How to survive in a big city: 5 things you can save on

Food

Cook at home

At first glance, business lunches in a cafe are not very expensive. But statistics say How the cost of business lunches has changed the opposite. The average cost of set meals in Moscow in 2018 is 268 rubles in cafes and 337 rubles in restaurants. In St. Petersburg, business lunches are slightly cheaper - 230 rubles in cafes and 287 rubles in restaurants.

Now let's count. Let's say you are a resident of Moscow who honestly worked all 23 working days in October. Every day you went to a business lunch in a cafe near the office and laid out 268 rubles for your soup, salad, main course and fruit drink. 268 × 23 = 6,164 rubles.

Here, for example, what can be bought for these 6,164 rubles (and something else will remain):

very good slow cooker;
not a very good lens for a camera;
branded sneakers in the discount center;
a fancy multi-storey house for a cat;
closed wireless headphones for travel on the subway.

In order not to deprive yourself of an extra cat house, save on business lunches and take food with you. How much cheaper it comes out depends on your gastronomic habits.

Let's say the question of survival is really acute and you do not go outside the grocery basket. In Moscow, the minimum set of groceries for a month is worth Muscovites pay for groceries for almost a thousand rubles more than 4.5 thousand rubles - less than 150 rubles a day. Yes, this is harsh, but think about it: you can spend half as much on three homemade meals a day as on one lunch in a cafe.

Shop properly

To save money, you need to follow the simple rules of grocery shopping.

Plan your shopping schedule. Butter needs to be bought once a month, cheese once a week, and bread once every three days. More planned shopping trips mean less accidental spending. And plan the entire shopping process, including the itinerary in the store, so you only buy what you really need.
Don't forget to take inventory. A familiar situation: you came from the store and only then found out that you already had green peas and a stick of sausage. To prevent perishables from throwing away, check the refrigerator before going to the store.
Don't go shopping hungry. Otherwise, you risk finding a bunch of unplanned pies, chips and chocolates in the cart.
Watch out for discounts. Check out seasonal and ongoing promotions in shops near your home. Applications "Foodil", Tiendeo, SkidkaOnline will help.
Shop for groceries in the evenings. Especially if you are interested in cuisine: after eight in the evening, ready-made meals in stores are often sold for almost half the price.

Food, cafes and restaurants are one of the main items of expenditure for any resident of a large city. Find out how to spend less at the free lecture "Finance in the City: How to Keep All Your Money on a Latte." The lecture will be led by Alexandra Krasnova, a financial journalist with 10 years of experience and the author of the Moneyhack Telegram channel.

Transport

Buy a metro pass

Of course, after considering the feasibility of buying it. Again, let's take Moscow as an example. Let's say you ride the metro on weekdays in October. In 2018, in Moscow, the cost of a single trip by public transport will not change twice: to the office and home. At the end of the week, you travel a little less around the city - let's add 14 more movements to get a nice number of 60 trips.

The fare with the Troika card is 36 rubles.
The cost of 60 trips with the Troika card is 36 × 60 = 2,160 rubles.
The cost of a single ticket for 60 trips is 1,765 rubles.
The cost of a Unlimited ticket for a month is 2,075 rubles.

That is, with an unlimited travel pass, you will save 85 rubles, and with a ticket for 60 trips, you will save 395 rubles. Calculate everything properly and choose the most economical option for yourself.

Use different services to call a taxi

Download all taxi calling apps that work in your city. Enter the route in each of the services before ordering - this way you will find out that the prices of the same trip around the city can differ by tens or even hundreds of rubles. There is no obvious leader here: it all depends on distances, areas and existing promotions.

Know how to drive - use car sharing

The minimum cost of a trip with a rental car is less than the cost of the cheapest taxi trip. Considering the per-minute payment, you can even get to your destination for a car-sharing service by spending less than a hundred rubles.

But do not forget to assess the traffic situation: if you get stuck in a traffic jam, the meter will continue to charge you for every minute. Taxis usually determine the cost of the trip based on the distance, and the time is not taken into account in the route.

Walk

This is useful not only for the wallet, but also for health.

Clothing and technology

how to save wages: Clothing and equipment

Follow the promotions in clothing stores

Do not rush to advertise: the SALE inscription on the window does not always guarantee really favorable prices. It is better to study the cost of things in advance on the websites of different stores. Applications will again help to find discounts on clothes: the aforementioned Tiendeo, SkidkaOnline, as well as specialized Shopguide, ZenMall and Supersale.

Look for clothes in discount and outlet centers

These are such shops, and sometimes - shopping centers, where goods from past collections are sold at a reduced cost. After all, what difference does it make that these sneakers came out last year if they are nice and comfortable?

Don't be afraid to look into second-hand shops

In second-hand stores, you can save an indecent amount of money on expensive brands of clothing. And in them you can find something that is not sold at all in Russia and will definitely only be with you. Just remember to check for holes, scuffs and stains: second-hand returns do not work.

A paragraph for the most suspicious: the smell that scares you away from used clothes is a sign that they are clean. The characteristic second-hand scent is a special chemical used to treat clothes before resale. The smell will go away by itself after a few washes. And don't let second-hand shops scare you with their location, signs and interiors. It is precisely because of the inexpensive rental of premises that clothing in them is sold for almost nothing.

Look for products on message boards

On Avito and "Yulia" you can find children's clothes, used equipment or clothes that did not fit the previous owners.

A good example is baby strollers, especially premium models. What people bought for 25 thousand rubles is sold several times cheaper after use.

Stroller Inglesina Comfort on the official website of the store. Price - 26,990 rubles

The same stroller in a different color on Avito. Good condition. Price - 4,000 rubles

This life hack is not universal, but almost everything can be found in big cities. Just get in the habit of looking for the item you want on the message boards before you go to the store.

Need tools - rent

A new hammer drill will cost at least four thousand rubles. If it is useful to you once, then it is better to rent a tool for 500 - just enter in the search engine "rent a tool by the day". There are dozens of offers in big cities.

Entertainment

Sign up for free and low-cost event posters

Search for "free events" and your city name and explore everything you can get your hands on. Particularly interesting things often come across in VKontakte groups and Telegram channels.

Explore Discount Coupon Sites

Frendi, KuponGid, Biglion, Kupon.ru - download the applications of these services or visit their sites. There appear promotional codes for attending events, coupons for exclusive discounts in restaurants and shops.

Buy tickets in advance

Buying tickets at the start of sales will help you save on trips to the theater and concerts. In addition, it is during this period that the largest number of free places is available. By the date of the event, only expensive and inconvenient ones often remain.

If you failed to purchase a ticket at the start, try your luck 10 minutes before the start of the performance. Perhaps someone did not buy the reservation and you will get their ticket at an affordable price.

Have fun on weekdays

Going to the bowling alley or the pool will cost less on Wednesday than on Sunday. Forcing yourself to go somewhere in the evening after work is not easy, but otherwise why do you even live in a big city.

Accidental expenses

An incredibly beautiful set of wine glasses, a very useful app for training cognitive abilities, a gift collection of essays by a favorite author - all these unpredictable purchases pour into a solid amount at the end of the month.

To prevent permanent and unforeseen expenses from hitting the budget, you need to improve financial literacy: to plan serious purchases correctly, learn to save, study and predict the market situation. But first, you can at least calculate how much you are actually spending. Work on cost analysis: see statistics in banking applications and financial accounting services.

We've provided basic tips to help you start saving. If you'd like to learn more, sign up for the free lecture “Finance and the City: How to Keep Your Money on a Latte”. It's free, but you need to register to have enough space.