How to Save Money Live Better

Are you looking to improve your financial situation and live a better life? With a few simple strategies, you can transform your finances and start enjoying the benefits of smart money management. In this blog post, we’ll discuss various tips that can help you save money and live a more fulfilling life.

Overview

We all have things we are working toward, whether it’s a bigger house and a nicer car, a holiday once a year, or to get by daily. Life should be about living in the moment rather than on your way somewhere else. As John Lennon famously quipped “Life happens when you’re busy making other plans”.

We must slow down and enjoy what we have now, not always striving for something better. Life will improve when we appreciate what we already have – after all, you can’t miss what you never had.

One of the best ways to save money is by being more self-sufficient and cutting out unnecessary expenditures. Eating healthy, organic food will often be much cheaper than buying the low-value, processed stuff, and over time, your savings will add up.

How to Save Money Live Better

1. Stop Spending Wastefully

Spend less on those big bills like mortgage, car payments, childcare, and energy bills. The more you pay monthly, the less disposable income you’ll have each month.

Skip the gym membership. Instead, use your local park to walk or jog. This way, you can save money without compromising your health and well-being.

Skip the expensive coffee at the cafe or that barista made you pay for when you were out. Going out for dinner and a drink can be expensive if you’re not careful. Instead, cook your meals from scratch and take leftovers to work/school with you. Use leftover parts as ingredients in new dishes.

2. Look after Your Health

Get plenty of sleep each night, exercise frequently, and eat a healthy diet. If possible, avoid unhealthy foods like high-sugar junk food or sugary drinks. Exercise can help you to boost your mood, creativity, and attention and can help you avoid getting depression or anxiety. If money is tight, consider signing up for a local fitness center or a walking tour. Don’t go to the pub regularly – if you drink four times a week, it will cost over £200 per month – spend your money on health instead of alcohol.

3. Prepare Food from Scratch

There’s nothing better than having something delicious and nutritious ready-made in your fridge and freezer for quick meals when you’re too busy for cooking. So check out recipes online and start making your food from scratch at home. It’s also a lot cheaper. It is also a lot healthier.

 

We Recommend The Weekly Meal Plan Cookbook: A 3-Month Kickstart Guide to Healthy Home Cooking.

 

4. Make Your Treats

If you’re looking for something sweet and special, don’t buy the expensive supermarket brands; make it yourself. You can save lots of money by making your own chocolate using raw ingredients in the kitchen cupboard or garden (try combining cocoa and ground almonds to make “bran flakes” as a treat).

5. Don’t Buy Things You Don’t Need

It is bad to be wasteful, but if there is something that at this moment doesn’t serve any purpose (or if it takes too much effort), then it’s better not to buy it in the first place. This will save you money, time, and space in the long run.

6. Buy Second-hand Items

Buying second-hand can save you a lot of money, and most of the time, these items are still in good condition! Check out Gumtree or Freecycle if you’re looking to exchange an item or give away your unwanted things instead of throwing them away. Another option is to buy and sell items on eBay.

7. Use Less Energy

Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Switch off your computer and use an air fryer to save energy when cooking. Don’t run the dishwasher when doing a half-load of dishes. Try to stick to natural light and heat as much as possible, and ensure the heating is turned down a few degrees during winter months.

 

Discover how you can build your own solar and wind power plant.

 

8. Get a Job with Less Commuting

Having a job is crucial for helping you get by each month, but it also adds to your energy use (you will be more likely to use more energy for commuting). If you have the choice, go for a less energy-intensive job like working online or look for another way to make extra money. Shedding your job can be tough, and if you are in that position, don’t force yourself to do it. Instead, give yourself some time and work on building up more self-sufficiency until you decide to leave.

 

We cannot live better than in seeking to become better – Socrates

9. Make Sure it’s Worth Fighting For

There are so many items we want to buy each day, but do we need them? Do we need new lipstick or a pair of shoes? When looking at big purchases, think about whether something will last more than six months. Buy quality products that last the test of time. If the answer is no, consider alternatives like making your food or clothes from scratch. These things last a lot longer, ensuring that you’re living by your values rather than simply buying what the advertisers and society tell you are cool in order to conform.

10. Pay Off Debt

If you have a lot of debt, don’t spend all your money on consumer goods (clothes, expensive coffee, or restaurant meals). Instead, use the money to pay off your loans as quickly as possible. This will ensure that you still have enough money to live on and will also help if an unexpected bill does come along since you’ll already be used to living frugally with less money at your disposal.

What Does it Mean to Save Money and Live Better?

Making your food, whether from scratch is an excellent way to save money and live better. In addition, you will be eating a healthier diet without paying the over-inflated prices of “higher quality” products full of chemical additives and preservatives.

Living a more self-sufficient lifestyle can avoid expensive fees like electricity, water, and even phone bills. You will also be able to do things like making your clothes, repairing your home yourself, growing your own food and buying healthier ingredients at a fraction of the cost in stores.

What is the 50-30-20 Budget Rule?

This is a great budgeting rule that can help you to save money and live better. It’s not about cutting out food completely – it’s about making a budget and sticking to it (I’d add an “in your dreams” or “possible” category, but that would be cheating!).

The basic idea is that you should spend only 50% of your income on necessities (things like food, rent, bills, transport, etc.) 30% of your income on things you want like entertainment, wine, and travel etc. and the final 20% on savings and debt repayment.

