17 Subscriptions, Products, And Services That Thrifty People Recommend To Save A Buck
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell me what free — or at least very cheap — services, subscriptions, and products they use to save money. Because hey, things are expensive right now and we gotta help each other out! Here are some of the top suggestions (plus some suggestions pulled from Reddit):
1.Save on groceries by getting discounted food with the Flashfood app, currently available at certain grocery stores across the US and Canada.
"Flashfood app. Get close to expiration foods from your local grocery store for half price."
—anonymous
2.Or try Too Good To Go, which allows you to order a surprise bag full of food that bakeries and restaurants would otherwise throw out at the end of the day. Bags usually cost around $5 and give you a good amount of food for the price.
"The other thing I love about it is it makes me try new foods, because the bag usually has something that I wouldn't have ordered otherwise."
—anonymous
3.Use your local library's resources, potentially including a maker space, customized reading lists, and ebooks (shoutout to the Libby app!).
"Do a deep dive through your library’s website! Ours has events for kids every week, a 3D printer available, subscriptions to all sorts of online programs (databases, craft tutorials, Hoopla/Libby), and more. My personal favorite is our book box system. You can subscribe to get a 'book box' and customize how often, how many books, and the type of books. The librarians go and pick out books that match your criteria for you to read. Dopamine hit from subscription box surprises but also free!!"
—anonymous
4.Instead of a personal trainer (or even a gym membership), check out free workouts on YouTube (Netflix also has workout programs if you're already a subscriber).
"Use YouTube to get quality workout programs and instructional videos! I completely transformed my life using videos from certified trainers who make videos on YouTube. Yoga, pilates, meditation, kickboxing/shadow boxing, HIIT, strength training, and more. You don’t need a $150-a-month membership to some boutique studio or have a personal trainer (who got their certification online anyways). Some of the YouTube trainers even have calendars you can follow and programs for FREE!"
—anonymous
5.Or, try a free exercise meetup group IRL.
"Free exercise meetups, like the ones through noexcusemom.com. These can be great supplements to other exercise routines, and if you have kids, you can bring them with you. They play at the park while you work out and meet other people, too!"
—anonymous
6.If you're paying too much for streaming, pare down and try some of the free ad-supported streamers out there like Roku TV or Freevee.
"Free TV and movies: YouTube TV & Movies, Amazon's Freevee, Roku, Tubi, Pluto, and then library apps like Hoopla. There is so much free [content] (with ads) out there and most get updated with new material pretty frequently."
—anonymous
7.Mental healthcare is unfortunately still way too expensive in the US, so if you need support, check out some of the free or cheap services from the NAMI.
"The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers a large database in the US of resources that individuals can utilize to find free or cheap mental health services. They even have a locator to help you find services in your county! My county offers free support groups for different topics or mental health concerns that are completely free."
—anonymous
8.If you're able to use a credit card responsibly, the points can add up. If not, make sure you use free loyalty/perk programs!
"It isn’t free, but I highly recommend points-maxing your life. If you’re gonna buy gas anyway, sign up for the perks. At least you’ll get a few cents off; but at a few places (Speedway for one), if you go in the store and buy a $25 gas card, it’s 500 points plus whatever points you get for gas (double points if you pick the monthly option). At the end of the year, just for buying gas, I’ll have enough for a Xmas gift card."
9.I literally didn't know that anyone 18 or older can join the AARP and take advantage of some sweet, sweet discounts!
"Join the AARP! Anybody 18 or older can become a member, and anyone between the ages of 18–50 can use all the benefits of older members that are not restricted by law or contract, such as age insurance products. There’s all sorts of things on there: discounts on pretty much any aspect of travel, health, and fitness things like prescriptions, and discounts at all sorts of gyms, banking, investing, and retirement services, and even a free book of the month club."
"It’s not free, but it is cheap, and it does have all kinds of perks like you mentioned. It’s less than $20 for an annual membership."
10.Check your local community centers for places to let your young kids spend some energy so you don't have to pay for things like trampoline parks or other ticketed activity centers.
"I live in Seattle, so I cannot guarantee this is offered nationwide. If you have toddlers, there are lots of free toddler gyms/play lounges at community centers and churches. There are also free spray parks and wading pools from Memorial Day through Labor Day all around the city."
11.In lieu of private music lessons, try starting with YouTube tutorials first, and then graduate to lessons once you have the fundamentals down.
"Free music tutorials/lessons on YouTube! In particular, there are so many ukulele videos out there. These can be a good stepping stone before investing in private lessons, but there is so much content out there that you can get!"
—anonymous
12.If you're a teacher or a parent, try code.org for free resources to help kids learn to code.
"Code.org is a website dedicated to making coding skills more accessible for children in communities that do not have the funds or trained educators to have this kind of curriculum. Teachers can sign up for an account for free and be given an entire curriculum for students all the way up to AP high school! I utilized it for students to teach them web design, game design, AI models, and important concepts about technology in society. They even have a programming curriculum for kindergarten! They make detailed guides for educators or parents to be able to assist their children with the curriculum. It also tracks your child’s growth and ongoing project completion."
—anonymous
13.If you create digital art or do photography and you're looking for a free Photoshop alternative, you can try Krita or Photopea. Gimp is another popular option.
"Krita is a digital drawing program; it’s like a free version of Photoshop and fairly user-friendly."
—anonymous
14.If you need new shoes, go to a store that offers gait analysis. Much like proper bra fitting, proper shoe fitting is super important for comfort. And if you buy a high-quality, well-fitting shoe, it'll likely save you money over the long run compared to cheap, uncomfortable shoes that wear out fast.
"If you have a running store or other shoe shop in your area that offers gait analysis, stop in and have them fit you for shoes! There are so many factors that go into selecting the right footwear, more than most people think. As someone who works in a running store, you would not believe the amount of people I see who are wearing the wrong size/support type and then wondering why they're in pain constantly. Your feet are the foundation of your body. Take care of them, and the rest will improve. Even if you do not purchase shoes from them (side note: if they're a small business, I would highly encourage that you support them by purchasing from them), at the very least you know what you should be looking for."
—anonymous
15.If you're a college student — or the parent of one — you know that textbooks are unreasonably expensive. Here are some options.
"Archive.org is free and has a lot of academic books to download and even more that you can 'borrow' by signing up for the site. Scribd involves a lot of sifting through useless chaff, but you can download for free if you're willing to upload in exchange. I've been posting my huge collection of small appliance manuals and recipes and downloading books I need for my dissertation because the pathetic libraries (academic and public) in my area are useless. Why does a new commentary on Plutarch cost $430? No textbook — electronic or hard copy — should cost so much. These sites have saved me thousands of dollars. Hopefully you'll find them [as] budget-friendly as I have."
—anonymous
16.If you haven't gotten into your local "buy nothing" group yet, you can always check freecycle.org.
"It's people giving away stuff they don't need/want anymore that they can't/don't care enough to sell."
17.And finally, if you need to ship some stuff, get free boxes from the Postal Service instead of buying them from a store.
