Tips for saving money

Storytime!

I went with my friend Pooja for a casual lunch to a restaurant. We sat down and we spoke about what is going on with our lives. We ordered food. The food was little on the spicer side, so Pooja ordered a bottle of mineral water. When the bill arrived we saw that the restaurant had charged Rs 40 rupees for the bottle of mineral water which had MRP of Rs 10. The restaurant owner explained the extra charges for the maintenance and storage. In my opinion, Pooja could have easily saved those rs 40 by a simple habit. No, it is not avoiding to drink water.

Now how is the story relevant to saving money? I have a simple tip: carry your own water wherever you go.

This sounds like a very simple, practical, and easy to apply tip however a very few people apply it in the real life. Ask this question yourself: do I carry my own water bottle whenever I go? If the answer is yes - congratulations you are already on the right path. If the answer is no then ask yourself one more question - is it possible for me to carry my own water bottle whenever I go?

This is not only about Pooja. I know a lot of people who are hesitant to carry a water bottle when they go out (looks weird, stingy, old fashioned etc) and then order mineral water outside (looks cool). By this we are unnecessarily spending money on the water (note: you are already paying water charges to the government, so water from home is not exactly free). Apart from that are you willing to pay extra money on water? If that charity you want to proceed with, then I do not have any further suggestion for you.

Moving on to another question what am I going to do by saving rs 10? Go ahead and calculate how many times in a month you are buying the bottle of mineral water and the expense would be right in front of you. This is the amount that could easily have been saved.

Another excuse that a lot of people had given me is that carrying the water bottle is heavy. I agree it is uncomfortable. However for ask another question to yourself - the mineral water that you buy outside is any lighter? It is neither lighter in the weight nor it is lighter on your pocket. If you do not finish the bottle of mineral water at the restaurant you will need to carry it around so definitely weight wise it is not forgiving.

The charity begins at home. I never was fond of mineral water. I never found it stylish to buy mineral water and carry it around. I would always carry a bottle of water from home. People laugh at me or call me stingy, but still I would carry it around. That time my thought was that I trusted only the water from at trustable source and not the mineral water. However unknowingly now I have realised that I have saved a good amount of money by not spending it on mineral water. From my own experience I can say that this is practical and it is easy to apply in our lives. It is still uncomfortable however it can save money in the long run.

In the current economy every rupee matters. When we cannot save money on a lot of things, but not spending money on water is easy and doable. I want you to give a thought and start to implement this small change in your life for your own better future.

It started in Mumbai proximately 10 years ago. All the shops stopped providing the bags free of cost. If you have purchased something and you want the bag, then you will need to pay certain amount for the bag. In short the bag was not free of cost but it had to be purchased. Also some shops had declared BYOB (bring your own bag).

This system even continued today in Mumbai. If you go to a shopping mall and buy something, then the bag would not be given to you. You would need to purchase the bag so that you can do the free marketing for that retailer from the money that you have paid. The size of the bags is based on the amount you pay - more money bigger bag. The bags would be priced at rs 15, rs 30, rs 50 et cetera. At the cash counter the cashier would shamelessly ask you if they should add a back to your cart. Buying the storesbag is just the waste of money. This bag would be made out of thinnest paper which would not even hold its shape till you exit the store. And still this bag would be charged to the customer. This feels like another cash grab.

To avoid this unnecessary expense the solution is simple - carry your own bags. If you carry your own bag you would not need to buy the delicate and cheap bag from the store. Since you have brought the bag from your home you know that it is sturdy. It is not going to break. Additionally you can decide which bag you want to carry. You do not have to rely on the store to provide you with the bag.

Now again coming to the question that would be asked. How much will I save by not using the bag that I purchase at the store? If the bag cost rs 15, 30, or 50 then that is the direct cost that you are going to save by carrying your own bag. The bags that would be provided by the store would be made out of paper so if it that's raining it is not going to be safe. The paper bags are known to get damaged very easily, so despite purchasing a bag you may end up carrying your new clothes or other items in your bare hands. If you had your own bag this problem would not arise.

When you plan not to carry your own bag then just think about this - are you willing to be extra money for something that would last only for a few minutes? Is it worth investing in the store's bag that has no strength? If the answer is yes go ahead and do not carrying the bag. If the answer is no then definitely carry your own bag while going on any shopping trip. This will cut unnecessary expenditure on the things that are not going to last for more than few minutes.

This tip is not going to save a lot of money but definitely it would help you to reduce unnecessary expenses. Try to implement it and you will see that how useless it was to buy store owned bags.

