The Rachel Cruze Show - How to Save Money Without Even Trying

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

You guys will love this episode because it’s all about super easy ways to save a lot. First, we talk about how to save $100 every month without even trying. Then, we go over eight one-time purchases that will save you big in the long run. To wrap up, we cover tips for spending less on the budget-buster that affects everyone: groceries.   In this episode: ·      How to Save $100 Every Month (Super Easy) ·      8 One-Time Purchases That Can Save You Hundreds ·      How to Stop Going Over Budget on Groceries   Helpful Resources: Christian Healthcare Ministries EveryDollar                                                 Sponsors pay the producer of this show, The Lampo Group, LLC, advertising fees for mentioning their services or products during programming. Advertising fees are not based upon or otherwise tied to any product sale or business transacted between any consumer or sponsor. The following sponsors have paid for the programming you are viewing: Christian Healthcare Ministries and Jane Boutique.   Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you actually look to see, okay, what do I really need versus what do I want, even though some of our wants have felt like needs, then you can see, okay, I can cut some stuff and actually some of this can be pretty painless. Some discipline over time can make a huge impact. Hey guys, welcome to this episode of the Rachel Cruz Show podcast. I'm so glad that you're here. So in this episode, we're going to talk about how to save more money this year. With inflation and just life, we're always looking for ways to save more and more. money every month. So let's talk about how. I'll go over products that will actually help you save more money in the long run. Then I'll go over how to simplify and save money when it comes to grocery shopping. But first, let's talk about how to save an extra $100 every single month without even

trying. Yep, that's right. So take a listen. Today we're to talk about how you can save $100 every month with almost zero effort. Yep. That adds up to one. $1,200 a year. Isn't that great? Over a thousand bucks? What could you do with that? I mean, you could throw it at your debt. You could help put that towards a down payment.

You could create just some margin in your budget. It's amazing. And these are really pretty simple things that you may not even notice in your day today. All right. Are you ready? First and foremost, you have to have an honest conversation with yourself about streaming services.

Yep. That's right. Research shows one in four people spend over $75 on streaming services every single month. And here's the deal. It's so easy to do because they cost anywhere from $5 to $15 and just keep adding and adding and adding. And that shows there and that shows there. And then you look up and you're like, oh, wow, I'm spending up to $75 on average a month. So again, you may be paying for HBO Max, Disney Plus, Peacock Premium, Prime, Netflix. all those things, and all of that adds up to $55 a month. And then you realize, like Rachel Cruz, that you don't need HBO Max because you tried to watch a show,

never finished it, but you're still paying for it. Why? We don't know. So you need to cut it, $15 a month right there. And Netflix, which is $15 a month, cut it because you have so many other streaming services. So two of those services is $30 a month. And listen, you still get Peacock Premium, Disney Plus, Prime, all of that, but you're cutting the others, and now you're just paying $25 for the other services. And let's be honest, that's super cheap compared to a cable plan. So you're doing great.

All right. Next step, food delivery. It hurts my heart too. The average American spends about $150 on food delivery every month. So for each order, it typically costs you about $13 in delivery fees. So if your family orders food out four times a month, even if you just change the method from delivery to takeout, that saves you on average $52 every month. Oh my gosh. So again, we're going to be cutting two streaming services.

We're not going to do delivery. We're just going to do takeout. And together, that's $77 a month you've already saved. All right. The next one, pretty easy. Ready? Bottled water. Yep.

The average household spends $20 every month on bottled. water. Now, there are reusable water bottles just collecting dust on your shelf right now. I know you, because I know me, I see you. And guess what? Pulling those off the shelf, rinsing them off, filling them up, takes about four seconds, and in turn can save you $20. So if you have been tracking so far, our math, that's $100 in savings by cutting streaming services, use pickup instead of delivery and eliminating bottle water. All of that gives you over $1,000 a year. Isn't that crazy? Let me just show you how expensive life is. I'm like, oh my gosh. But when you actually look to see, okay, what do I really need? What do I need versus what do I want? Even though some of our wants

have felt like needs, then you can see, okay, I can cut some stuff and actually some of this can be pretty painless. Just these very small tweaks, some discipline over time can make a huge impact. So I do want to challenge you guys. Do a budget, look at your expenses, and just make one tweak this week, okay? Cut back on just like one thing. And then ask yourself 72 hours later, did that really impact my life? Was it really that big of a deal? And guess what? Some of this stuff, no, it won't be. Now, if you want to make a bigger splash and save even more money, obviously there's more drastic things you can do. But again, this is just to prove little things every single day can add up to some money.

