It’s no secret that in today’s day and age people are busy. Even though, in recent years, we’ve tried to stop glorifying how busy we are, the fact remains: the modern age is filled with people living incredibly busy lifestyles. Most people have education, work, family, friends, hobbies, a “side hustle” or part-time job, pets to take care of, and professional relationships to develop. It’s exhausting to try and fit it all in! The overwhelming stress that many people feel about how consistently busy they are is only made worse by the constant financial anxiety that many people are experiencing. With most people suffering from one form of debt or another, and the cost of living rising in most job-filled areas, it’s tough to keep up with your busy schedule and save enough money to live well. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of ten easy things to do online that will save you both time and money. It’s a win-win!
#1 Order Food and Grocery Shop Online
There’s no reason to waste time running out to the pizza parlor down the street or waiting in line at the grocery store. There are so many online resources and mobile applications that make grocery shopping and takeout food ordering so much easier. For groceries, consider ordering food from Amazon Prime Pantry, which is perfect for ordering all your non-perishable items in bulk. You can even set up recurring orders to save extra money on things you know you’ll need consistently, like dog food, diapers, or toilet paper. If you’re looking for a more intensive grocery-providing experience, many grocery stores deliver after you place an online order. Or, if you want to take the guess work out of meal planning, consider signing up for Hello Fresh or another meal service where ready-to-cook, healthy meals are delivered to your door.
For takeout ordering, don’t place a call-ahead order. Instead, head over to Grub Hub to place an order online and have your favorite takeout delivered to your door. These services often provide coupons, too!
#2 Buy Online
It doesn’t matter if you need a last-minute gift for your niece’s birthday, or you are shopping for the perfect throw rug to complete your family room. You can find essentially everything you need online, these days, and you can often find better deals by shopping around at multiple online outlets than you could if you simply went to the store. The reason behind this is because the online marketplace is fierce in global competition — you can directly access markets with cheaper production, such as China’s AliExpress. Consider downloading an app or browser extension, like Honey, too, which automatically finds you extra savings.
#3 Transfer Money Online
Don’t waste your time driving to the bank and waiting in line to transfer money. These days, there are countless online money transfer organizations that make it possible for you to complete your money transfers at home in your pajamas! And the best part? These online companies, like Caxton Money Transfer, don’t operate the same way brick-and-mortar banks do, which means they don’t have a lot of the hefty fees that banks charge. They also provide the best exchange rates available. Sounds good, right?
#4 Complete Business Meetings Online
Preparing for an in-person business meeting is often a waste of your valuable time, especially if multiple participants are travelling in to attend. Why not simplify things and use an online resource like Go To Meeting to host these conference calls? It’s incredibly simple to use, adds the call to everyone’s calendar, and offers the option to share screens, video conference, or host a simple phone conference call. These services are often inexpensive or free, so they’re often cheaper than the traditional business meeting route that could involve paying for lunch for multiple people, airfare, hotel fare, and more.
#5 Save Money and Manage Spending Online
That’s right. Want to talk about the ultimate money-saver? Use a combination of online money saving apps, budgeting tools, and online bank accounts to maximize your money. Not only will you not have to leave your couch to do your banking, some online banks have much better interest rates than traditional banking institutions. You can use a free service like Mint to hook up to your bank accounts and help you with your budgeting, and you can use something like Acorns to get you started saving or investing with the spare change you have at the end of each purchase. Not a bad deal!
#6 Save in the Long-Run with Smart Appliances
Smart appliances, which are often considered an IoT (Internet of Things), use automation to help save us both time and money. These are things that are seemingly ordinary, such as washer machines and thermostats, but they kind of operate autonomously and connect to the internet. Or in other words, they have a greater capacity to be efficient. A smart thermostat for example can learn your patterns of heating, and even incorporate the weather outside, which it uses to control the temperature of the home without you even knowing. This isn’t only a weight off your mind, but it means never unnecessarily leaving the heating on.
#7 Workout with Online Trainers at Home Instead of the Gym
The gym is a wonderfully convenient place to work out, but exercising at home can actually be better in many ways. Look at it like this: workout equipment such as weights are all made out of cast iron or cement — two materials that last years. If you’re used to having a personal trainer or gym buddies, you can use Youtube videos and online trainers. These are free, and it’s easy to find the best ones (just look for the feedback they get). This could save you $100 to $500 each year in annual gym memberships. It’s also way more convenient to workout in your home, and you have vastly fewer excuses to be lazy. Lastly, you may fall in love with the arguably safer way to work out: bodyweight exercises!
#8 Save time and Money by Learning Online
Education, whether it’s evening classes or college courses, are notoriously expensive. Instead of racking up a bunch of debt on a 3+ year course, it may be wise to look at online courses. There are many free courses produced by top universities such as MIT on subjects like programming, machine learning and so on. There’s also plenty of Youtube tutorials on things such as woodwork, fixing cars, how to sing… Just about anything you could think of. Not only does it save a bunch of money, it can be a huge time-saver. No commitments to overly long courses, no waiting around for next week’s lecture, no commuting to the learning center. The flexibility it provides can also lead to more efficient learning, as you can put in the hours exactly when you can and/or want.
#9 Read the News and Watch TV Online
The days of paying monthly premiums for cable TV are coming to an end. TV programming is being crushed by online streaming sites, podcasts and social media. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars a year for cable TV, a Netflix or Disney+ account will provide you with more shows and movies that you have time to watch for way less than hundred bucks a year. It also means you don’t need a TV — just use your PC monitor, or tablet. Whilst this saves money more so than time, it’s also much more time-efficient to get your news from news apps than it is to read it in newspapers.
#10 Outsource Menial Tasks Online
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer or what, outsourcing tasks that do not generate revenue can be a great time-saver. A classic example would be your financial accounts, but it could be anything from replying to your emails and administration to gardening and cleaning (of course the latter two are offline). It may sound like you’re paying for leisure time with some of these, but actually you could spend that time on making more money. So, you can either generate new leads for your business in the time saved with a cheap virtual assistant, or you could use it to have more time with your family.
We know you spend a huge portion of your time on the internet – in today’s world, it’s unavoidable. You might as well maximize your time there to save you time and money on things you have to do every day. There are so many time saving online applications and services available, getting involved with them and researching the best ones to fit your lifestyle can free up some extra time and a few extra dollars!
