Everybody needs to save a little money from time to time – whether to boost an important emergency fund, a desperately-needed vacation or those lovely Jimmy Choo’s.
Well, here is a list of tried-and-tested ways to save money, ranked from easy, medium and hard to the near impossible.
1. Pack lunch to work
Level: Easy
Why: It saves tonnes of money – assuming lunch is a modest RM6 per day, you can save RM132 per month (22 days x RM6) or RM1,584 per year. Packing lunch is simple. When cooking (usually dinner), cook more than you need, then pack the leftovers as lunch the next day.
2. Avoid bank fees
Level: Easy
Why: Check online banking accounts at least weekly for transactions made during the week and pay off credit card balances promptly.
3. Switch off unused devices when not in use
Level: Hard
Why: Some bad habits are hard to break.
4. Use cashback products
Level: Medium
Why: Sometimes its tough to keep track of all of them. It’s also difficult to calculate exactly how much money you will save but it’s worth a try.
5. Use a menstrual cup
Level: Medium
Why: A menstrual cup made from medical-grade silicone costs about RM80, and is pretty comfortable once you get used to it. Assuming you spend RM15 a month on sanitary pads or tampons, you’ll save at least RM5,000 because one menstrual cup can last 10 years.
6. Delay purchases
Level: Medium
Why: Impulse purchases may work against you, but try the 30-day rule. According to this rule, if you want something bad enough, you’ll remember it 30 days later. If it’s a big purchase, you can extend this to a few months.
7. Keep a small wardrobe
Level: Easy
Why: If you don’t care much for fashion, this is easy. If you’re a fashionista, you can still have this hobby but only if you take extra effort in other money-saving areas.
8. Thrifted clothing
Level: Easy
Why: Shop at Mr Musashi, a franchise thrift shop, mostly available in Perak. They have that rare winning combo: clean+cheap+dressing room to try stuff. There’s also Jalan Jalan Japan in the Klang Valley.
9. Mending clothes
Level: Hard
Why: Because some people don’t particularly enjoy sewing.
10. Bring a water bottle everywhere
Level: Easy
Why: This is one of the best things you can do for your wallet, skin, health and environment.
11. Quit smoking
Level: Damn hard
Why: If you have a nicotine dependence.
12. Low-cost entertainment
Level: Medium
Why: Being online is fun and cheap and free content is amazing.
13. Sell stuff no longer in use
Level: Easy
Why: There are lots of advertisements now for app-based selling platforms. And there’s the Lowyat Forum Garage Sale. List them, bump it periodically, and wait for buyers.
14. Not having a car
Level: Hard
Why: Although owning a car means maintenance, petrol, toll, parking, it offers the ultimate in convenience as opposed to using public transport like LRT and Grab.
15. Plan meals around sales
Level: Medium
Why: After you pick a hypermarket you want to buy from (HappyFresh, Tesco, Mydin, Cold Storage etc), you can go to the “Best Deals” section and look at all the items currently on discount.
16. Grow a herb/vegetable garden
Level: Impossible
Why: Not everyone has a green thumb, or is motivated enough to learn.
17. Be extremely picky about annual memberships
Level: Medium
Why: Look for those that offer free points.
18. Limit automatic recurring payments
Level: Medium
Why: This can come up to a lot of money if you don’t pay enough attention to it.
19. Only use prepaid phone plans
Level: Hard
Why: Sometimes hard to resist the temptation to upgrade to postpaid.
20. Forgo festivities or holidays
Level: Easy
Why: Not being in a celebratory mood saves money on decoration costs, clothes, single-use props, and other stuff that makes the day special.
21. Buy generic brands
Level: Hard
Why: For some reason, generic brands in Malaysia are both expensive and disappointing.
22. Don’t purchase products that are heavily advertised
Level: Easy
Why: It’s a simple way of determining which brands have ridiculous jacked-up prices.
23. Avoid the mall
Level: Impossible
Why: Some people love window-shopping too much to quit.
24. Check every receipt and change received, and scan the register
Level: Easy
Why: People and machines can make mistakes and some people can be downright unethical.
25. No magazine subscriptions
Level: Easy
Why: Most content I want to read is free anyway or online.
26. Make rent cheap/affordable
Level: Medium
Why: You need housemates to share the rent with. Rent shouldn’t take more than 30% of your income. If you really try, rent can even be less than 10% of your income.
27. Live with family
Level: Hard
Why: If you love your independence too much.
