Martin Grosz
06/18/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Services
Updated 07/15/2021 1:13 AM
Inflation does not give respite.
The
accounts no longer close
.
It is necessary to
reduce expenses
, but how?
Before falling into drastic cuts, there are
practical steps
families can take to
cut
expenses for their home, car, utilities, and everyday purchases
by
several thousand dollars
.
They are not magic solutions.
They require
spending time
planning or otherwise doing certain consumptions.
Or they require
investing a little money
.
But they achieve the goal of
reducing expenses
immediately.
Here you will find a guide with
10
savings
tactics
with everything you need for the reader to analyze if they are within your reach and how much they could pay you.
Select the items and calculate your savings
-
daily
shopping
-
car
expenses
-
bills
of the month
-
occasional
expenses
You could
save $ 5,500
1. To the super, always with a promo
A good way to start saving is to end
improvised
grocery shopping
, at any time and at any nearby or on-the-go store.
Today each person usually has one or more bank and benefit cards, and almost all of them give discounts of
15% to 30%
in chains and specific days.
Taking advantage of all those promos can make a difference.
With 365 cards, for example, you get up to
20%
every week
in
Jumbo
(Monday and Wednesday) and in
Disco
(Tuesday and Thursday);
and
15%
in
Vea
(Monday and Thursday).
For its part, each
bank and card
has its proposals to save between 15 and 30%.
Featured promotions to buy at the supermarket with a card
2. Take advantage of agreed prices
In recent months
strengthened
the
official agreements
so that there meats, fruits and vegetables to " reasonable
prices" in supermarkets and fairs.
Finding the products can be difficult.
But, if it is achieved, you have access to prices 30%, 40% and
up to 60% lower
than the usual ones.
You can target three key programs:
-
Prices Care
.
Today the agreement has several "
bargains
", such as
sachet
milk
at
$ 52.95
and long life at $ 61.60, noodles at $ 44.40 (500 g) and tomatoes at $ 70 per kilo.
Others very cheap, on this note.
And the entire list, here.
-
Agreement of the meat
.
Includes common mince at $ 265 per kilo,
roast at $ 359
and other 9 beef cuts.
It applies from
Monday to Friday
in large supermarket chains, and every day in the Central Market.
More information here.
-
Itinerant fairs in Buenos Aires
.
They sell products at agreed low prices (the list here), such as a kilo of potatoes or onions at $ 24,
bread at $ 140
and cream cheese at $ 410. In addition,
Banco Ciudad
customers
have 20% of sale on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
v1.7 0421
City fairs
Now, those that worked until late, limit the hours until 7:00 p.m.
Tap to explore the data
Source:
GCBA
Infographic:
Clarín
Clarín
calculated the costs of a
typical purchase
: roast (2 kg), minced meat (1 kg), cream cheese (1 kg), tomato (2 kg), apple (1 kg), 6 long-life milks, yerba (1 kg ), rice (1 kg) and noodles (1 kg).
If at usual prices it is worth
$ 4,400
,
only with the "popular" would it drop to
$ 2,400
.
"Many times the agreed products are not in the supermarkets, due to lack of stock or slow replenishment. As they run out quickly, there are
more chances
of finding them
in the morning,
"
Claudia Collado, president of the Adelco consumer association
, commented to
Clarín
.
"The city's fairs, or those in the provinces, are a
very good option
. They have high-quality products at generally convenient prices," he added.
3. “Stock up” in wholesalers
The old practice of "filling the pantry" by buying consumer products in
advance
,
before they become more expensive
, also helps lower costs.
Especially if they are bought from wholesalers and taking advantage of
their best offers
.
"It can be a good option. What you should know is that the best prices are obtained when buying
in quantity
and that many products are only sold
by the bulk,
" said Collado, from Adelco.
And he added that the greatest benefit arises from bringing
basic foods such
as flour, noodles, rice and oil;
canned
and canned;
and
cleaning
and personal hygiene products.
As an example,
Clarín
quoted a typical "stockeo" purchase: 5 kilos of
rice
, 12 packages of noodles, 12 of
sweet
cookies
, tomato puree (12 boxes), soda (6 bottles) and disinfectant (12 sprays).
At a retailer, without promos, it cost $ 5,400.
And at a wholesaler, with offers per package, $ 3,900: a saving of
$ 1,500
or
28%
.
When what is purchased is consumed, in addition, much will have already been remarked.
What else can you do to save on everyday purchases?
Get refunds
: downloading an app that returns part of the money spent on the supermarket in cash (see more here).
Use the ANSES Benefit
: for retirees and pensioners, it is a 10% discount on various items (see more here).
You could
save from $ 2,000
4. Gasoline, always with a promo
A year ago, in Capital, you could still load super gasoline at
$ 53.34
per liter: now it costs at least
$ 90.40
.
The premium jumped from $ 61.54 to
$ 104.80
in the same period.
A rise of
70%
.
Can the impact be mitigated?
Yes. There are multiple promos that can be used throughout the month to always pay
5% to 30% less
.
