How to Save Money While Still Doing What You Love
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With the cost of living ever rising, it can feel like you just don’t have the money to treat yourself and instead spend every working moment, making money to cover the bills.
If however, you really want to get away from that daily grind and spend some time with a loved one, friends or family having a good time, while sticking to a budget, then here are some ideas to help you do just that.
2 for 1 Deals
From 2 for 1 meals, to the ability to buy one get one free at the cinema, there are schemes out there that all you to still go out and enjoy yourself while saving a penny or two.
If you like going out for a meal, then tastecard is a must to have in your wallet. This clever little membership costs £34.99 for the year. However, it could quickly save you more than that in meals out.
In fact, tastecard has offerings such as 25% off barista-made drinks, 50% off pizza and 2 for 1 and 25% off food & drinks. But it doesn’t just stop at meals, other offers for them cover theme parks and cinema trips.
These deals can be limited by day or time, so it’s always best to check the offer is available when you want to visit. However, with some planning, you should be able to make the most of tastecard’s deals.
Look for Free Activities
A lot of people like to say nothing in life is free – yet there are attractions out there that cost nothing. From museums to a day in the park and exploring your local area.
You might be surprised when you look around nearby where you to the places you can explore. Locally to me for instance there is Erasmus Darwin House, which while free to look around at any time, often has special activities going on.
If you feel you might get hungry while you are out, you could even pack some sandwiches from home, to help you resist the temptation of spending while out.
Recreate a Favourite at Home
It can often be hard to think you are missing out on spending time with friends, so how about recreating some of your favourite experiences at home?
If you love going out for a meal, you could all take turns making a meal for each other, or meet up to watch a favourite film or the first episode of a loved TV series.
Some of these ideas can even be recreated if you don’t live near each other. Some streaming services offer the ability to “watch together” syncing up the timing of the film or show. While popping on a headset and grabbing your favourite game can be a fun way to unwind.
Of course, these are just a few ways you can look to still have fun while saving money, there are many more options out there.
I would love to know how you make sure you still enjoy yourself while looking after the pennies.
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And if you literally want to save money, here’s what a friend of mine does. On an evening, she tips her purse on the table and removes all the small change – 1p, 2p and 5p pieces. She gets her husband to do the same and away it all goes, into a large piggybank. When that seems full, she takes it to her local supermarket where there’s a machine that sorts and counts it and converts as much as possible into notes. Without too much effort, she’s saved some money to give all the family a little treat.
I used to do something similar to this and was amazed at how much I saved – one good reason to pay in cash really.
Some fantastic ideas! I like they idea of creating our favourite experiences at home we have done this for cinema complete with a treat stall for the children to pretend to buy things etc. Will have to think of some more favourites we could do.
Oh, that sounds so much fun – what a lovely idea to do with your kids!
Good ideas ! Cheers x
Thank you for the tips.
Great ideas, thanks!
We are very lucky to live in a very beautiful area so we have lots of lovely places to visit and walk, and in the summer we have the beach on our doorstep.
I would love to live near the sea I have to admit – going to the beach easily would be the dream .
We love exploring lots of local nature trails and free museums in the local area
It can be so fun can’t it? I think everyone should be a tourist in their own home area at least once a year too!
The Fork and Opentable is a great place to look for discounts without paying the yearly fee. We have been trying to recreate our favourite dishes at home and it’s been fun. I made korean fried chicken the other day and it honestly taste better than a lot of restaurant ones because I seasoned it overnight. Also there is something about eating in the comfort of your own home
Also living in London I do feel very fortunate that there are a lot of free stuff to do like all the museums, royal parks, historic buildings and monuments
I love the museums in London, I could spend days just looking around the history museum alone!
Such fabulous tips, I love the tastecard idea and recreating food at home. Wonderful.
tastecard is such a great idea isn’t it – I love that it saves you a bit money.
I love museums, the natural history museum in Tring is free and a fantastic family day out xx
What great advice. We love making home made takeaways and it really saves the pennies. Recreating some of our favourite experiences at home is a fantastic idea. x
I often think home-cooked tastes better as well doesn’t it?
Thank you for sharing these amazing tips on how to save money while still pursuing the things we love. I completely agree that it’s important to find a balance between enjoying our passions and not breaking the bank in the process.
I particularly appreciated your advice on exploring free or low-cost alternatives to expensive hobbies. It’s amazing how much we can learn and experience without spending a fortune, and it’s great to have a variety of options to choose from.
I also loved your tip about using discount codes and cashback sites to save money on online purchases. It’s such a simple and easy way to make our hard-earned money go further.
It can be hard to think of things in the moment especially when friends are saying do you want to do X or Y so having some ideas up your sleeve can often really help. I’m so glad you liked these ideas.
I like the idea of recreating a favourite meal at home, certainly it would save money but would be good to see what you could recreate
Definitely, it could be for some people a real challenge! You could even do “Come Dine With Me” with friends.
Hiking is what I love to do and it can be very cheap once you have the boots
There are so many beautiful locations out there you go hiking as well I wish I could still walk more places.
@Sarah-Louise Bailey, yes I do not take this for granted as I do have some foot issues. Happily you have shared some accessible and beautiful places that will still lift you. I do know that with thought many more places could be accessible
Definitely – I do hope that more places will see the benefit of becoming more mobility friendly – I’ve said there’s a few places I want to go this summer, so I’ll try and report back on them.