We all love to save money. Odds are you have heard of the more common ways to save money, like taking shorter showers and only using the dishwasher when it is full. But there are many other ways to save money as well, many of them often overlooked. All it takes to save some money is to make a few small changes to your daily habits. These habits will be so small, you won’t even notice the change. Below are 3 examples to get you started.

Lengthen The Time Between Haircuts

Do you get your haircut every 4 weeks? What would happen if you changed that to once every 5 weeks? Yes your hair would grow a little longer, but would you really notice it in the long run? If you get your haircut every 4 weeks, that is 13 haircuts a year (52 weeks divided by 4). If you simply take your haircuts to once every 5 weeks, you reduce the number of times to about 10 (52 weeks divided by 5). That is 3 fewer haircuts a year. At $50 a pop for women, you save $150. For men at $15 a pop, you save close to $50.

You can do this trick for a lot of things, even grocery shopping. While you might not be able to go an extra week all of the time, change your trip to one day later each week. For example, if you grocery shop on a Sunday, shop the following week on a Monday. The next week on Tuesday, etc. If you do this, you can knock out 5 or more trips to the grocery store. If you spend $100 per trip, that is a savings of $500 per year!

Make Your Own Seasonings

Food just isn’t the same without some seasonings. The easy choice is to pick up a packet of seasoning mix when you grocery shop. I bet most of you buy taco seasoning mix for example. But you can easily make your own for a lot less money by purchasing the individual spices you like and mixing them all up. Not only will you save money now doing this, but you will also be eating healthier as your seasoning won’t be loaded with all of the sodium and other junk.

You can do the same thing with pasta sauce as well. If you are unsure how to make your own, there are tons of recipes for various seasonings and sauces online. Just take 10 minutes to find the ones you use the most and start making them yourself.

Cook Larger Meals

How does cooking larger meals save you money? If you are anything like me, you have a hectic day here and there and end up not having the time to cook dinner or in some cases, don’t feel like cooking dinner. The solution is to just order a pizza. By cooking larger meals however, you can save yourself money because you will have leftovers. When the hectic day hits, instead of ordering out, all you have to do is throw the leftovers in the microwave or the stove for a little bit to heat up.

As with the tip above about homemade seasonings being healthier, your leftovers will be much healthier than a burger or pizza. The key to this tip though is that you actually eat the leftovers. If you don’t do this, you will be costing yourself more money – the cost of buying more food so you have leftovers in the first place, and then again when you pay to order fast food.

Final Thoughts

Overall, you can save money just by thinking outside the box. As I mentioned at the start, the changes I suggest shouldn’t disrupt or change your day to day lives. You won’t notice a haircut a week later and you won’t notice the seasoning you made tasting a little different. Where you will notice it though is in your wallet and bank account because you will have more money leftover at the end of the month.