To take advantage of them, the driver must define
when, where and how much to
charge according to the discounts he can access.
And ask the beach man for the right amount of liters to exhaust the monthly or weekly limit of each promo,
without going overboard
.
Each oil company
has its benefits.
YPF, for example, offers whoever pays with its app a
10%
discount on super gasoline on Wednesdays and Sundays (with a cap of
$ 250 per week
);
and 10% in gasoline or premium diesel every day, with the same limit.
The potential savings is
$ 1,250 per month
.
With Clarin 365 cards are accessible
every day
to a
5%
in gasoline and diesel Axion Energy, with a potential savings of
$ 600 per month
.
And several
banks
also give good discounts:
Featured fuel discounts with bank cards
5. Convert the car to CNG
To lower fuel costs even further, a booming investment is one that allows the family car to start using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
Today a cubic meter (m3) of CNG is obtained in Capital at
$ 33
and yields more than a liter of gasoline, for which at least
$ 90.40
is paid
.
For a large car, which consumes 10 liters of supermarkets per 100 kilometers, today running on gas represents a
saving of more
than
$ 6 per kilometer
.
So, for those who load
150 liters per month
(three tanks), in Capital, the expense can suddenly drop from
$ 13,600
to less than
$ 4,400
.
About
$ 9,200
in savings.
The
projected
annual saving
is
$ 91,800
when traveling
15 thousand kilometers
;
$ 122,400 doubled;
and of $ 183,400 with 30 thousand kilometers.
"A conversion costs
$ 70 thousand to $ 80 thousand
, with tanks of 40 to 60 liters. And it can be paid with Now 12 in installments of $ 8 thousand, or with Now 18 in
installments of $ 5,000
or $ 6 thousand",
Horacio Magrath, president of the Chamber of Complete Gas Equipment Producers (CAPEC),
told
Clarín
.
"The investment recovers quickly. With these values," he added, "even those who do 60 or 70 kilometers per day are convenient for them,
the fees are paid
by savings
alone
."
As points against, it will be necessary to resign oneself to having less space in the trunk and going up to three times as often to load fuel, due to the
less autonomy
.
6. Ride a motorcycle instead of a car
Another investment that "pays for itself" for saving on gasoline is to start making daily trips by
motorcycle
, leaving the car only for specific occasions, such as rainy days and family outings.
While a car consumes
7 to 10 liters
of gasoline per
100 kilometers
, the most basic motorcycles burn
1.5 to 2.2 liters
in the same distance.
With the super at $ 90.40 per liter in Capital, today it is possible to move by motorcycle for less than
$ 2 per km
, and even at
$ 1.35 per km
.
It is
up to
85% cheaper
than by car.
The two-wheel rollover means, for those who have a car and load
100 liters a month
(two tanks), start saving more than
$ 7 thousand a month
.
How much do the cheapest motorcycles cost?
Of the main brands -Zanella, Corven, Motomel, Gilera, Keller, Mondial- models 0 km of
110 cc are obtained
between $ 80 thousand and
$ 100 thousand
.
Or less for cash.
And there are options to finance them with
subsidized rates
in
monthly
installments
of
$ 5,000
, $ 6,000 or $ 7,000,
similar to or less
than gasoline savings:
Now 12 and Now 18
.
With credit cards from all banks, for models up to
$ 250,000
.
Payments can have an interest of up to 13.9% at 12 months and up to 20.8% at
18 months
.
More information here.
City Bank Plan
.
With plastics from that bank, access to 12, 24 and up to
36 quotas
in affiliated stores, with a nominal annual rate (TNA) of 39%.
More information here.
Official plan "My Moto"
.
It is from Banco Nación.
With limited quotas that are renewed each month, it lends up to
$ 250,000
to be repaid in
48 installments
(4 years), with a TNA of 28.5% to 37.5%.
More information here.
What else can you do to lower your car expenses?
Fuel
: reduce consumption by tuning the car and using
efficient driving
habits
(see more here).
Also use
apps
that help you charge cheaper and allow you to control spending (see more here).
Parking
: download apps that help you find
the cheapest garage in
each area (see more here).
You could
save $ 22,000
7. Electricity: a leap in efficiency
More than half of the
annual
electricity consumption
of a typical home in the AMBA is made with
stoves
and
air conditioners
(24%), the
refrigerator
(21%) and
lamps
(11%), according to a study by the University of San Martín ( UNSAM).
If these devices are old or use a lot of energy, changing them for the most efficient ones will
immediately lower
the electricity bills.
At this time, for an average Buenos Aires home, using
two
common electric
stoves
12 hours a day adds
$ 2,140
to the monthly bill.
But, if you change them for two Inverter hot-cold airs, you spend
$ 1,200 less
.
If the family lights 6 light bulbs 8 hours a day, going from
halogen
to
LED
will save another
$ 500
a month.
And change a common refrigerator for an Inverter,
$ 220 more
, as calculated by
Clarín
with data from the ENRE.
"The
refrigerator
is usually the electrical equipment that consumes the most in the home. If it is
more than 10 years old
, it is already suggested to change it," explained Salvador Gil, director of the Energy Engineering program at UNSAM.
