How to Save Uber Money on Uber?
Uber has developed as a go to method of getting around town. While mass transit works for many situations and provides an option that helps the environment, sometimes, you need to arrive precisely for an appointment, or you need to haul items that won’t fit on a bus.
Turning to Uber frequently though gets expensive. You can still use it though and save money while doing so.
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Use Uber Cash
Uber Cash is the first of these methods the Uber company provides.
It provides a method of obtaining a discount on every use of the car service.
You deposit a pre-set amount of $25 to $100 at a minimum. This earns you a discount of two, three, or five percent on every use of the ride sharing service.
You earn two percent of for depositing $25, the mid-range discount for a $50 deposit, and the five percent off for adding $100 or more. It’s a dependable discount that you set by your deposit.
How Best To Use It?
You already know that you will use the service. Here’s where budgeting helps you. If you don’t already have a budget, head over to Budgetry store in our Goalry mall, where you can learn how to create one for free. We also provide templates, so you can get started quickly.
You know how much money you spend each month on transportation. You deposit that much cash in your Uber Cash account. Since you already use Uber, you know how many times per month you use it.
Now, add to that how many times a month you use Uber Eats. Yep. The same Uber cash discount you get on your rides, you get on Uber Eats. Would you like a five percent discount on every meal you have delivered? Well, look at how many times you used Uber Eats last month and how much you spent. Now, deposit that much in you Uber Cash account.
Why Is This Terrific?
Now, not only did you create your budget, but you have Uber’s assistance in sticking to it. You can’t go over budget unless you actually add money to your Uber Cash account again. That helps you track your expenses.
Doing it this way also makes you stick to your budget in another key way. You cannot take money from your food budget or your transportation budget to spend on other items. Those Manolo Blahniks will just have to wait until next month.
So, this helps you stick to your budget and know that you have the funds for essential things like food and getting to work or meetings. It also helps you save five percent every month on two key items in your budget.
Now, that may not sound like much, but lets be totally honest here for a minute. That is five percent more money than you had last month, so you saved something on something you actually need. Also, that money adds up. Think about the crypto you bought on Coinbase. You know – ALGO or DAI. The former earns you five percent interest per month, the latter earns you two percent per month on your holdings of that crypto coin. Talk about an incentive to buy and hold! I earn the DAI rate of two percent on my high interest savings account from Varo Bank, but you try to find an interest rate like that, and you quickly find what a gift that is!
Let's do a little math
I’ll reveal that I eat out (delivered in) once per week – always on Saturday, always tied to a football game half-time during fall. The gridiron and good pizza both have my heart. I know that I will spend $20 to $25 each week on that one meal. It has to taste great and get here hot. It also needs to last for two meals because I watch four or five football games on Saturday. Point well made – I need to budget $125 per month during the fall and winter months. (Playoffs people. You know they last until January for the NCAA and February for the NFL, right?) Of course, when the XFL starts back, I will need to re-add spring dining to my budget, but that all hinges on RedBird Capital.
Since I walk and ride by mountain bike nearly everywhere, I rarely use Uber. For purposes of this article, let’s stick in one shopping trip that requires a vehicle, so another $20.
I’ll deposit $145 to UberCash. That means I get a total discount of $7.25. It will show up a little at a time as the money gets used. Over a period of 12 months, that amounts to $87. That’s nearly ten percent of the cost of those gorgeous MB’s.
See how budgeting and sticking to it can help you? When you save money on all of the required things, you have extra money left over for the things you want. Even extravagant items can be yours without them needing to go on clearance sale.
How To Save Even More Money On Uber
Always, and I mean always, choose the cheapest Uber. The app provides you a choice between three levels of Uber. Unless you are taking your significant other to prom and avoiding having to borrow your parents’ car, you take the cheapest Uber. You typically get to ride for less than $10 this way.
Keep a few bucks out of the Uber Cash app in your bank account for transportation. This lets you compare rates with Lyft. Sometimes, you need to take Lyft because Uber got slammed and the rates just stop being worth it. That’s when Lyft can get you there for cheaper and you go with their competitor.
Use Uber Pool. This option finds multiple riders traveling in the same direction. You share an Uber as if you shared a cab. This saves you and every rider in the vehicle 30 percent. Yep. You read that right. Your Uber costs you one-third less if you split it with another rider.
You won’t get this discount if you have two people in your party and only one of you uses the app. You can stand a few feet away from each other and both request an Uber though. Agree to the Uber Pool when it gets offered and voila, the two of you save 30 percent each. You sweet soul, you just helped your friend save money, too, and stick to her or his budget. You can both get the MB shoes sooner. Twinning.
Lyft has its own version of this called Lyft Shared. That means you can try their service if Uber gets slammed and the rates go sky-high. You cannot count on the luck of landing an Uber Pool ride every time, so don’t reduce your budget. Keep it the same and enjoy the savings. You also cannot Uber Pool your food. Oh well.
Back to the math…
That one trip I make per month isn’t on a schedule, so Uber Pool would work. Instead of $20, I land an Uber Pool and save 30 percent, which equals $6 each month. That equals $72 per year. Now, you’re almost 20 percent there to the cute designer shoes and you did not sacrifice anything. You did not spend differently, you just spent better. You used coupons and discounts.
And what if you use most of the monthly budget for rides? That 30 percent applied to your Uber Cash of $145 means you saved $43.50 each month by riding an Uber Pool every time. In one year, that equals $522. Put that with the five percent and you have nearly $600. You get to buy the MB’s!
Leave your first month’s savings in the Uber Cash. All of the Uber Cash rolls over to the next month forever. It never expires, so in the second month, you only need to deposit part of your transportation and food budget because part of it rolled over from the prior month’s savings.
The rest of the money you put in your savings account. You’re nearly there and you only have a little more saving to do. Head over to Cashry and Wealthry to find out how to do that. While you are there, sign up for a Goalry member key. This costs you nothing.
We give away the membership because we want everyone to read these finance articles and learn how to better manage their money. You can afford the things you really want to own. You simply budget, stick to it, use money saving options like coupons and discounts, and save the extra money in a high-yield saving account. (BTW, if you start banking with my bank, you too, can earn the two percent on all of your savings account. On the $609 savings, that’s $12.18.) At the end of the year, you can take yourself shopping for whatever treat you want, and you won’t pay any interest. You won’t need to use a credit card. You won’t hurt your budget or have to do without some necessity. You can fund the life of your dreams by working, budgeting, using coupons, saving, and adhering to smart financial planning.