Skip the router rental. Your internet provider might be charging you a monthly fee for your equipment – but you can buy your own modem and router and make up the cost in a year.
Get paid for shipping! If you have Amazon Prime (meaning you often get two-day shipping for free), you can opt for slower shipping on some orders to get other discounts, like $1 of Kindle books or Amazon music, or money towards a Prime Pantry box (food, snacks and household supplies).
High-Tech Savings. Confirm it’s really a sale price. If you aren’t sure whether a price on Amazon is good, plug it into a free price tracker, such as the CamelCamelCamel website or the Pricepulse phone app, to see the item’s cost over time.
Buy wild-caught domestic fish. It’s healthier and better tasting than farm-raised. To save money, look for specials on cod, pollack and haddock – delicious and inexpensive species.
Make vegetable stock. Save veggie scraps and peels, and once you have plenty, put in a pot, cover with water and boil for an hour or so. Strain it, and you have a vegetable stock for making soup or cooking rice, lentils or quinoa.
Braise and save. There are two ways to get tender cuts, or buy tougher cuts at a fraction of the price and cook them to tenderness. So get out that old cookbook or a recipe from the internet and braise low-priced chuck or stew meat, along with overflow veggies, for a low-cost, delicious stew.
Shop where there’s competition. Where farmers markets are back in business, remember that lots of vendors will have produce that’s being harvested locally – so the price will be lowest for those items. Skip the shopping list, buy what’s abundant and choose recipes based on what you buy.
Shop at warehouse clubs without a membership. You can buy prescription drugs a Costco or Sam’s Club without being a member. You can also buy almost anything in Costco if someone gives you a gift card. Nonmembers can buy alcohol and get free hearing tests at Sam’s Club.
Sign up for texts. Surprisingly, you often can get a better discount from a store’s text message stream than from its email newsletter. You can unsubscribe once you’ve made purchases.
Let your online shopping cart sit. If you sign in to your account and stick a few items in your cart, don’t check it out just yet. Retailers often will email you a coupon in a few days to entice you to place an order.