So I want to hear from you, though. Share on the comments, things that you want to start doing this week, some tweaks. And that would give you some encouragement when you read these comments because I love hearing from you guys. You're in it too. You're doing life and you're able to give some really great ideas of things that you want to try that actually can encourage someone else. All right, you guys, happy saving.

You can do this. You can do this. And it'll be worth it. It really will. and remember to take control of your money and create a life you love. We all want to save money in 2023, don't we? Yes, whenever you get to save money, you're like, ah, and it's even better when you save money

when it's actually through a few products that can actually help you in life and in turn save you money. So again, it might sound counterintuitive to buy something in order to save money, but the key here is to do the math on how often you're going to use the product and potentially how much you could save. in the long run. And when you can look at those numbers together,

you can kind of estimate, you're going to be able to figure out, okay, is that a smart purchase or not? So here are some products that actually could save you money this year. And none of these are sponsored. So let me just throw that out there. All right, first up, we got reusable sandwich bags.

Yep. So these are like Ziploc bags, but they're made with materials, usually like silicone that can be cleaned and used over and over and over. most of them are dishwasher safe, microwave safe even. So if you are someone that uses a lot of plastic Ziploc bags regularly, maybe throughout the year for school lunches, or maybe you take your lunch to work, this actually could save you a lot of money. So here is the math. So there's a stat that

came out that said that the average person uses 500 to 550 plastic bags a year. Now for some of you, you use less. Some of you use way more. But let's just use these numbers for the example. So if you go on Amazon, it costs $18.82 to get 104 bags. So that would be a total of $94.95 a year based off that stat, okay? So almost $100 a year you're buying on just Ziploc bags. Or you can get 20 reusable bags in various sizes that total $20. Okay? So that means in one year you've saved $75. And over the span of five years, you could save close to $450 to $500. Over five years. See how that works?

I mean, it's pretty amazing. So as you keep in mind, your savings and knowing, okay, what simple products could actually take my money and stretch it and let it go further? Who knew? Reusable sandwich bags. All right. Up next is reusable K-cup coffee filters. So we all love the convenience of a cure egg, but K-cups, they can be pricing.

So buying ground coffee in a bag is actually most of the time a better deal. So these reusable K-cup filters can let you have the best of both worlds. You can buy the ground coffee with the reusable pod, and you still can make coffee in your cure-eg. And if you're a coffee lover and use your cure-ag a lot, this will definitely save you money. Now, I know some of you're like, oh my gosh, a cure-eg? How do you not just do all the fancy coffee stuff?

I don't. I'm a cure-eg user. I am not a coffee snob, so that does not bother me. But I've not, I'll be honest, I have to use the reusable K-cups. So I may have to try that. Up next is a soda stream. So a soda stream will quickly just turn your regular still water into carbonated water. You can also add flavoring to it as well.

So all this kind of stuff. So if you are someone that just loves sparkling water, I have to buy sparkling water. I just love it. There's some of you out there like that. You know, it can cost you. I mean, again, depending on the brand and what it is, but on average, it's about 51 cents a can.

So this could be actually a great deal because at the end of the year, it could save you as much as $600. So a soda stream. Who knew? It could save you some money. Up next, a budgeting app. Yep, this is a tool in your life.

I'm telling you, you guys, it will save you money. When people actually start budgeting, they say that they feel like they got a raise. You know exactly where your money's going. You're more likely to save money. You're more likely to cut back. Again, you just have control. over it. So having a budget tool is really helpful. Having an app on your phone is helpful. The one I

recommend the budgeting app is every dollar. It's great. It makes it so much easier because it connects to your bank. You can track your transactions. And again, when a job like budgeting can just feel really overwhelming and big, a great budgeting tool can just make it feel simpler and like doable that you think, oh, I can do that. And in the long run, it will save you money. All right. Up next is a drain snake. So a drain snake, aka a plumber snake, is a long, flexible metal cable that you use to clear blockages in your plumbing. So again, there's tons of ways you can use this. And if it seems a little bit overwhelming, just go on YouTube. There's a lot of tutorials on how to do it. But this potentially could save you a ton of money on plumber visit. So ladies, with our hair, if it gets clogged

in the sink, or again, if you have like a kitchen sink and it's like slow, this thing could actually help you and you don't have to call a plumber. They'll save you money. Next is a vegetable chopper. So I love this. I have one of these at home and I use it all the time because it is so much cheaper to buy fruits and vegetables whole versus pre-cut, right? Like if you're like, oh, I need some onions chopped. It can be tempting to go and look in a produce section in that little plastic container with a chopped onion. It's like, oh, that looks so much easier. But when you have a chopper, you're like, oh, I'll just have an oven. It's all right there. Like, it is so easy. It is so easy. and it's kind of satisfying.

