9 life hacks for those who don't want to keep up with life

With this approach, you will significantly reduce your daily expenses, but at the same time you will not have to give up important and necessary things or sacrifice your comfort. The rules of reasonable consumption are relevant for all areas of life: from buying clothes and equipment to using a car and even choosing a pet.

1. Buy quality instead of cheap

Often, in pursuit of savings, we buy things that will not last long. And then we get frustrated eating cheap aluminum forks, fighting skin irritation from synthetic clothing, or waking up with back pain from a squeezed mattress.

Items that you will use regularly for several years should be of good quality. The point here is not the pursuit of luxury: the knives should simply cut, the linen should not be rubbed, and the shoes should not cause the desire to take them off immediately.

Over time, you will either get tired of a low-quality thing and throw it away, buying a new one instead, or spend money on expensive repairs.

Choose natural or high-tech fabrics - they will last longer than cheap synthetics. Give preference to a computer with a power reserve: so that the hardware can keep up with new software versions. Pay attention to the energy consumption of home appliances and technologies that help you wash, clean, and cook faster. Give preference to things with a long warranty: they are more reliable, and if something happens, then you will not have to pay for repairs.

2. Update your smartphone instead of buying a new one

The smartphone has become our window into the world, a replacement for a passport, wallet and cinema. Every year these gadgets receive a ton of new features. So, if a couple of years ago contactless payment for purchases with a smartphone at the checkout of a supermarket seemed fantastic, now you can just point your camera at a stranger's cool sneakers in the subway and get a list of stores where they are sold.

If you want to enjoy all the relevant functions, you need a modern smartphone. The latest model is advanced solutions, high performance, good battery and cool camera. A purchase that brings value and joy. These are the things that constitute the basis of intelligent consumption.

However, there is one but: the acquisition of a new flagship every year is not cheap. And interest on loan offers, as a rule, is not encouraging.

The program will solve this problem: you will use your smartphone for half the price, pay this amount monthly, and change it to a new model a year later. You can choose the latest flagship or another new model! By the way, as part of the program, insurance of the screen and the back panel of the device is already included in the price - you will not have to overpay for repairs if the display breaks.

It is easy to become a member of the program: submit an online application in the application, and the answer will come in a minute. The company delivers smartphones all over Russia for free. And most importantly - no commissions and intermediaries!

3. Build a basic wardrobe

A full wardrobe and nothing to wear - a familiar situation? We often turn shopping into a hobby and a pleasant pastime, and things with tags then gather dust on shelves and hangers for years. And no one will return the money for them.

New clothing collections are released several times a season. "Cheap fashion" fuels the constant thirst for consumption, but inexpensive low-quality things quickly lose their presentable appearance. And in the next season, everything repeats itself.

In fact, really rich people have not been chasing fashion trends for a long time. They would rather spend money on a competent stylist who will put together a "capsule" - a wardrobe where all things are easy to combine with each other.

Of course, the "capsule" will not stay with you forever - you change, your clothes change too. But a couple of trendy items per season is much better than a heap of unnecessary purchases from the mass market.

By the way, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has an even simpler approach: there are two dozen identical gray T-shirts in the closet. He walks in them at home, goes jogging, speaks at conferences. And most importantly, he does not waste time and effort on making unnecessary decisions on the choice of clothes.

4. Plan your menu for the week

Often in the store we buy what we didn't intend to - merchandisers and marketers know their stuff. Then part of the food is naturally thrown away: in Russia, about 25% of all products are in the trash can, in the USA -. All over the planet, this is waste a year! Only a quarter of this amount can feed all the people who are malnourished - and there are about 800 million of them in the world.

To produce 1 kcal of food, Foods & Nutrition Encyclopedia, Two Volume Set 10 kcal of fuel is burned. A discarded cheese sandwich is 90 L of water poured aimlessly in The Story of Life & the Environment. 1 kg of potatoes - 500 liters, 1 kg of beef - 15,000 liters. Too much spending on food that no one will eat.