Although the savings may sometimes seem small compared to the necessary investment, you have to look at it in the
long term
.
At UNSAM they calculated that buying efficient airs instead of electric stoves for heating will allow a typical AMBA home to
save $ 2,500
in
15 years
.
And in Mar del Plata, with colder,
5,800 dollars
.
How to know, when buying, which devices save the most?
They are the ones with an
A
on their
efficiency label.
The web Toptenargentina.org, meanwhile, reveals what airs, refrigerators and washing machines today are more efficient.
8. Prepaid, in "low cost" mode
Prepaid increased
10%
in December,
3.5%
in March and another
10%
between April and May.
If the fees became unpayable, there are different ways to reduce them.
The most common ways are to "go down" to low-cost schemes:
-A more basic plan
.
With a smaller card, no top sanatoriums, and
fewer reimbursements
, but no extra charges for each care.
For a typical family the fee can thus be lowered by
$ 20,000 or more
.
-A plan with copays
.
The family fee is reduced between
10% and 25%
: for example, from $ 20,900 to $ 17,100.
But for each consultation, study or outpatient practice you will have to pay extras that usually go from
$ 300 to $ 700
.
-A partial plan
.
The prepaid will only cover a part of the basic package of benefits (PMO): for example, hospitalizations.
Or just care in offices, studies and treatments.
For the rest a social work will be used.
In this way you pay up to
70% less
.
What else can be done to lower spending bills each month?
Electricity and gas
: invest in solar water heaters, double-glazed windows and insulators (see more here).
Expenses
: get more involved and propose measures to lower them (see more here).
The cell phone
: review the plan and adjust settings so that the balance and data last longer (see more here).
You could
save $ 2,000
9. Delivery, with a discount
Many got used to ordering food at home from the cell phone through delivery "super apps", such as Orders Now and
Rappi
.
What not everyone knows is that, with a
minimal checkup
, they could pay a
lot less
for the dishes.
To always spend the minimum, and save up to $ 1,000 at a time, before each order you have to verify two key questions:
-Is there a
discount
for
direct contact?
In many places, those who order
by WhatsApp
or by phone -without an app- access exclusive offers and even a "parallel menu" up to
30%
cheaper
.
Other times, however, the best price is obtained per app.
-Is there a
discount
in the app today with my
cards?
On specific days, when paying with a certain plastic (instead of doing it with another or in cash) there are discounts of
up to 35%
.
Of course, these promos have
daily and monthly caps
that must be known.
Bank cards with discounts in delivery apps
10. The bank: get money, always free
Always going to the
nearest
ATM to withdraw money
, regardless of which bank and network it belongs to, can be very comfortable.
But also
very expensive
.
The benefit of using
any ATM free of charge
, granted to all users in 2020,
does not go any further
.
It was voided in April.
It continues only for the salary accounts and those of retirement, pensions and social plans.
For the rest, according to data from the Central Bank, the
main banks in
the country are charging:
For each withdrawal at an ATM from
another bank,
but from the
same network
(Banelco or Link): between $ 50 and
$ 114
, depending on the entity.
For each withdrawal at an ATM from
another bank
and from a
different network
: between $ 57 and
$ 143
, depending on the entity.
If there are 2 or 3 debit cards in the family and their holders go to any ATM often, all this can result in an expense of $ 300, $ 600 or
even $ 1,000 per month
.
How to avoid it?
Always going to a branch of the
same bank
where the savings
bank
is.
Those operations are always free.
¿Cómo evitar, a su vez, hacer largas colas y recibir la plata en puros billetes de $ 100 y $ 200? La clave es ir sólo en los días y horarios que se detallan en esta nota.
De yapa: para socios 365, aprovechar Bimo
Quienes tienen la tarjeta 365 pueden aprovechar mejor los beneficios si instalan en su celular la billetera móvil Bimo, una app gratuita disponible en Google Play (bajar acá) y App Store (bajar acá).
En Bimo el suscriptor 365 puede cargar sus tarjetas de débito y de crédito. Así, para pagar en los comercios ya no deberá entregar ningún plástico.
Bastará con escanear un código QR para que el sistema avise qué descuentos hay ese día en ese local con cada una de las tarjetas del cliente.
Ese "recomendador" ayuda a no perder ninguna chance de ahorrar. En segundos la compra queda hecha con la tarjeta elegida y con la rebaja 365 aplicada. Pagar con Bimo permite acceder a fuertes descuentos.
Oportunidades para pagar con Bimo
Los detalles de esas promos y de todo el resto se pueden consultar en la web 365.com.ar.
Créditos
TEXTOS / Martín Grosz
EDITORA / Laura Natale
DESARROLLO / Ornella Cicalello
PM & DISEÑO / Tea Alberti
INFOGRAFÍA / Vanina Sánchez
Fuentes: / Relevamiento Clarín | Clarín en base a ENRE y datos de mercado
EDITORES DE CONTENIDOS ORIGINALES / Héctor Gambini / Diana Baccaro