- Never Overpay Again: Automate price tracking on e-commerce sites to snag the best deals on your wish list items.
- Eliminate Subscription Creep: Create workflows that alert you before free trials end or annual subscriptions renew, saving you from unwanted charges.
- