Habits don’t have to take a lot of time to cut expenses and spend less. We have found that tiny habits that save money can take just a few minutes, but be very effective. We’re sharing 20 of them today. Some were suggested by our viewers, some we’ve been doing for years, and we’re using all of them in our own home right now.
(Links in our posts are affiliate links. We participate in a variety of affiliate programs. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. When you click on one of our links and make a purchase, we receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. To read our complete affiliate policy, click here.)
1. Prep Your Food for the Week
A few months ago, I realized something really important. I was not grabbing healthy snacks, and the reason I wasn’t was because they weren’t readily available.
Now, on Sunday evenings, I take about 15 or 20 minutes and get everything ready for the week. I wash the grapes. Then I cut up the peppers, celery and carrots and slice the cucumbers. A lot of times, I even make a batch of hummus or dip.
Once everything is ready, it amazes me how easy it is to grab those foods throughout the week. I’m eating healthier food, and more importantly, I’m throwing out less produce.
2. Check the Library Before You Buy a Book
Before you buy your next book, check your library first. I’m not just talking about walking into the building anymore. Libraries have really come of age.
This has become my new favorite thing to do. I borrow the eBook, and then I simultaneously borrow the audiobook. I listen to the audiobook while I read the eBook on my computer.
I can cover so many more pages each evening, and I also retain a lot more of the information when I’m reading and listening at the same time.
The best part of this whole thing is that it’s all through the library. All you need is a library card.
3. Chop Onions Before You Freeze Them
Here’s another idea from our viewers that we thought was really important. When you have onions, chop them into smaller pieces. That gives you more surface area, so the flavor gets out better.
Here’s how I’ve been using this tip: freezing them.
I put the chopped onions in freezer bags in one or two-cup portions. Think in terms of how many onions you’re going to use for a recipe. Freeze them, and they’re ready to go the next time you make a recipe.
This is one of those tiny habits that save money and also saves you a little time when you’re ready to cook.
4. Take Another Look at Your Cell Phone Bill
Here’s another tiny habit that only takes a few minutes. Take another look at your cell phone bill.
A lot of us choose a cell phone company, set up the automatic payment and stop thinking about it. Meanwhile, there are smaller cell phone companies offering plans at much lower prices, some starting as low as $5 a month.
You may be surprised by how much you can save and still have great coverage.
We use Mint Mobile for our own cell phone service, and we’ve been very happy with it. If you haven’t compared cell phone plans recently, it might be worth taking a few minutes to see what else is available. Saving $20 or $30 a month adds up to a lot of money over the course of a year.
Want to check out Mint Mobile? You can use our link here. (We earn a commission if you sign up using this affiliate link.)
5. Staple the Receipt to the Owner’s Manual
When you buy something new and it’s under warranty, it usually comes with an owner’s manual. Take the receipt and staple it right to the owner’s manual. Then put it in a file or folder that you can easily get back to if you need it.
Do you know what you need if you’re going to make a claim on a warranty? You need the original receipt. Now you know exactly where it is.
6. Pack Food and Drink Before You Leave Home
This tip is a great example of thinking ahead.
Before you head out the door to run errands, pack a water bottle and a snack. If you’re going to be gone long enough to need lunch, take that too.
This cuts down tremendously on that urge to say, “You know, it’s lunchtime. We’re just going to head to the local drive-through.” It happens, especially if you’re taking kids with you. They get hungry. They get cranky. They get thirsty.
Take food and beverages (preferably water) with you.
This is one of the easiest tiny habits that save money because it takes almost no time before you leave the house.
7. Buy Discounted Gift Cards
Here’s another easy way to save money: buy discounted gift cards.
You can find these at Costco, Sam’s Club and other places. They may have 30 or 40 different gift cards available, sometimes for 20% or 30% off the original value.
You’re buying something you were going to buy anyway, but you’re paying less for it.
That’s a pretty easy way to save money.
8. Keep a Whiteboard in the Kitchen
This next tiny habit is something we’ve used for decades: a whiteboard in a place where everyone in the family knows where it is.
Ours has always been in our kitchen, and we use it in a variety of ways. If we have a to-do list or something we don’t want to forget to buy, it goes on the whiteboard.
When our kids were younger, somebody could leave a big note that said, “Mom, Dad, I’m on a walk.” That way, we didn’t walk into the house as parents and wonder where our teenage child was. This may or may not have happened to us a time or two.
To be honest, it’s usually the opposite now. Larry and I have to leave a note on the whiteboard that says, “Kids, we went for a walk,” or, “We went to Costco,” so they know exactly where we are.
9. Build Your Pantry One Item at a Time
We get a lot of comments from people after they watch one of our pantry videos. They’ll say, “I’d love to have a pantry, but I can’t afford to stock it all up.”
Here’s a small idea that takes very little time and allows you to stock up without blowing the grocery budget.
When you go out to buy a can of beans, buy two cans of beans. Take that second can and put it in your pantry. Do the same thing with a can of corn, tomatoes or another food your family regularly uses.
You don’t have to stock an entire pantry all at once. Build it up slowly over time.
10. Combine Your Errands
When you’re going out to the grocery store, don’t make that your only stop. Combine trips whenever you can. If you have three or four places you need to go and they’re all fairly close together, make one trip instead of heading out several different times.
Not only will you save time, you’ll also save money on gas. When we started consistently combining errands our gas budget dropped by twenty percent.
This is one reason tiny habits that save money can work so well. You’re not necessarily adding another job to your day. Sometimes you’re simply thinking ahead about something you were already going to do.
11. Batch Cook
Let’s talk meal prep for just a second. We don’t cook seven dinners in seven days. We batch cook. For instance, if I’m going to make a batch of lentil burgers, I might make 24 lentil burgers. They freeze fantastically.
Then we get to one of those times when we’re crunched and thinking, “We need dinner on the table, like, stat.” We can grab those lentil burgers from the freezer, and half the meal is already done. All we need is a side salad and a piece of fruit for dessert.
Batch cook.
12. Make Your Own Cold Brew Gourmet Coffee Drinks
This one is Larry’s favorite habits. He especially did this a lot when he was working. He would brew a hot pot of coffee and let it cool down on its own. Then he’d add ingredients to make it taste like a Starbucks flavored coffee and put it in the refrigerator.
When we were ready for something special, it was already there for us.
13. Line Dry Your Clothes
Did you know that line drying your clothes can save you hundreds of dollars a year? Line drying can also help your clothes last longer.
Personally, I think clothes that have been line dried outside smell fantastic. They’re drying in the natural breeze, and it really doesn’t take a lot of time to put them up or take them down.
14. Keep Home and Vehicle Repair Records
Remember the folder for warranty items? The same thing works for anything that needs maintenance or repair, like your home or your car.
Keep a car folder and put everything in that folder. You’ll know the history of the vehicle. You can see when it was taken in for an oil change, when the tires were rotated and when other work was done.
You have a record you can easily look back on to see what was done to the car and what might need to be done next.
We do the same thing with our major home maintenance expenses.
15. Audit Your Monthly Bills
Once a year (usually in December), we set aside an afternoon and look at every single bill.
We figure out what each bill averaged over the course of 12 months. Then we decide whether we’re going to keep that same dollar amount in mind for the next 12 months or whether we need to change it.
We look at patterns. We look at trends. Has the bill slowly risen? Can we lower the bill? What does it look like it’s going to do next?
Doing a bill audit can save you a lot of frustration, especially when you go from one calendar year to the next. If you’re not looking closely enough at what’s happening, you may not budget enough money. Then you’re scrambling to figure out how you’re going to make up the difference in your budget.
Local grocery stores take food that is getting close to its sell-by date and offer it at incredibly low prices. Generally, the food is still in fantastic eating condition.
16. Check the Apps Before You Grocery Shop
Before you head to the grocery store, take a minute to check some apps to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Flipp is one of the apps we like. It shows you what’s on sale at your local grocery stores and puts the ads together so you can compare one store to the next. Once you know where the best deals are, you can add those stores to your driving plan and combine this tip with Tip #11.
Another app to check is Flashfood. We don’t have Flashfood in our immediate area, but we’ve heard from a multitude of viewers who say it has saved them hundreds of dollars a year on their food budgets.
Local grocery stores take food that is getting close to its sell-by date and offer it at incredibly low prices. Generally, the food is still in fantastic eating condition.
17. Fill Empty Freezer Space
Here’s another one that was mentioned by our viewers and really works. Take a look at your freezer.
Do you have some open areas where there’s nothing there?
Put a gallon of water in there. Let it freeze and take up that extra space.
That can help your freezer work more efficiently. The frozen water can also help keep everything cold longer if you lose power.
18. Wash Full Loads
I’m going to swing back around to laundry for just a second. We talked about line drying, but now let’s talk about the washing process.
You can cut the cost of doing laundry by making sure you’re washing full loads. Make sure you’re not using too much detergent. If you can, wash in cold water. You’re already washing the clothes. You’re just making the most of every load.
These are the kinds of tiny habits that save money that are easy to overlook because they don’t feel like big financial decisions.
19. Do a Sunday Lunch Check
Before the next week begins, I like to spend some time looking in the refrigerator and making sure we have things ready for the following week.
Do we have vegetables that are cut up and ready to go? Do we have fruit? Is there something that can quickly be packed into a lunch?
I used to do this a lot when Larry was still working, but I still do it because we have a son who lives at home and is in college. A lot of times, his classes go over the lunch hour, and he needs something he can grab quickly and take to campus.
If we pre-pack or pre-assemble things, it saves a lot of time. It also saves our son money because he doesn’t have to go to the restaurant on campus. He visits “Restaurant Mom” before he leaves home. He is a frugal college student.
20. The Biggest Tiny Habit of All
Maybe the biggest tiny habit of all is just paying attention. When you find something, some kind of plan that helps save you money, remember what it is and do it over and over again.
That’s really the idea behind tiny habits that save money. If something saves you a little time or saves you some money, pay attention to it. Remember what worked. Do it again. These habits are often the easiest ways to cut costs without feeling deprived. I mean, you’re already doing them, right?
It’s those very habits can make a very real difference in your budget. If you’re looking for more ways to cut expenses, we have a free guide that can help. It walks you through practical ways to reduce what you’re spending and find more room in your budget.
Get our FREE Guide to Reducing Expenses here.
Your Turn
Tell us how you use tiny habits to save money. Add your tips to the comment section.
Related Content
If you’re ready to try more tiny habits that save money, here are more articles that will give you inspiration and ideas.