Simple ways would definitely lead to more saving. Remember this aspect before you go on your next shopping trip. Your pocket will definitely thank you in the future.

This lesson comes from my own recent experience. My shampoo was going to get over very soon. I decided to restock it while I was ordering my weekly groceries. I browsed through the e-commerce portal. And there I had an epiphany. I was able to see a side by side comparison of the shampoo bottle versus the refill pack. The shampoo bottle consisting of 350 ml of shampoo was costing me rs 270 where as the refill pack of the shampoo was costing me rupees 400 for 1 litre. The cost and the volume difference was really significant. Of course I decided to purchase the refill pack.

This made me realised how the refill packs are economic. Yes they do not come in bottles but if we have bottles then refill packs are definitely more useful. After my experience about the refill pack I decided to go down the rabbit hole and to find out if refill packs are available for other products as well. I found out that the refill packs are available for most products which are provided in bottles. The refill packs were available for various products such as shampoo, body wash gels, liquid soaps, gel soaps, face wash, dish wash soap, hand wash etc. Any product that is available in liquid format or gel format then the refill pack for such products would be available. However these would not be shown on the best seller page or the featured product page. You would need to deep dive and search for these refill packs. I have also noticed that refill packs were discounted hence their price got down even further. The milliliter per rupee cost would be even lesser than we talk about the discounted refill packs.

Refill packs are not only the economic solutions. They will definitely help us reduce our plastic bottle consumption. The plastic bottles of the original products are already at our homes and with this refill packs we can fill them up and reuse them (if you have glass bottles - kudos). By buying refill packs we will definitely save a lot of money (please refer to the cost comparison above).

In today's economy saving money is difficult. By saving money using such minor changes would definitely help our wallets. By these minute changes we can definitely save significant amount of money in the longer run. Think about it this way - By using refill packs we will be able to reduce the expenditure on the essential items such as hand wash, dish wash, shampoos, face wash, by a significant amount each month.

Hence I would suggest that next time when you are buying anything look for its refill pack. Compare the price yourself. See if you are going to save significant amount by buying the refill pack. Do this analysis and calculation yourself, then decide if you would like to go ahead with purchasing of refill packs.

In my case I can proudly say that I have been saving good amount of money by buying refill packs for the products I use regularly. I hope this tip helps you to save some money yourself.

"How stingy you have to be? Do you know which people use coupons? Poor people. People who have no money to buy things," said Triya my friend, a businessman's daughter, coming from 2nd generation wealthy family.
"I do not care what you or other people think about it. This is my hard earned money. Whatever I can do to spend less I am going to do that. In my home the money does not go on trees," I responded while handing over the discount coupons while shopping.

I have met several people in my life always thought that using discount coupons is tacky. Using discount coupon makes you look poor or cheap. People will judge you if you use discount coupons. I disagree with this view. According to me if we have means to save money we should use them. Discount coupons are one of such means.

Now, how the discount coupon works we all know. Discount coupons are very powerful tool to save money however I have seen that they are rarely used. Mostly people avoid using discount coupons because of their preconceived notion, fear of judgement, or simply assuming that the process for the use of discount coupons will be complicated.

As a frequent user of discount coupons let me tell you something from my own experience. The judgement - the cashier and the customers in the queue with you would definitely judge you on the use of discount coupons. But the question is do you really care about their judgement? Should a stranger have any importance in your life to judge your choices? I believe even you would answer both these questions with no. In that case why should you be scared or be embarrassed about using the discount coupons? Go ahead, use them, and save some money.

The second question is about whether the use of discount coupons need to go through any complicated process. The procedure to redeem the discount coupons would be provided along with them. Sometimes the discount coupons cannot be used on weekends or the days on which the store has additional discounts or sales. But this condition would be written along with the discount coupon. When you receive any type of discount coupon the first activity that you should do is reading the terms and conditions. Plan your shopping only when you have understood the terms and condition and you are in full intention to use the discount coupon. Yes, checkout may take slightly longer with discount coupons. But if it saves money, I will wholeheartedly accept that.

A few things I would also say from my own experience of using discount coupons. While paying for items I was a judged by the strangers, it took me slightly longer to checkout, the use of discount coupons annoyed the cashier because they had to do some extra steps during the checkout. However it was all worth because I was able to save money with the discount coupons.

I believe that the use of discount coupons has been unnecessarily defamed and demonise by people so that they look useless or cheap. However in my opinion they are valuable and they help reduce expenses on every day purchases.

So here is my final thought: don't worry about the judgement (Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna). If the store offers or accepts discount coupons the use them. Without fear or shame use the discount coupons proudly. Whatever you buy you are buying from your own money hence you have the right to save it the way you want it.

