4 saving hacks that'll help you recover from your holiday spending

If your bank balance is tapped out from the holidays, here are a few easy ways to save some extra money and start the new year off on the right financial foot.

Give your budget a tune-up

The start of a new year is a perfect time to take a look at your budget and see if there are any areas where you can cut down your spending.

For example, if you subscribe to multiple streaming services, canceling a few of them for a month or two could give your bank account a nice boost.

You might be able to shave some money off your grocery bills by trying out different stores in your neighborhood, since prices can vary a lot between grocery chains.

And make sure to always use a cash-back credit card or rewards app when you shop, so you’ll get a bit of money back on every purchase.

Price-check when you shop online

Since the pandemic hit, online shopping has seen big boom – and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon.

It can be tempting to do most of your online shopping on a site like Amazon that carries pretty much everything, but the convenience of sticking to a giant retailer will cost you.

Unless you comparison shop for every item in your cart, you could end up overspending by a lot.

If you want to save yourself the trouble of checking prices on multiple online storefronts, try using a free service called Capital One Shopping.

While you’re browsing on Amazon, Target and other big sites, Capital One Shopping will instantly search other online retailers to see whether a better price is out there somewhere else.

Once you’re ready to check out, Capital One Shopping will automatically try to apply coupon codes gathered from its database of millions of users.

Capital One Shopping takes only a few seconds to set up. It helped people save over $160 million in the last year, and it won’t cost you a cent.

Offset your costs with some side gigs

If you’ve got a special talent like drawing, writing or voice acting, you may be able to earn some extra cash by picking up a few side gigs.

A number of online marketplaces will help you advertise your services and connect with customers who are looking for exactly what you’re selling.

Once you start completing gigs and accumulating positive reviews, you can increase your rates and bring in even more money.

You'll be getting paid to do what you love, and who knows? It could be the start of a full-blown career.

More: 6 side hustles you can do from home