Are you and your roommate struggling with money issues and you have decided to try and cut down on some costs and save money? With many cities around the world continuing to rise in rent prices, we are all struggling to pay our bills, and when we do pay them, we barely have money left! Not to worry, this is why you and your roommate should check out these 13 ways you can live together with less money.
1. Eat as much as you can at home
The biggest part of your weekly expenses consists of food bills. Â If you eat out all the time, not only that this will affect your health, but you will also realise that you are spending too much. The better option is to go groceries shopping once a week and share the costs with your roommate and do cooking together. Do a cookoff! Get your friends along. Eating at home can be even more fun than eating out when you get creative.Â
2. Buy everything in Bulk
Buying in bulk rocks! Yet, many of us don’t really do it. Buying in bulk means that you will get a lot more for much less money. You can purchase things that don’t have a short expiration date and almost halve your expenses. Go to the Saturday markets and go crazy on buying plenty of fruit and vegetables. You can quickly stock up for a month and pay just over one week’s worth of food. We highly recommend it.Â
3. Use more natural light
Part of the growing electricity bill is using lights for every room. It can be a bad habit by most people (especially me!). Next time, double check that you switch off the lights. In addition, when it’s daytime, don’t close the curtains, open them! Having natural light in your apartment will give your flat a vibrant feel. Later down the track, you will be thankful to have less bills to pay with just changing up this little habit 🙂
4. Cut down on the takeaway
Takeaway is awesome, right? I love pizza. But if there’s any negative about ordering takeaway is the expense. It adds up. It’s time to switch it up and doing your own cooking. Something I enjoy cooking is stir fry- healthy, cheap, high in protein and very easy to make!
5. Drink at home before you head out
Before you go out onto the town, have pre-drinks at your house. Every weekend, I drink with people at a house before going out – you save so much money. Stay in, turn on netflix, get the popcorn poppin’ and do a Harry Potter movie marathon.
6. Do your own Laundry
I’ve been personally surprised by the amount of people who don’t do their own laundry. I wash my laundry all the time (I do it all on Sundays). A great way to cut down unnecessary costs is go to the laundromat.
7. Do your own furniture.
I recently wrote a blog post about creating your own furniture. It’s a great way to not only save money, but to get creative. Get creative. Think outside the square. There are many ways to do your own furniture. Grab some recycled wood and build your own cabinets wihtout buying new ones, painting your own furniture, making your own art for your walls – plenty of ways to get creative and save!
8. Start a syndicate coin jar
Do you swear a lot? The amount of coins I would be droipping into the jar would make a seriously great investment one day. Whether you decide to have a swear jar or not, having your own apartment jar is a great idea to drop in spare change, and plan rewards after a period od months and use the money to do something fun. Even just saving $30 into the jar would get you two movie tickets. It doesn’t sound much but it’s a cool little hack to have in your life (teaches you to save too!).
9. Cook for the week ahead on Sundays
It’s not just for the bodybuilders or fitness freaks. I’m sure you have had friends or mates who have done the “Bulk food cook” on sundays for their “lean, high protein diet”. I laugh at my mates who do this but they are onto something! Cooking for lunches for work, and even dinners, can for two reasons; save a lot of time, and save plenty of money. I’ve started doing this and it’s been a great way to stick to a diet plan and not waste money by buying food at work all the time. Give cooking on sundays a try.
10. Roast your own coffee
If you’re like me, you get a coffee from your local coffee shop or across the road from work every morning before work. If you’re a serial coffee drinker (like me :D), you know you’re in a for a long day and the paper work keeps piling up. Before you know it, you can easily purchase 3 coffees a day and without thinking, you’ve spent $11-$12. That may not seem that much and you may not do it everyday, but if you’re working for 250-300 days a year (or even more), you only need to add up the numbers. What I’ve recently been doing is roasting my own coffee at work. You may as well use that coffee machines that just sit there. I’m suprised more people don’t use them. At first I was a complete moron and coudln’t boil milk to save my life, but now, I’ve got thr hang of it and have saved those extra few dollars. Or, put a pod into one of these espresso machines – that’s easy enough 🙂
11. Do things with your flatmate
Lack of planning can end in reckless spending, as the easiest thing for you and your roommate to do would be to go out for a drink – or seven (admit it, more likely 10). But not every night needs to be Project X. Have more relaxing nights, like go to the movies, game nights (board games are great), go for a long walk through the city, go for a run (I need to get onto this). Try make plans at the beginning of the week – it’s a great way to keep the flatmate relationship alive and well too.
(Header Image: getalifefirst.com)
Do you have any great moving saving tips we haven’t mentioned here? Let us know in the comments below and we will add them 🙂
