How To Save Money _ 25 Top Tips

12. Choose generic drugs instead of original ones

Health, as we have already repeated many times, is very important and should not be neglected. If you have serious problems, if you need to visit with specialist, the subject of saving must be left aside because, precisely, you must not neglect your organism or avoid being checked, for no reason. We are taking health as an example, however,  in case of small problems and therefore the purchase of medicines for simple treatments. We should not neglect health for the fear of spending too much money, we should continue to make routine visits and take care of ourselves.

To save on health we can consider the idea of buying generic drugs and of going to the doctor to have them prescribed, as often some of them cost much less and what you pay is only the price of medical ticket. Just to see a practical example, a box of Gaviscon Advance normally costs € 4.95, while going to the doctor and having it prescribed, we would only pay € 0.50. A saving higher than € 4. Many times we buy medicines without thinking that we could pay them less, simply by going to the doctor to get a recipe, which lasts six months (for “white” recipes) and allows us to save more. This, of course, applies to basic medicines, which everyone takes and do not refer to particularly serious diseases.

When the doctor prescribes specific medicines for a certain period and which are prescribed with a “pink” recipe, then we can think of buying generic drugs. It is usually the pharmacist himself who advises us the generic drug, to run the economy of drugs. The generic drug has the same effect of the branded one. The branded drug costs more simply because it is patented, it is a brand that has acquired fame and fame over the years. The active ingredients of the generic are the same of the branded drug.

Let’s consider Tylenol, which is the classic medicine we take when we have taken a flu, which contains paracetamol. When the patent of Tylenol registered by the pharmaceutical company that produced it expired, other pharmaceutical companies hurried to produce the same medicine. An equivalent of Tylenol is generic Paracetamol whose price is 20-30% lower than Tylenol.

The saving we have buying the generic drug instead of the brand-name one ranges from a minimum of around 7% to a maximum of over 40%, with an average of almost 23%. These data were calculated on some of the best selling drugs that we can find in the table below.

Italian source: www.equivalente.it

Consider buying all these medicines, but branded, because we do not believe in the effect of generic drugs or because this is what was recommended to us by the doctor, we would spend € 31.90. While if we decide to buy the same drugs but trusting the generics, then our expense will be € 25.66. Surely we will not save millions in this specific case, but doing the accounts well every time we buy a drug we will save 20-30%.

THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE ABOUT € 6.00 FOR EVERY MEDICAL EXPENSE.

13. Avoid gambling

Often to try our luck we risk losing our money. Scratch and win, Slot machines, lottery, Bingo and more, are all games of chance that push us more consumers to try to make ends meet by winning maybe millions of euros with which we could feel satisfied and seemingly happy. We know well that happiness is not given by material goods, as the lifestyle teaches us by minimalists, and above all that it is not so easy to obtain it. It would be nice if we were happy only with a lottery ticket. One thing is trying your luck every now and then, investing a couple of euros, another one is doing it every day. Sometimes it also happens to win and to have luck, we are happy with this and again retry the winnings, investing even more money but doing so we do not realize that instead of earning we are losing money.

It is found that no one gives anything to anyone and that behind every game there is a trick. No winnings will ever be high enough to allow a lifetime without working, perhaps on an island while drinking fruit cocktails from morning to night. In case we win a large sum of money we should ask how much money we actually spent before we get this payout, how much time has passed before we got it and especially if we really needed it. In fact, we did not win, we returned to have the money we had before or at most we had a small gain, but it is never the figure that is actually written on the winning ticket. To have money for a project, to live a fulfilling life, to get to have a pension fund, to work and save, to make sacrifices. But above all spending money on something utopian like a lottery ticket is not necessary as you do the shopping and from this thought we begin to return to the goal that is saving. So gambling is superfluous in our lives and creates psychological dependence. 

Let’s consider a common person who spends €2 every day for a scratch card or a lottery ticket.

Monthly this person will spend €60.

Instead of playing every day and risk losing more and more money we put aside those two euros in a piggy bank, we would get a lot of savings at the end of the year, only accumulating money that we would have otherwise thrown. If the daily spending was higher at the end of the month we would have spent unnecessarily much money with which we could have done more important things like paying for example a bill. We always remember the lifestyle we talked about at the beginning of this booklet.

Maybe not everyone play or try their luck every day, but this advice serves to reflect on what seems an entrance but that is actually a loss for our heritage. It can be more profitable to invest money in shares, in an apartment, a company, which, despite being a risk, are more likely to increase our pockets instead of making us throw money. Then of course it depends on how lucky you are, you have to say that rarely happens, but there are people who often win at this type of game. You really have to have a lot of luck but it is always better to save than to lose a lot of money, remember.

THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW TO SAVE FROM €60 UP PER MONTH.