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Technology has given us so much, saving our time and changing our lives in so many ways, that it almost seems greedy for us to expect it to do more – but it can.

Even though you might think of gadgets as products that cost you money, they can actually save you money in the long run (and quite a lot of it, too) if you choose them wisely.

So if you’re trying to cut your everyday costs and build up your savings, you just might benefit from some extra gadgets. Here are 7 that can reliably save you money:

Energy-saving light bulb

You might not generally think about the electricity costs of your house lighting, but make no mistake — they add up quickly. By replacing your old-style bulbs with energy-saving bulbs, you can see a significant reduction in your lighting costs without any corresponding reduction in performance or brightness. And since the bulbs aren’t particularly expensive, you needn’t want for years before seeing a return on your investment.

Programmable thermostat

Heating costs can really stack up when you don’t carefully monitor them, particularly during the winter when you can get forgetful and leave your heating on when you don’t need it. Do you tend to leave systems running when you’re not even in the house? A programmable thermostat makes handling your heating much easier — you can simply set it to maintain a particular temperature instead of being active all the time, and disable it entirely when it’s not needed.

Battery charger

If you happen to have children with various battery-draining toys, you’ll know all too well how inconvenient (and expensive) it can be to get through and have to replace a ton of batteries. By swapping them all out for rechargeable batteries, and using an economical battery charger (one that knows when it needs to stop outputting electricity), you can cut that cost.

Blender

Are you a health fanatic, or simply a fan of smoothies, milkshakes and purées? The industry around blended produce is massive, and the biggest brands achieve huge profit margins on products that are actually fairly simple in composition. By getting your own blender, and committing to making your own smoothies and milkshakes, you can stop paying exorbitant prices (and, as a bonus, end up with healthier products).

Smart power meter

Replacing your full complement of bulbs with energy-saving types will definitely help, but it will help even more to install a smart power meter. It will allow you to see how much energy you’re using at any given time, as well as determine when your demand is the highest and how much it’s costing you. With this information, you can make better choices about when to use electricity and when to keep things turned off.

Assisted parking sensor

This might seem like an odd choice, but I’ll explain: parking results in a lot of car damage, and every piece of damage is costly, so better parking is going to save money through resulting in fewer accidents. Using a parking backup sensor can also benefit you through giving you a stronger case for negotiating a better car insurance deal, saving you even more money.

Filtered water bottle

Buying bottled water is a bad habit that a lot of people fall into (often for good reasons, doing it instead of buying unhealthy drinks, but even so). Supposing that you can genuinely tell the difference between tap water and bottled water, though (or live in an area with unsafe water), what can you do? Well, you can buy a bottle with a filter in it, and fill it up from the tap. You’ll need to replace the filter from time to time, but it will still save you a lot of money.

Each of these 7 gadgets can significantly cut your costs over the months and years, leaving you with a much healthier bank balance. Some have higher upfront costs than others, so start with the cheapest first, but aim to work up to everything applicable as soon as you can. The faster you do, the more you’ll save.

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