foundation is planting trees at the speed of a changing world in communities and forests across the globe.

11:24Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.:See how you can do your part at ArborDay.org slash NPR. This message comes from Manhattan Theater Club. From David Lindsay-Abert, the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning creator of Kimberly Akimbo and Rabbit Hole, comes a new play set right on the corner of decorum and disaster, The Balusters. Featuring an incredible cast of 10, it's a wild ride through a small community with some very big feelings. Tony award-winning director Kenny Leon manages the mayhem as this uniquely American story makes its world premiere on Broadway. The Ballisters. Welcome to the neighborhood. Watch your back.

12:05Lulu Garcia-Navarro:Okay, 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.

12:34Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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 up front.

12:50Lulu Garcia-Navarro:I don't think it has to be much more difficult than that. So before you even get to the restaurant, check in with a text. Hey, are we all okay 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.

13:06Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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. Problems only arise when somebody doesn't speak up.

13:21Lulu Garcia-Navarro:Opting out is an option, too. Otega Uwagba is the author of a book called We Need to Talk About Money.

13:27Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.:So I either opt into 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.

13:46Lulu Garcia-Navarro:She says talking about finances is like a muscle and we need to exercise it.

13:50Aisha C. A. F. M. K. W. M. M. R. A. S. O. N. E.: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.

14:01Lulu Garcia-Navarro: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. 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.