This is one of my favourite ways to save money - buying from factory outlets. Factory outlets are where the products come directly from the manufacturer and they make the sales themselves. Instead of buying something from retail shops it is always profitable to buy from the factory outlets because the products would be heavily discounted.

Let me tell you about my first experience where I made of purchase at the factory outlet. It was the year 2010. I wanted to buy sports shoes from a reputed international brand. I went to the retailer's official store to see the shoes. The prices were astronomical. The shoes that I liked would have exhausted my entire month's salary. I left the store without buying anything. Later I got to know that the brand has a factory outlet near my house. I visited the factory outlet. It was not at all glamorous. It was not at all crowded. I asked for the shoes and the salesperson came up with several options. When I checked the cost of the shoes I was surprised. The cost was half or even 70% discounted. The shoes that I had liked at the retailer's store had been 60% discounted and hence within my budget. I bought the shoes from the factory outlet and I was delighted because I was able to save a lot of money from there.

Then it became the habit. I would buy only from the factory outlets. For all the brands I was on a hunt to find their factory outlets so that I can visit the factory outlets and get the original items at discounted rates.

A lot of people create misconceptions about the factory outlet. The claim that the item that could be available in the factory outlets are either first copy or duplicate products. They say that this products are not the original products. This is misconception and misguidance. The products that you would get at the factory outlet are original and they come directly from the manufacture. The quality of the products which you will get at the factory outlet the same as what you would get at the retailer's shop. The only difference is the cost. Factory outlets would sell them at almost the cost at which they have received from the manufacturer or with a low profit margin.

A lot of people carry the pride that the purchase only from the retailer's shop and pay the whole price for it. To such people I congratulate for their generosity to boost the capitalism and the profit making business. However if you are ready for saving some money for yourself while getting the real, original products then factory outlets are a good alternative. This is one way of getting the real product while paying only a fraction of its price. If you do not believe me I would suggest you to visit the retailer shop and then the factory outlet. Compare the cost and the quality of the product and decide for yourself.

This is one way of saving some money while buying branded items. I hope you find it useful.

This incident happened a couple of days ago. The schools were about to start. Nowadays schools provide list of stationery of their official vendor who sells the stationery and parents are required to collect the school supplies from there. I went with my sister to the stationery shop for getting my nephew's school supply, because there would be a lot of items to be purchased. When we got the list we were purplexed by looking at it. The school had provided a list which included 4 different sets of scissors, 3 packs of crayons from different brands, 3 type of sketch pens from different brands, 6type of paint brushes, different types of watercolors from 3 brands, rulers which were wooden steel and clear a plastic, this were the art supplies. It appeared as if tge school wanted to maintain good relationship with the brands. The question in our minds was is this really necessary?

This is not only limited to the school supplies. Overall nowadays minimalism is nowhere in the picture. Social media proudly supports maximalism. We see that social media influencers promote several products saying these are essentials. However being the customers there are certain questions we need to ask ourselves before making the purchase. Some of the questions that I ask myself are: do I really need five types of lipsticks? Do I need to have 10 different nail paint colours at the same time? Is this dress I am going to wear on multiple occasions? Or the simple question is this really an essential for me? Most of the times when I ask myself this questions I get the answer as no. If the answer is no then I do not proceed to purchase them.

I understand that maximilaism is sponsored because it leads to profit. It fills the pocket of the business but it empties our own pocket. There are several instances that after making the purchase we genuinely regret it. We end up in a scenario where we cannot return the product and also we cannot use the product. It sits in our homes collecting the dust.

My effort always is that I want to reduce such purchases. I try to spend money only on things that are really essentials. I try to minimise my expense on the things that I am not going to need or the things that look trending right now which will get obsolete in the near future. I myself do not promote maximalism. I do not want a tumblers in 7 different colours so that I can use it on 7 days of the week - just 1 is sufficient. Also my years old steel water bottle will just do that job fine. Another part is that we should not run behind the aesthetics. Rather we should focus on the functionality and practical use.

Now do I mean that we should stop the purchase of stationary or fashion articles? Absolutely not. But if we plan to save money for our future be made to think about reducing unnecessary purchases. Follow your instincts rather than impulses. Assess what is necessary and what is trending. Do not be embarrassed to wear and rewear the single fashion piece multiple times - you have bought itbwith your money.

So the final thought is that do not chase the maximalism. Understand what are your needs and make purchases according to that. Cut the word "splurge" from your dictionary if you want to save for your future.