Table of Contents
Dubai is highly regarded as one of the best cities in the world for locals and tourists, as it presents beautiful sights to enjoy, wonderful locations where people can stay, and numerous offices and businesses where people can earn a living. While being in Dubai is exciting and fun, you would need to prepare your budget if ever you are going to stay there as a tourist or live there as a local. Here are basic tips on how to save money in Dubai.
Plan Out a Monthly Budget
The most obvious tip in saving money in Dubai is planning out a monthly budget, which will help you control your purchases and how you spend your money each month. The things that should be prioritized are basic living expenses, like food, utilities, transportation, and house, and the other aspects of your daily living should come after those.
If you want, you can also follow the classic 50-30-20 rule in spending and saving money. In the said rule, you will have to spend 50% of your salary on necessities like the basic living expenses we have mentioned previously, and then you can spend 30% of the money you got on “wants,” such as buying a watch, eating in a fancy restaurant, watching a movie in the cinema, or going on a road trip. Finally, you should save 20% of your salary on your debit card for future purposes like saving for a new house, getting insurance, or just preparing for retirement.
You can plan out how to spend your money properly by creating a Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets file, which will help you monitor how much you’ve spent in a month and where you spent your money on. Make sure that you update the Excel or Sheets file every day so that you won’t forget about specific purchases.
Wait for Discounts
If you are planning to buy groceries and other basic necessities online, you should wait for online shops to give coupons or host sales where you can get discounts and save more money. Fortunately, online shops frequently host sales, so you don’t have to wait long for them to give a discounted price on the products that you like to buy.
You also have the option of collecting coupons, which most online shops give every day. These coupons can have a variety of effects on your order, like free shipping, cashback, or a simple discount on the items in your cart. Collect as many of the best discount coupons for Amazon UAE and other stores as you can, and don’t forget to use them once you are ready to purchase products in the store.
Purchase Groceries in Bulk
For those that want to save even more money besides using vouchers or coupons and waiting for sales in stores, it is recommended that you buy groceries in bulk, as it would enable you to purchase the products you like at a wholesale price.
The wholesale price of a specific item can be vastly different from its retail price, so buying it in bulk is great if you are sure that the product is high quality and you have already tested it. Of course, you don’t want to buy products in bulk if it is a new item or something that you haven’t tried before, so stick to the popular and proven products so that you won’t regret buying them in bulk.
In addition to buying in bulk, you should also plan when you would buy groceries. It is advisable that you should only purchase groceries twice a month so that you can prevent unnecessary purchases in the grocery store or online shops. Then, try to buy groceries in bulk twice a month while adding coupons to your order to get more discounts.
Try to Cook More Than Eating at Restaurants
It is a general opinion that buying ingredients and cooking your own food is much cheaper compared to eating at restaurants, and this opinion can be considered a fact in Dubai due to how high the prices of meals are in restaurants. Luckily, getting ingredients in local grocery stores in Dubai is relatively easy, so you don’t have to worry about not buying a specific ingredient needed for a recipe.
So, if you don’t know how to cook yet, it is relatively easy to learn how to do so, as you have YouTube and many cooking blogs that you can watch or read to know about different recipes. Of course, it would be ideal to cook simpler meals that use fewer ingredients, but once you get the hang of the activity, you can try preparing complex meals for you and your loved ones in Dubai.
Filter Discounts on Food Delivery Apps
On days when you don’t have the ingredients and the energy to cook your own meals, you will have to use a food delivery app that will ship the food you ordered directly to your household or apartment. The food on delivery apps, as well as the delivery fee within those apps, can be quite expensive, but you can choose to filter restaurants that have special offers like discounts on their dishes or a free delivery fee.
A lot of food delivery apps available for use in Dubai have filters where you can filter out restaurants that offer dishes at full prices and just see the ones that are currently providing discounts to customers. Try out these filters before deciding on what you should eat so that you can get better deals for your food. Also, don’t forget to add coupons or vouchers if ever the delivery app gives you one or more.
And, these are the best tips we can provide on how to save money in Dubai. As we have mentioned before, it is great if you can follow the 50-30-20 rule in order to properly budget your salary and your money overall. Saving money will allow you to prepare for your future in Dubai or in other places, and it will also give you the funds you will need during emergency situations.
