How to Hack Your Way to Spending Less

There are two levers of personal finance that impact your financial well-being and stability: income and expenses. Most people spend the majority of their energy and effort on increasing the former. But if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s often the second lever that’s out of whack. And when there’s a misalignment with spending, it’s nearly impossible to get ahead financially.

The good news is that you have a significant amount of control over the expense side of the equation. With some strategic planning and intentional decision making, you can basically trick your way into spending less (and saving more). Let’s take a look at a few suggestions.

Try a no-spend week. Let’s begin with what is arguably the most aggressive yet effective tactic on this list. Most people will read this hack and instantly scoff. But if you keep an open mind and give it a try, you’ll find that it’s not nearly as difficult as it initially seems. (And the results are nothing short of amazing.)

A no-spend week is precisely what it sounds like. It’s a week where you don’t spend money on anything that’s not an essential or fixed expense. In other words, if it isn’t food, shelter, healthcare, or transportation, you don’t buy it. Instead, you make do with what you have and find other ways to spend your time. Not only will this save you several hundred dollars, but it’ll make you keenly aware of how many times you buy things that you don’t need.

Can’t do a no-spend week? Start with a no-spend weekend. Give it a try and see if it kills you. If it doesn’t – and it won’t – then you can almost certainly try a no-spend week in the near future. 

Pack your lunch. Eating out for the majority of your meals is one of the fastest ways to blow through your income. For a family of four, eating lunch and dinner out just three days a week costs an average of $200 to $300 per week. That amounts to $10,000 to $16,000 per year.

By preparing your own meal and packing lunches for school and work, you can easily cut your food expenses by 75 to 85 percent. That’s enough money to fully fund an IRA or put away cash toward a down payment on a home. 

Rethink your purse. You might not think of your purse as having an impact on your spending, but it could! A cluttered purse leads to a cluttered mind. And the more spending methods you have available to you – including cash, cards, checks, etc. – the more likely that you’ll spend on things you don’t need. Thus, it may be time to rethink your purse. (And for guys, that means your wallet.) Try investing in a smaller leather handbag that allows you to store only the essential items that you need. 

Don’t do it ‘just because.’ It’s easy to get tricked into thinking you’re saving money when you’re actually just buying things you don’t need. This is especially common when shopping at wholesale stores like Costco. You find a super sale on oranges – like five pounds for $1 – so you spend $10 to buy 50 pounds. On paper, you saved money. But in reality, you bought something you didn’t need just because it was on sale.

“The point is if you only eat three to four oranges a week, just spend 20 cents on one pound. That is the savings point — what you regularly use,” personal finance expert Carlos Torres explains. “The fifth orange is starting to overdo it and the tenth orange has no value at all.”

Avoid getting sucked into buying items you don’t need just to “save” money. Create shopping lists and monthly budgets and stick to them.

Find a cheap/free hobby. We often spend out of boredom, not necessity. That’s why spending tends to go up on the weekends when our calendars are clear. And if this is true, then it stands to reason that you’ll spend less when you’re occupied. 

One suggestion is to find a cheap or free hobby that takes up a lot of your time but doesn’t require much spending. This includes cycling, running, doing puzzles, writing, walking your dog, gardening, reading, playing guitar, etc. 

Adding it All Up

When it’s all said and done, spending less money is a mental game. If you can put your mind in a place where it doesn’t feel the need to constantly spend in order to be happy, you’ll save more, invest more, and enjoy better financial health.