The 8 Forms of Capital

It’s funny to think that society has been engineered to only value money and just about everything we do revolves around it. We are guilty of this too at BIGPriceDrops. We write a lot of articles around the different ways to save money, but as a matter of fact there are eight types of capital, and money is only one of them.

What is capital? In the Collins Dictionary, capital is defined as “any source of profit, advantage, power, etc.; an asset.” In other words, capital is wealth in the form of money or other assets, and a valuable resource. In order to understand money, it’s helpful to ask, “what is money?“

Besides being a means of exchange, money is a means of storing energy. In our daily lives we trade our time and energy with an employer for a salary or hourly wage. Do you now your worth!

Save Capital – Live Better

Now let’s look holistically at the 8 forms of capital to see just how wealthy you really are.

Financial Capital

The global economic system is composed of money, currencies, securities, and other instruments of financial capital or debt. In today’s world, financial capital receives enormous attention. We exchange goods and services with other humans primarily through them. There is the potential for it to be a powerful tool for oppression and endless war (Bitcoin fixes this) but also for liberation, peace and prosperity.

As we have already mentioned, we have been led to believe by the powers-that-shouldn’t-be our worth is only measured by the size of our bank accounts. However, as you will discover, that aint necessarily so.

Social Capital

A persons influence and connections are their social capital. It is possible to ask for favours, influence decisions, and communicate effectively when you have high social capital. The importance of social capital in politics, business, and community organising cannot be overstated.

Capital can be in the form of equity or debt. A politician person can owe favours to another or have decision-making influence over them as a result of social capital.

Material Capital

In order to create more sophisticated materials or structures, raw and processed resources are combined. Stone, metal, timber, minerals and fossil fuels are examples of raw and processed resources. Tools, iPhones, and other gadgets are complex forms of material capital, along with modern buildings, bridges, and other such infrastructure.

Living Capital

In lieu of measuring your wealth in good old pounds sterling, weigh it in ounces of gold and silver (it has been for thousands of years). In addition to precious metals, we should diversify our wealth by measuring it in ounces, acres, and hooves. Our earth’s living capital consists of animals, plants, water, and soil – the real basis for life on this planet.

Living capital can be rapidly created through permaculture design principles and regenerative practices. There is also a current Slow Money movement that seeks to transfer financial capital to soil, animals, and agriculture.

Intellectual Capital

The most accurate way to describe intellectual capital is as a knowledge asset. There is a strong focus on imparting intellectual capital in the current global (mis)education system – regardless of whether it is the most effective mode of investing in resilient, thriving communities.

It has been said that intellectual capital is the key to success. Though science and research are often motivated by financial or social capital, it can also be focused on obtaining intellectual capital or truth.

In the case of universities, financial capital (debt) is exchanged for intellectual capital (the value of some of the courses is questionable). In general, it is supposed to prepare young people for the rest of their lives. More often than not, it leaves them in a debt bondage, holding a worthless piece of paper.

Experiential or Human Capital

Experiential capital is gained by organising projects in our communities. Coming together to building structures, or designing an urban permaculture garden. In order to learn anything effectively, intellectual capital and experiential capital must be brought together.

A person’s human capital consists of his or her social, intellectual, and experiential assets, which can be gathered and stored in virtually unlimited quantities. A person can also accumulate and carry within themselves another form of capital.

Spiritual Capital

It’s possible to accumulate spiritual capital by practicing one’s religion, spirituality, or other means of connecting with oneself and the universe. Intellectual and experiential capital are aspects of it, but they are deeper, more personal, and less quantifiable.

In many cultures, there is a concept of a great chain of being (scala naturae), a holistic understanding of existence in which spiritual attainment leads to different levels of existence.

Buddhism even has its own spiritual currency – Karma! Taking reincarnation into account, this form of spiritual capital cannot only be accounted for in the current life, but also in all the past and future lives one has lived or will live. Once again, the concept of spiritual capital implies that capital can exist in the form of equity, religious understanding, attainment or debt.

Humans owe a spiritual debt to the magnificent beauty and complexity of existence, according to some Mayan cultures. This worldview emphasises the importance of creating works of unimaginable beauty and gratitude in order to repay one’s spiritual debt to existence. Additionally, they recognise that individuals who are separated from their communities cannot really gather and move capital effectively.

Cultural Capital

Unlike all other forms of capital, cultural capital can only be gathered by a community. A community’s cultural capital can be categorised as its own internal and external processes – it’s works of art, theatre and songs, it’s the footy, and it’s the ability to come together in celebration of the harvest or during the festive season.

Individuals cannot create cultural capital on their own. It could be considered an emergent characteristic of the complex system of inter-capital exchanges that take place in a village, a city, or even a nation.

Final Thoughts

By implementing these practical tips, you can transform your finances and start living a better life. Remember, small changes can lead to significant results, so start making adjustments today and watch your financial situation improve over time.

When we escape the scarcity mindset and realise how wealthy we really are, living on a monetary budget isn’t so hard, especially when you start to tap into the other forms of capital.

However, it might take some time to get used to if you’re used to spending lots of money on buying food or seeing movies every couple of weeks. You can also introduce your friends (social capital) to these concepts so that they can help you out with your budgeting and shopping.

The world is an abundant place. When we save money, save capital we can all live better, together.

How to Save Money Live Better