When times are tight, we look to make savings in many areas of our lives to help us make ends meet. But you don’t have to wait until bad situations arrive to get on top of your finances. We can set a budget and do the same during the good times to make it easier when things are a little more austere. One way to do this is to find free alternatives to things you normally pay for. Here are some great examples of how to do that.
Food
If you listen to the popular adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, then you might think this one isn’t true. In reality though, it is possible to get plenty of food for free if you are smart about it.
Using vouchers and coupons, you can find plenty of food that you can get for free from supermarkets and other stores. Manufacturers often issue these coupons as a way to encourage consumers to try new products or to demonstrate the quality of their brand over another.
Apps like Olio also let you pick up food for free while cutting down on food waste. It connects people with food they won’t eat, to people who can put it to good use. If you live in a larger town or city, you will likely find plenty of good quality food you don’t have to pay for.
If you’re prepared to do a bit of work, you can also get free meals by working as a mystery shopper for restaurants and cafes. Your job will be to pretend to be a normal customer, order something and pay attention to the service you receive. You will also have to submit a report afterwards. Most mystery shoppers are paid a stipend and get reimbursed for the products that they order.
Games
Playing the latest video games can get very expensive. Between the $60 upfront cost, online subscription fees and microtransactions, gamers can easily burn through hundreds of dollars each month.
Thankfully, there are plenty of games that we can now enjoy for free. While free games always used to be pretty poor in comparison, today it’s possible to play quality games on your mobile, PC or console without paying a penny.
Classic card and board games from PokerStars and Scrabble GO are free to play. Although the company’s make money through microtransactions if you make in-game purchases, they are perfectly enjoyable without spending a penny.
More advanced games like Fortnite Battle Royale and Call of Duty: Mobile are also free to play on mobile devices, offering the same features as in console titles, but without the need to shell out money for it.
TV
Cable and satellite subscriptions are some of our biggest expenses, often costing hundreds of dollars every month. Yet, most people only watch a handful of the channels they receive, making the cost per channel pretty high.
To save money, you can switch to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+. Each one costs around $10 per month.
You can take this a step further. Most services offer some form of free trial to let you try out their service before you have to start paying. While the companies hope you’ll go on to become a long term customer, there’s nothing to stop you from cancelling the free trial.
If you use each trial, one after the other, you can get several months access to quality television shows and movies for free. Streaming services like YouTube also offer content for free, with a wide range of genres and formats available, meaning you may never actually need to pay.
Music
It’s not just video you can stream online either. There are plenty of music streaming platforms that let you listen to music for free. In fact, most leading services, including Spotify, offer free accounts that are supported by ads.
Of course, you have to pay to get extra features, no advert interruptions and higher quality bit rates, but if you don’t want to, then you can use the free service for as long as you want.
Even basketball star LeBron James refuses to pay for Spotify premium, instead choosing to listen to the ad-supported version.