In order not to buy unnecessary food, make a menu for the week, buy everything from the list and do not rush to the store every day. Also, do not go to the supermarket on an empty stomach: you will impulsively pick up more food than you need. If you've cooked too much soup or made extra servings of the second course, freeze them. When you don't have the strength to stand at the stove after a hard day's work, say thank you to yourself. It is convenient to freeze both vegetables, which quickly deteriorate, and bread - it is enough to reheat it later in a dry frying pan.

Try making blanks like in a store. For example, if you are making cutlets for the whole family, take twice as much minced meat. Fry half of the cutlets and freeze the rest of them. And feel free to take food from home with you to work. Trendy lunch boxes and homemade meals are on trend right now!

5. Buy used things

We only need many items for a while. Especially for children: for example, a stroller, crib or balance bike, not to mention clothing for babies. If a thing is of high quality, then it can serve more than one child. And let, for example, the wheels are a little shabby, and there are a couple of scratches on the frame - this does not affect the safety and ride quality in any way. This approach allows you to save money on purchases that you will only use for a few months. In addition, you yourself can sell a good thing that you no longer need. As a result, the cost of owning it will be only 20-30% of the original price.

Used furniture can sometimes be bought for a penny or found for free on message boards. And the boring clothes can be exchanged for what you like at special parties.

6. Use car sharing

Owning a car in a metropolis is more stressful than fun. It needs to be parked somewhere, regularly serviced, buy insurance and consumables - gasoline, washer, filters. At the same time, the machine is used for hardly more than a couple of hours a day - the rest of the time it just stands there, takes up space and wastes your money.

Car sharing is more profitable: you pay only for those moments when you really need a car. You don’t buy insurance, don’t solve parking issues. Finally, don't worry about the car being stolen or accidentally scratched in the parking lot.

In figures, the statistics looks like this: the ownership of a new business-class sedan is about 650 thousand rubles a year with a mileage of 10 thousand kilometers; a car-sharing car of the same category - about 400 thousand rubles. Lower class models are even cheaper. Healthy nerves are invaluable.

And if you don't have a license, but you need to go, the services of renting bicycles and electric scooters will help out. Cheap, modern and without any traffic jams.

7. Take animals from shelters

People have pets, then move out, discover an allergy to wool or some other problem, and as a result, the pet ends up on the street. Moreover, the average life span of an animal in the city is 2-3 years. Those who go to the shelter or to the volunteers are more fortunate.

Outbred animals are no worse than those that can boast of a classy pedigree. The cats and dogs from the shelter bring no less joy than the winners of the shows. And sometimes even more - animals that have lived on the street for some time appreciate the house and human attention.

By the way, they actively take pets from shelters. And Russian celebrities too.

8. Buy not things, but experience and impressions

Self-isolation has shown how few things we really need. And there is so much around everything that we want to try, experience, see.

Buy only what makes you happier. Don't save up for an apartment in a city you don't like. Don't try to get a loan for a car that you hate in traffic. Don't try to impress the whole subway car with expensive clothes.

Spend money on things that bring joy: travel, self-improvement, entertainment. Things will go away, and impressions and experiences will stay with you forever.

9. Give up what you don't use

Unnecessary things can take up a lot of space. Furniture, which did not find a corner in a new rented apartment, a bread maker with which they played and then forgot about it, a simulator that turned into a clothes hanger. All of these things are your assets. You can sell them, donate them (and make someone happier), or recycle them. As a result, free up space - and breathing will immediately become easier.

Try to follow the rule of 100. The principle is simple: you only need to keep 100 items for yourself - no more and no less. This list should include everything: clothing, equipment, personal hygiene requirements. You will be surprised, but these items will be more than enough if you do not purchase anything extra.

By the way, this approach does not mean at all that you will have to deny yourself the purchase of new products. The main rule: if you have a new item, you need to get rid of the old one so that the total number of items remains the same.

With the program, you can follow this principle without any problems. Every year you will receive a new modern smartphone in exchange for an old one. This means that you will always have a gadget with the most advanced technologies and up-to-date design in your hands. At the same time, you do not have to puzzle over what to do with an outdated smartphone.

Another bonus: Samsung Upgrade members do not have to pay the full cost of the new product. You use your smartphone for half the price, while payments are evenly distributed over 12 months. And at the end of this period, you simply change the gadget to a new one and continue to keep up with the times.