Easy Money Saving Tips for Adjuncts

When I wrote the book Happy Professor two years ago, I was living in a studio apartment with my husband, who drove a beat up car and was interning with the company he now works for, while I drove to college campuses all over Central Florida to teach as an adjunct, only having dabbled in online teaching.

Things have changed a lot in two years. I make good money as an online adjunct, we have ‘real’ jobs, a house, a new car, and we don’t have to pinch pennies like we used to.

But old habits die hard.

Saving money is kind a thrill for me, so during the last 2 years I’ve discovered even more secrets to saving money when on a tight (or not so tight) budget, without feeling constrained, which I think is key.

Here they are:

• Don’t shop at expensive grocery stores

It took me way too long to figure this out. How do you save money on food when you have to eat, but have an aversion to coupons? I’ve tried the coupon thing, but generally when I get them in the mail, they go directly in the trash. However, I recently realized I could easily shop at less expensive grocery stores. I started with Publix years ago, then discovered Target, then Trader Joe’s, and now Aldi. Just from swapping my weekly Target runs for weekly Aldi runs, I’ve started saving $200 each month on groceries, and all it costs me is an extra 20 minute round trip each week, which I think my efficiency-obsessed brain can handle.

• Eat out minimally

My husband and I have stopped going out to eat when we’re together, since it’s just as easy to make sandwiches and pack trail mix for the two of us (which has saved us another $200 a month!). We try to save our eating out budget for when friends ask to meet for coffee or lunch. Even then, I try to limit each outing to under $10.

• Take care of your own personal grooming/hygiene needs

I don’t need expensive haircuts, manicures, or pedicures. Supercuts is perfectly acceptable for the uncomplicated haircut I’ve had my entire life- long and straight, which I curl for that beachy look from time to time, and I can give myself a manicure and/or pedicure at home when needed. As for my husband, who would typically need two haircuts a month to maintain his buzz cut, we bought our own cheap clippers and I started cutting his hair about 3 years ago. At a minimum, we’ve saved $1000 on haircuts on his end over during that time.

• Buy used books

My husband and I each have a $100 budget to spend on any personal or fun things that month (I’ll admit, occasionally we do sometimes get up to $200 each). Since we spend most of that money on books, we opt for used books on Amazon for 1 cent. Of course, you still have to pay $3.99 for shipping, but likely, you’ve at least cut the original price in half, which is a huge win. For me the downside of this is that you’ve now introduced one more ‘thing’ to your home, and since I’m not big on clutter before I buy the book, I think of someone I know who would also like the book, and I pass it on to them afterward. Bonus: You made someone’s day.

• Go to the library

You can borrow (almost) as many books, audio books, and DVDs as you could possibly want for free! What’s not to love?

• Adjust the slippery slopes in your budget

Take notice of your own slippery slopes in your household budget. We’ve been going to the beach as a ‘free’ day-long weekend activity for years, without realizing that somehow we had started paying $10 for daily parking and $15 on food and snacks at a local Publix to prepare for our day. After realizing our beach days were now costing $25, we started packing our own snacks and sandwiches from Aldi (costing in the neighborhood of $6 total for the 2 of us), and we drive an extra 10 minutes to get free parking at the beach.

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You might look at these tips and think all the little changes are unnecessary or couldn’t possibly add up, but I see it as ‘budget maintenance,’ otherwise things are bound to slowly get a bit out of control without your realizing it. Not only has it helped to keep our finances in check, but because of these tweaks our monthly spending has decreased by $500.

Give it a shot! Try cutting back in some areas that you could adjust comfortably, and see what happens.

For more money saving tips, check out Happy Professor on Amazon.com.

Happy living and happy saving!