One of my biggest things is about efficiency. In everything I do I like to be as efficient as possible. We all like to get the most out of our money, but even when I’m playing video games I like using strategies that accomplish my goals as quickly as possible. That being said, I’m just going to toss out some basic life tips that everybody should know when going about their day-to-day lives. These tips are pretty simple and can save you both time and money without making your life more complex in the meantime.

We’ve all seen on a lot of sites “Ways to save money quick” and the obvious propaganda stuff. There are useful website addons (Adblock is probably the biggest one), and a few of them are actually pretty neat. I’ve heard ‘Honey’ is an addon that can save you a lot of money from multiple sources, but I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure.

Whenever I order anything online, I always google “X Site coupon codes”. Most sites you can order online from will have coupon codes that will save you money, and a lot of the time you can simply look up a code that works that can save you around ten percent. Granted, if you’re only buying one thing that 10% may not be a whole lot, but if you’re buying all your semester textbooks off of Thriftbooks, for example, it can save you a good twenty bucks. Always take a minute or two to at least look it up. You won’t always find a code that works, but especially if you’re ordering a good amount of things, it can save you a ton of money.

If you don’t have time to read something important, there are free websites that can narrate it for you! ttsreader.com is the one I use for when I need to read a short story, online speech, or whatever the case may be. I can listen do it while doing other things, so I don’t have to sit there and read it worrying about all the things I need to do without having time. Keep in mind that this is an automatically generated program, so it won’t sound quite like a person reading it to you, but it’s still pretty neat, and you can use it for everything! Heck, you can copy paste my blog into it and have it read to you there! Again, though, it doesn’t sound quite right, so use it sparingly.

And the last tip for the day is regarding driving and gas mileage. As far as I know, this is pretty common knowledge, but regarding how expensive gas is these days, it’s super important to get as far as you can with it. So, number one thing is to pace yourself. Never slam on the gas or the brake. When you ease into a stop, it is a lot better than slowing down dramatically once you get to the red light. At the same time, don’t try to accelerate as quickly as possible when it does turn green, because it burns a lot of gas. So, whether you want to be going faster or slower, pace yourself. Change your speed as gradually as possible. I’ve also been told that buying gas at the coolest part of the day will get you more volume per dollar (since like most liquids gas expands in heat), but this actually isn’t true. Well, technically it is true, but the effect is negligible simply because the gas is stored underground where the temperature change is almost nonexistent. So, don’t plan your fuel-ups based on what time of day it is. It doesn’t matter.