Keep in mind you pay extra for convenience in many situations. It was said here before, but home cooking is the prime example.

Speaking of which, buy the stuff you use a lot off cheap, buy the expensive stuff only if you use it in small amounts. Example: I'm really into curry, so I use a lot of carrots and potatoes, the cheapest veggies here, but that alone is a bit bland. So i use moderate portions of whatever hearty veggies are in season (sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant). There's also this really good curry paste I like, and I didn't even bother comparing its price since I know I will need to buy a new one in half a year at the earliest.

As a consequence of that rule, skip on meat. Too expensive and too big portions. Even if you still want to celebrate the end of a week/month with it, you really need to learn some veggie recipes for the work week.

I find rice to be the perfect balance between work-intensive potatoes and pricey -in- comparison pasta. So I of course use literal 10s of kilos of it and don't buy the minute rice (again, surcharge for convenience), but from the local Asia mart for cheap.

All these savings aside, you should also know where to save, and for that you need an example of monthly expenses you can compare yourself to. Luckily, government assistance programs do just that when they tell you how to live on their pittance.

Here's the one for Germany, rounded to nice numbers (source), so a fairly wealthy central European country:

• 200€ Food and drink (14%)
• 50€ clothes ( 3.5 %)
• 50€ energy
• 50€ transportation (!)
• 50€ communication
• 50€ leisure and culture
• 30€ furniture and appliances
• 20€ medication
• 50€ other

550€ total flexible costs (40%)

To compare to your bill, you also need to consider the costs the agencies just take on outside of that source I gave. These are the regular expenses that depend on location even more so, but just to have them here:

• 500€ rent, no utilities (source being the maximum the local agency covers in a moderately big city)
• 150€ utilities (guess)
• 200€ health insurance (guess)

850€ total inflexible costs (60%)

Making 1,400€ for one person to live one month in a German city in 2025.

Needless to say, unless you buy multiple AAA games a month, these expenses are dominated by inflexible costs, even more so if you're living in a place with a housing and health insurance crisis. Also note that the value for transportation is clearly too low for car ownership, if you need it for work that monthly expense better be covered by the extra income.

Now you should compare those values to your own expenses and reason why you spend more/less in some areas. And then you should be able to tell where you are living above your means, or if you need a more local comparison. And then you can still figure out how you can save 7% of your expenses by cooking at home.

Ignore the big price label you see on bread, coffee and other food items. Look for the small number in the corner that says €/kg. That’s the only number that really matters in the long run.

If you have only 15 € in your pocket, and you need to survive till the end of the month, this tip might not be very helpful, since you also need to be aware of the sum you pay at the checkout.

A bargain is still spending money.

Learn to cook from raw or whole ingredients.

The amount we pay for processed bullshit that makes us sick is mind-boggling, we're talking like a factor of 10 to 1 almost.

And before you come at me, I meticulously budget my food, I make everything from scratch

Just as one example, frozen pizza. The absolute cheapest, worst piece of shit you can get in my area would be about $6 on sale. Compare that to making homemade crusts, sauce, and topping it myself for around 75 cents per pizza.

Many people use the excuse that they don't have time. Funny how they have time to go to work for 2 hours and earn $40 that they can just pay to Skip the Dishes, but don't have half an hour to make some homemade spaghetti.

Track your spending and expenses. Even if you don’t plan to change your spending habits at first, I’d say it’s pretty hard not to once you see where all your money is actually going.

Beyond that - and while it’s not exactly a “saving” tip - I’d argue that investing is the biggest lever you can pull when it comes to growing your wealth. I’m a blue-collar worker, and while I do okay for myself, I’m by no means rich. But the money I’ve put aside from my wages and invested now pays me passive income each year that roughly equals two months’ worth of income. That’s money I don’t have to work for.

I’d seriously struggle to save that much each year through budgeting alone - especially since I’ve already picked all the low-hanging fruit when it comes to frugal living.

A lot of people avoid credit cards, but if you get one that has good "cash back" rewards and only use it for stuff you're already buying anyway then you basically get a discount on everything.

I have a PayPal card that is like 1.5%-3% back on everything so I just do all my normal purchases on there, even insurance payments and stuff, then pay it all off as soon as I'm "allowed" to. I basically get a few hundred dollars a year back from stuff I'd be buying no matter what.

Just be careful of your cards maximum... I literally just learned this the hard way this week... I did all my normal shopping/payments like I always do, but I also rebuilt my computer so I ended up using 50% of my available credit and lost 20 fucking points off my credit score for it!!! Such a scam system lol

• In my country you have to pay an annual fee if your bank account exceeds a certain limit (5000€), so I opened another bank account to split the amount and not pay any fee
• In my country if you pay your medical expenses with a debit/credit card, you get 19% of what you spent back the next year, so I always use that
• I track all of my expenses. It helped me see where my money went. I'd rather download .mp3s on my phone than paying 12€/month for Spotify because all of these little expenses are like half a salary per year, no thanks
• The money it don't immediately need is put in money markets. At least it's revalued for inflation

I'm kind of obsessed with money because I got traumatized from a time where having 30€ more could mean eating for another week

Track your spending. It's insane how obvious that might sound, but having all your outgoings over a month laid out in front of you can make it really clear where there might be savings to be made. I used to pick up a pack of biltong and an energy drink before work every weekday - it was only £3 every morning. However, that's £63 a month right there.

Other than that; see if you can change your routine or mindset in some way to allow savings. I've started waking up earlier so I can walk to work, and not being so anxious to get home early so I can enjoy the walk home a bit more - I'm lucky to live within three miles from my office, and to be able-bodied (and have the area be walkable etc.) but it saves me about £150 a month on train tickets, at the cost of walking about 2 hours a day.

I use tinder to get free meals and grindr for a free place to sleep.