Subscriptions are the bane of everyone\u2019s budget. They\u2019re easy to accumulate, and hard to remember to get rid of. Chances are, you\u2019ve got at least a few subscriptions that you could par down. There could be a few random app subscriptions that you forgot to cancel \u2014 and you probably have a couple of subscriptions that do the exact same thing. Try to cut down to one streaming service and one music service for at least a few months, and see how much money you save. Chances are, it\u2019ll be enough to soothe the blow of not being able to access every single one of your comfort movies on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re not saying you have to skip getting takeout, but what if you order it for pickup instead of delivery? Just ordering directly through a restaurant\u2019s website can already save you loads of fees that online delivery services add to the menu \u2014 that\u2019s right, you\u2019re paying higher prices well before you even see the cost of your delivery fee. Take off the cost of the service fee and delivery, and you could potentially save over $15 every single time you place an order. That\u2019s practically a whole extra meal\u2019s worth of money saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Skip the bottled water and opt for a water filter instead, which will save you tons of money on your next grocery store trip. Cutting back on sodas and bottled drinks like tea can also help save your budget; the latter you can make yourself at home for much cheaper, while some have had success with replacing the former with cost-effective solutions like sparkling water, juices, homemade coffee, or homemade tea. Don\u2019t fall for the bottled drinks while you\u2019re out at restaurants, either, as they\u2019re often much more expensive than what they\u2019re really worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to spend money on takeout, you should try making a frugal grocery budget for yourself. Don\u2019t splurge in things like ready-made meals, which are often marked up \u2014 even just a couple of premade meals can seriously cut into your grocery budget. Batch cooking cost-effective meals and freezing them isn\u2019t just about saving time by meal prepping, but will also save you lots of money on food at home and prevent you from accidentally wasting precious ingredients. Look for sales, coupons, and discounts, buy in-season foods to get the best prices, and plan out a full shopping list that suits your budget before you go to the store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. Check your active subscriptions Subscriptions are the bane of everyone\u2019s budget. They\u2019re easy to accumulate, and hard to remember to get rid of. Chances are, you\u2019ve got at least a few subscriptions that you could par down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20459495,"featured_media":1155342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"thoughtcatalog_call_to_action":"","tc_post_redirect":"","thoughtcatalog_is_sponsored_content":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[603198233],"tags":[603230705],"anchortext":[],"posttemplate":[],"adcampaign":[],"coauthors":[603230217],"class_list":["post-1155255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-help","tag-money"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/expenses.jpg","author_meta":null,"photo_credit":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20459495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155344,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155255\/revisions\/1155344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1155342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155255"},{"taxonomy":"anchortext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anchortext?post=1155255"},{"taxonomy":"posttemplate","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posttemplate?post=1155255"},{"taxonomy":"adcampaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adcampaign?post=1155255"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1155255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}