All you have to do is listen to the news or check online to see if prices are rising, wages are not keeping up with inflation, and that we are facing real pressure on our finances. In fact, this is nothing new. Much of the last 15 years has been plagued by financial crises, and many have found ways to adapt and improve their economic resilience.
Technology can be very helpful in this regard as it gives us many new tools to manage our finances and reduce our spending.
Compare Prices
The Internet is one of the most powerful tools available to people today, as it provides access to nearly all information ever created. Inside you’ll find pricing data for almost any product or service you can think of.
That means you don’t have to physically visit multiple stores to see which one offers the cheapest iPhone or oven. Just load the price comparison service to see a list of all the different options.
Whether you’re buying new shoes, buying a TV, getting car insurance, getting a credit card, or upgrading your cell phone plan, you can save money with a price comparison tool.
Find Free Alternatives
Of course, saving money is great, but getting things for free is even better. Luckily, the internet makes it very easy to find freebies, samples, and free alternatives to paid services. If you’re a music fan, you can combine various free streaming packages to access a huge library of tracks and artists.
Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer, and YouTube Music all offer free access to much of their content.
The same goes for games. Many high-quality titles can be enjoyed for free thanks to the free-to-play model, which is very common in online and mobile games. Online casinos often make games available for free through free games that use play money chips, bonuses that can be credited to players as rewards for completing challenges, or as part of promotions.
You can also find free products and samples of many other items through sites like HotUKDeals and SlickDeals, with new freebies listed daily.
Monitor Spending
Sometimes the little things we spend money on quickly add up to much bigger (and scary) sums. If you’re not careful with how you spend your money, you’ll almost certainly end up spending more than you think.
In the past, you had to drive to the bank to get a printed statement and carefully review each transaction. Today this is no longer necessary as technology has made it much easier.
Some banks, especially Challenger Brands and fintech companies, offer tools that automatically break down each line of your statement and display easy-to-understand graphs and tables to help you see where you’re spending your money. .
If your bank doesn’t currently offer this, you can use third party tools. Please note that at this point it is important to use a reliable service as you will need access to your bank account. In most parts of Europe, open banking protocols allow you to do this in a secure way, but other parts of the world have different standards.