My last article mentioned some tips on how to live frugal as an entrepreneur, but now I’m going to share some advanced level tactics on how to start saving money. Technology has literally shaped how we shop, spend money, and look for deals.
As an entrepreneur myself, it’s critical to keep my spending as lean as possible. This means looking for awesome money saving websites (that actually works) and closely monitoring my budget.
Traveling
When it comes to traveling, there’s nothing that compares to the HotelTonight app. Everyday @ Noon PST, they release a handful of hotels that you can book for the very same night. The best thing about it is that it ranges from your average 3-star hotels to even your luxurious 5-star hotels.
Another one of my favorite ways to save money is to look for hotel deals on Hotwire. You can snag a hotel for a fraction of the cost, but you won’t know which hotel you’re staying at until you book it in full. You can still filter out which hotels you want to stay at based on the specific location and hotel quality.
Selling Unused Items
I’ve been a huge fan of selling and buying items on Craigslist compared to eBay, primarily because I’m a cheapskate and hate paying for eBay’s fees. Buying directly from the seller gives you more room for negotiation and you can always almost end up paying less than the seller’s asking price.
So if you’re selling or buying a used item, how do you know what the fair market value is? That’s where I use a website called Priceonomics. They aggregate all the listings and come up with what they think you should pay for an item. It takes the guesswork out of figuring out whether you’re getting a good deal or not. Add these two sites together, and you have one lean money saving machine!
Daily Deal Sites
I used to be against subscribing to daily deal sites because it created impulse buying decisions. I’m guilty of allowing some of my coupons go unused before its expiration date. Another reason why I unsubscribed to these sites is because I was being bombarded with emails from five different daily deal sites.
Let’s look at the holistically. Daily deals can actually help save you money, but can also be dangerous for those who act on impulse. One of the main problems I have with daily deal sites are the quality of merchants they bring on board. Even though you see a staggering discount on a restaurant or spa, it’s difficult to figure out the exact quality of the merchant. This is where a new company called Dealupa comes in. They aggregate all the daily deal sites out there and you tell them what you’re interested in: food, spa, travel, bars, etc. They’ll filter out all the bad deals and only put the best deals into your inbox.
When we think about saving money, it doesn’t mean eating cup noodles for dinner every night. Look for creative ways to save money, find deals, and make the most out of your unused items using today’s technology.
Authior Bio: Kevin is one of the founders of SpringCoin and a certified credit counselor with the NACCC. SpringCoin helps consumers lower their monthly payments while helping them establish healthy spending habits. Previously, Kevin started his own affiliate company for one of the largest debt settlement companies but later lost faith in the industry after seeing poor results, lack of transparency, and lack of long-term financial impact. He spent the later part of his year fighting against these debt settlement companies to set things right with his clients.