I love my vegetable chopper. And I have like two different grades or whatever you call it grates that, like you could have like a bigger chunk or you can have a minced, minced version, and all of it. And it's so freaking easy. And then you just throw in the dishwasher,

you wash it, and that's it. So it makes it so much cheaper. When you're buying groceries, especially produce, don't get the pre-cut stuff. Buy a chopper, and it will save you money in the long run. All right, up next is a gel-nail-pullished, Curing Light kit. I do dip these days.

I'm just going to be honest. I do dip. The last longer, I love it. But I did gel manicures for years. And they can be expensive. I mean, it's like, yeah, you're going in to get a gel manicure, and it is, it's expensive.

So the typical gel manicure costs anywhere from $35 to one salon, or if you go to a fancy salon, I mean, it could be upwards of $100 to get a manicure. So when you factor in kind of these fees and tips and the service and all of it, you're spending in a good amount to go get a gel manicure.

but if you buy the UV gel nail polish curing lamp you can just do this on amazon but it dries your nails the same way they do at the salon so you can do your own nails at home and again on amazon those lights are like 40 bucks so someone that that gets their nails done maybe twice a month you could save up to $2,400 a year that's right ladies so hey if you need some money to be cut and you love your nails being done get a curing light on amazon it'll save you okay Next is a smartphone case and screen protector. So one of the worst things about cell phones is when your screen shatters, when it cracks, because you drop it or hit it against something.

I mean, the phones are just everywhere. So I feel like my phones always are just getting hurt. So when you have to replace a screen, again, it's a pain because it can be really expensive. So some can cost close to $300 to replace. So that's why it's a great idea to invest in a good quality phone case and a shatter-proof screen protector. So these, again, can be very inexpensive on Amazon. And seriously, it will prevent your phone from cracking. So you really can save so much. And these can range anywhere from $17 to $65. The gold standard otterbox, which a lot of people have otterbox, it's a great brand. It's

$60 to $65. So, again, it's a lot. But by buying these, it could save you $220 to repair a cracked phone screen. And especially if you're accident prone, I'm telling you, just do it. And I'll give you give you peace of mind. So yeah, those are some fun products, you guys, again, that are not crazy expensive, but can save you money in the long run. So make sure to share this with a friend who wants to save money this year. And let me know in the comments if you have any money saving products that you want to recommend, because I always love hearing from you guys. So we have been talking about inflation, and one of the pain points that that has hit, and a pain point for a lot of people when it comes to their budget any time of the year is

groceries. Yep. We are feeling the price increases everywhere. And again, it's just one of those places that you just tend to overspend. And that's how I feel it made me so sad a few months ago when we upped in our every dollar app, our grocery line item and our Costco line item, because I was like, it's just costing more to buy basically what we've always bought. But I hate it. It's not fun to be able to see, golly, it's just costing so much more money. But guys, that's the reality we live in. So how can we beat inflation? What are actions that we can take that can help us with our food budget going into 2023? Well, that's what this episode is all about, and I can't wait to dive in. So one of the best ways to save on groceries is by strategically planning ahead.

This is so, so key. And I know that can feel really overwhelming. And meal planning, I think, has different levels of what people do. But if you're just smart about a few things and simplifying your grocery planning, it actually can save you money. So even things like curbside pickup, okay? Walmart, Kroger, and a few other large chains will do this on their app, and you can pick it up at the store without even getting out of your car. Now, some of them have a small fee for these services, or there might be a minimum amount that you have to buy in order to do it,

but I'm telling you, it is worth it. Because you're going to be able to see when you check out, okay, how much am I spending? so you're able to look in real time and cut things you need to cut if you need to. You're not impulse buying when you're getting out and you're shopping, you know, through the store. If you have kids and your kids are with you all the time

and they're not like, oh my gosh, Mom, I want this and this and this. It just really does. It simplifies it. So if you can do curbside pickup, I recommend that. I also recommend having a meal plan and meal prep. Wasting food equals wasting money. And we are all guilty of it, including me. But it's amazing.

plan out what you're going to have that week, you are less likely just to go and eat out. You're less likely to waste food and you're less likely to overspin on groceries. When you have a plan, you know the ingredients ahead of time, and you know what you're going to do. So I do this every single week, you guys, seriously, every Sunday. I look ahead at the week. I'm okay, here's what's going on. You know, Tuesday night, I'm going to be home to cook. So I'm going to cook Tuesday night.

