Two Simple Money Habits Everyone Should Use Now — and They Take Just 5 Minutes

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Two Simple Money Habits Everyone Should Use Now — and They Take Just 5 Minutes By: Marc Guberti Marc Guberti Marc Guberti is a personal finance writer who hosts Breakthrough Success, a podcast where he teaches listeners how to grow their businesses and achieve personal transformations. Has also written: What Warren Buffett’s Grocery List Teaches About Spending Smarter The 5-Minute Habit That Could Save You Thousands 9 Everyday Purchases That Are Quietly Draining Your Savings 7 Simple Money Habits That Can Strengthen Your Retirement Over Time These 3 Overlooked Subscription Fees Can Cost You Hundreds Every Year See full bio Published: Feb 19, 2026 4 min read Getty Images Implementing simple financial habits now can mean saving big down the road. Often, those small moves take just a few minutes. While these moves won’t help you build long-term wealth as effectively as other methods — such as investing in the stock market — they may be able to help you build up an emergency fund or use a few extra dollars for debt payments each month. Here are two money habits you can use to earn a little extra cash that you can put towards both long- and short- term goals, from vacation to buying a home to retiring. Must ReadExperts are Bullish on Gold — Here's How to Get InRetirees: How a Small Gold Allocation Can Soften Losses When the Stock Market WobblesWarren Buffett on Market Volatility — and 3 Ways You Can Take Advantage 1. Buy discounted gift cards If you’re going out to eat, buying a new pair of shoes or seeing a movie, you’d probably like to pay less than the advertised price. With discounted gift cards, you can. Sites like CardCash, wholesale retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club and more often sell gift cards for less money than is on the gift card itself. For example, at Costco at the time of writing, members can buy a pack of four $25 Domino’s gift cards ($100 total) for $69.99, a $50 gift card to Cinemark Theaters for $39.99 and two $50 gift cards to Dave & Busters ($100 total) for $79.99.

Explore Remedy Meds: Medically supervised GLP-1 weight loss with unlimited clinician access You can also filter gift cards by categories to ensure the right ones appear for your next purchase. Some discount gift card sites also have a section where you can see gift cards that are discounted by a certain amount, such as 10% to 20% of their value. You won’t save a life-changing amount of money with one discounted gift card, but the savings can add up over time, especially if you’re using them to make purchases you’d have to make otherwise. The key is to only buy a discounted gift card if you regularly do business with the company. Buying a discounted gift card for a fast food restaurant chain that you never visit won’t do much good. Make sure you truly need what the card can provide instead of buying it just for the sake of scoring a deal. Need Cash? Check out Credible's personal loan options 2. Do a monthly subscription audit Another way to save money that should take just a few minutes is to conduct an audit to ensure you aren’t wasting money on unnecessary subscriptions, like for a streaming platform you never watch. Make it a habit once a month to look at your credit card statement for subscriptions that you forgot about. Reviewing your credit card statements can also make you question the value of subscriptions that you occasionally use and look for a more affordable alternative. For instance, maybe you pay for the premium subscription for a food delivery app when you could downgrade to the free version and still get many of the services you need. Looking for a long-lost friend or family member? Check out BeenVerified and start researching Must ReadExperts are Bullish on Gold — Here's How to Get InRetirees: How a Small Gold Allocation Can Soften Losses When the Stock Market WobblesWarren Buffett on Market Volatility — and 3 Ways You Can Take Advantage