As a recent immigrant and not yet independently wealthy, I've always practicing being somewhat frugal. I consider the cost of EVERYTHING.

As a bit of cynic, especially when it comes to material possessions, I tend to be quite skeptical of the high consumption "American Dream" lifestyle, so I try to remove myself from as much of this as possible.

I also worked on finding ways to save money on our daily spend. I was definitely not willing to compromise on ordering what I wanted when I went to a restaurant. But I was willing to decrease the number of times we went. I wasn’t willing to pinch pennies on absolutely everything. But I was willing to make some healthy frugal spending habits that would help me save money in the long term.

When I went looking with this intention, I found some relatively easy substitutions that helped create some automatic breathing room between my family’s income and expenses. I’m going to share them with you today because, with the price of everything going up and with inflation rampant, you might just need them! Plus, who wouldn’t want to make their life just a little easier and save some of their hard-earned money?

Here are 10 of my favorite ways to save money as a busy professional. They may require some upfront work and maybe a difficult decision. But they generally become automatic savings going forward.

1. Intermittent Fasting

I'm of the view that people largely eat too much. There is frankly no need to eat 3 square meals a day and you waste a ton of money doing so. As Gordon Gekko pronounced: "Lunch is for Wimps".

This doesn't constitute medical advice, I'm just saying what works for me. I never eat breakfast and frankly I don't really enjoy eating. During lockdown, I thought I'd commit to eating one meal a day. It took a couple of weeks to get comfortable with it, but after that I don't really think I can go back to eating multiple meals. I eat one meal in the evening during the week and one during mid afternoon on weekends or vacation. I might have some fruit or granola as a snack in the afternoon, but that is it.

I lost weight, felt better and saved a lot of money. You can eat for well under $5 a day eating just one simple meal.

Eat simple meals. Make a salad with some mixed greens, tomatoes, a little dressing, a protein such as tuna and some bread for a couple of bucks. People have an obsession with overly complicated (especially in restuarants), over produced dishes. I take a reductionist approach and try to abstract meals into their simplest components. What is it I actually like about the ingredients, can I taste each ingredient. Sauces, rich dressings pollute your palette and rob you of the true taste of the underlying food. Get rid of them.

Monthly bill $350/month -> $90/month. Savings of $3,120/year.

2. Cut Cable

Cable is a big fixed expense, and most of the time, I never used it. In fact I don't really understand why people pay for it: low quality shows, excessive advertising, repetative content, random noise. Pure garbage. Consider cutting cable and utilizing streaming services and a digital antenna instead. You can pick and choose streaming services and since they don't require commitments, you can just pay to watch the shows you're interest in for a short time and then quit if the service doesn't produce any better content. If you use Amazon Prime, they throw their streaming service into the price.

Cost analysis: Cable + internet = $150/month or $1,800/year; Streaming + internet ($30 + $57) = $87/month or $1,140/year; Savings = $660/year.

3. Change Phone Service Providers

Big service providers like AT&T and Verizon have zero interest in offering you value for money and don't. Ask yourself why do you pay $100 for cell service? There is no reason. Lower-cost alternative carriers like Cricket or Mint do the same job for a fraction of the price. As virtual operators (MNVOs), they piggyback on main the networks by bulk buying capacity and reselling it to consumers. The difference in cost can be significant, and often, the service is no different, especially in urban metropolitan areas. The big companies spread FUD by suggesting you get lower priority service and don't get perks like roaming, but in practice unless you live in a very rural area, you'll never notice the difference. It’s worth it to ask around and see who is offering the best rates and who has a good reputation for reliable service in the area. I use Mint: unlimited service with 10GB 5G data for $22 a month (including taxes) and free hotspot. Try find an AT&T package that's remotely comparable (hint you won't).

Monthly bill $140/month -> $22/month. Savings of $1,416/year.

4. Shop Insurance Once a Year

It is important to shop around for these every year or so to make sure you still have the best rates (this usually takes the equivalent of an evening’s worth of research). Sometimes I find a better deal, sometimes I don't. But it’s always worth it to look around since this is a large fixed monthly cost. Sites like thezebra.com make it easy to get multiple quotes at one time.

5. Use Public Transport

I'm a big proponent of public transport. Trains (and to a lesser extent busses) are amazing vehicles and I find are far more comfortable than the cramped confines of a car. Maybe you don't get somewhere quite so fast, but the cost savings can be huge if it's an option for you.

Using public transport and coupled with living in a city where I can walk, I spend about $60 a month on transport costs. Try running a car for that. With gas costs and insurance and other ongoing costs, I bet your car costs are many multiples of this.

If you must have a car, buy used and try to have all your cars paid-off as this will free up debt and ongoing costs associated with new and leased cars.

6. Live in a Smaller House/Apartment Than You Can Afford

Another great way to save money is simply not to stretch ALL the way to the limits of the budget when buying a house.

You might also consider renting. Owning a home is extremely costly and you have to ask if it's really worth it. If your reasons for owning a home are just parroting back what the mortgage industry tells everyone to make them think owning a home is some kind of life goal, then you probably don't have strong reasons for doing so.

7. Skip restaurants

I realized one day that I've never eaten an enjoyable or memorable meal in a restaurant, no matter the type of cuisine nor the price. So I stopped wasting my time and money eating in sit down restaurants. What is the point of spending a premium to be inconvenienced by having to travel out of your way to eat food in a room full of strangers where no matter how attentive the server is the whole rigmarole is grossly inefficient and slow. Prepared food has it's place, but why eat a salad in some restuarant when you can go to a salad bar and have them freshly prepare a salad in front of you in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost with better ingredients?

Do you have any favorite frugal hacks? Have they made your life better? How much do you think you saved per year once you implemented them?