I'm cooking Wednesday night. I'm cooking Thursday night, and then Friday nights, we have this party thing that we're going to go to. So, like, I mean, I literally look at every single night of the week and I plan. And if I can throw things in a crock pot, I do that. If I can meal prep to save time on cooking, I do that. But I'm telling you, it has saved us so much money just having a plan. So I really, really encourage you to do that because you're able to say, okay, if I don't have a plan, and especially you working moms out there, working parents, like,

you get home and you're exhausted and it's like, I don't know what to do. This is going to help guide you. So make sure to check out my free meal planner and grocery savings guide to help simplify it. But I am a huge meal planner. Again, it's not like overly detailed, but it's enough to know what meal it's going to be and what I need to buy at the grocery store. Also check out grocery store loyalty programs. So many grocery stores offer discounts, coupons, promos, everything for customers to be part

of their loyalty programs. And so read the fine print, though. I don't want you signing up for a store credit card or anything like that. And you don't want to join something that you have to pay a fee, you know, or something like that. So no fees, no debt involved. But a lot of these programs are great because they will send you coupons. You will see deals. And if you're going to be shopping there anyways, might as well rack up the points and get some free stuff because it is worth it.

Also, freeze, dry, and can foods. So again, crock pot meals like. I had talked about earlier. They're inexpensive, because you can usually throw inexpensive ingredients in them, and it's awesome. You can even freeze things like soups or that kind of thing to eat later in the week, which I've done that. You can find meat on sale, and you can bring it home and freeze it.

I do that. Buy canned fruits or frozen fruits and vegetables because they're going to last longer than fresh, and sometimes are even less expensive. If you have an herb garden, that's really going to help you save some money. We did that this summer and this fall, and it was wonderful because, again, you're like, oh, my gosh, there it all is. And then you can actually freeze herbs in oil and ice cube trays to keep them from drying out and use them throughout the year.

Isn't that amazing? So there's a lot of different food preservation hacks online that can save you more money, but look into that, you guys, because it will help you. Also, pay attention to where you shop. So prices can vary a lot store to store for the exact same item. So where you shop can save you a lot of money. And don't shop at certain stores just because you're used to it. You like the experience.

Honestly, look at the stores that have the best bang for your buck. Because in my head, I'm like, I mean, why buy bananas from Whole Foods? When you can buy them at Aldi for less, right? Like you can just look to see, okay, what makes sense for my budget right now? And always don't assume that higher-end stores are always going to have the highest prices. sometimes they are more than likely, but actually shop around and compare prices. So, like, if this is the area of your budget that you feel like the most stressed about, then do some work around it, okay?

So, yes, looking at different stores and comparing prices, it may take some extra effort, but at least you're able to see, okay, that's going to save me here and here and here, and making a few of those switches is going to save you money. So make sure to check out the price comparison videos that I've done. As an example, I'll put a link in the description. And remember that stores are always changing up their products and their pricing. So you never know which one has the best sales and values. So you have to check.

Do the work of checking. Also find money saving substitutes. So instead of, you know, buying like chicken breasts that might be more expensive, you can actually buy ground chicken, which sounds so gross. But a few recipes I've done earlier calls for ground chicken, which again, I know it sounds disgusting. But it's been for like enchiladas where we've done these like Greek, like chicken ball, meatball things, and it's amazing. And it's less expensive than buying chicken breasts. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. So again, there's different substitutes that you can do.

You know, frozen fruits and vegetables, again, are usually cheaper than buying them fresh. Buy whole fruits and whole vegetables instead of the pre-sliced stuff, because that will cost you, you know, dollars more just to get them pre-slice, where you can buy a chopper and chop it yourself. And then you can save some money that way. It's great. So there's some ways around it, you guys, to look to see, okay, where can I be wise with my grocery shopping? Where are great deals, what are options that I can pick, what's the planning I can do, what's the work I can do ahead of time? All of this together will help you save money on your budget, but you have to be intentional. You have to be able to say, okay, here's what we have. And it's okay,

to say, wow, this week we spent too much. So next week I'm going to look at recipes that are cheaper. So whether it's chilies and soups or you have breakfast for dinner one night. I mean, like there are even meals that you can do to save you money. But all of it, you guys, is so worth it to have that margin and to know that you're staying in budget. So make sure to share this video with a friend who wants to simplify and save money on their groceries this year because this can really help them out. And for more grocery saving tips, check out the free meal planner and grocery savings guide that I mentioned earlier because it will help you. it will give you an in-depth advice on how to meal plan, shopper secrets, a downloadable PDF, like a weekly meal planner and even a weekly grocery list. So I'll put all of that in the

description. So I want to help simplify this and give you money back in your grocery budget, because hallelujah, I think we all need it. Well, all right, you guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope it encouraged you and helped you when it comes to your money. And if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, make sure to hit that follow button. And if the spirit leads, you can leave a review. And as always, make sure to take control of your money and create a life you love.