28. Use free methods of communication whenever possible
Level: Easy
Why: Thank you, WhatsApp and Skype.
29. Eat out pantry
Level: Easy
Why: More often than not, the “there’s no food in the house” claim is a myth. If you’re open to experimenting, you can be creative and try new combinations of flavours. Try SuperCook – enter your odd ingredients, and it’ll churn out recipes that you can make with those leftovers.
30. Choose low-cost investments
Level: Easy
Why: Investments with high fees are an unnecessary waste of money. Check your investments – how much do they take out for fund manager fees, maintenance fees and admin fees? Aim for 1% or use Fundsupermart.
31. Buy from bargain bins
Level: Easy
Why: Some of the best bargain bins are from Ben’s Grocers, Cold Storage and Tesco.
32. Exercise on the cheap
Level: Hard
Why: But try RM5-per-entry gyms. If you visit these five times a month, it’ll only cost you RM25.
33. Use cash
Level: Medium
Why: If you have problems with controlling your spending, then using cash is recommended. A crisp RM50 is more painful to hand over than a credit card. When money is abstract and you can’t see it, you will spend more… 56% more. It’s psychology.
34. Use generic medicines where possible
Level: Easy
Why: When you need the odd paracetamol, take the no-brand ones instead of the over-priced Panadol. You can find these at Giant or Watson. Big price difference.
35. Shop the perimeters
Level: Medium
Why: In grocery stores, shop around the edges and not in the middle. The middle is where they put most of the processed foods. Delicious, expensive marked-up processed food.
36. Don’t shop when hungry
Level: Medium
Why: It’s easy to fall prey to impulse-shopping.
37. Don’t be brand loyal
Level: Impossible
Why: But try to pick whatever’s cheaper and on sale.
38. Periodically make prepaid plan comparisons
Level: Medium
Why: A couple hours’ worth of research will help you pick which prepaid phone plan to use. Go with whichever offers the lowest price per GB. Pick Iflix instead of Astro. Pick Gym X instead of Gym Y. “But I’m used to it” is a deterrent to saving money effectively.
39. Calculate prices at the store
Level: Medium
Why: If you’re lousy at mental calculations, you will have to whip out the phone calculator in the supermarket, which can be bothersome and embarassing.
40. Know how much common staples cost
Level: Hard
Why: You need to have a rough idea of how much things cost. Some people have notebooks and jot down prices there. Download the Hargapedia app. They list the cost of grocery items from major hypermarkets in Malaysia. Makes checking grocery prices that much easier.
41. Bring a notebook everywhere
Level: Easy
Why: Just keep a notebook in your bag. It makes a big difference.
42. Unsubscribe/uninstall shopping platforms
Level: Medium
Why: Have junk email addresses so all Lazada and Zalora promotions go there. Uninstalled Shopee so you stop getting those annoying “reminders”. If you tend to make purchases upon seeing one of these, unsubscribe and uninstall these today.
43. Use e-wallets for discounts
Level: Easy
Why: You can save a fair bit of money from them.
44. Use Pasar Percuma to get free stuff
Level: Hard
Why: You will have to check for upcoming Pasar Percuma events in their Facebook group.
45. Cycle
Level: Hard
Why: It’s not practical to cycle in the city even if it means you can save tonnes on money on fuel and toll and car maintenance.
46. Don’t order drinks or order cheap drinks
Level: Medium
Why: Drinking water can save you hundreds of ringgit when dining out. If you must, get Ais Kosong, Teh O or Teh Cina – anything under RM2.
47. Have a manual water filter at home
Level: Medium
Why: These require replacing and occasional maintenance.
48. Quit using shampoo
Level: Impossible
Why: Some people swear by the no-poo movement – healthier hair and scalp, they claim. Just wash hair with water, and use baking soda as “shampoo” and apple cider vinegar as “conditioner”. Certainly not for everyone.
49. Cut own hair
Level: Impossible
Why: Not everyone is talented in this specialised field.
50. Use company benefits
Level: Medium
Why: Check your company manual for hidden goodies. You could get reimbursed for dental work, transportation and internet subsidies.
This article first appeared in ringgitohringgit.com
Suraya is a corporate writer-for-hire and the blogger behind personal finance website Ringgit Oh Ringgit. She is more of a minimalist, less of a consumerist, a konon DIY enthusiast, a let’s-support-small-businesses-over-big-corporations kinda girl. Prior to her current role, she worked in various capacities within the non-profit industry.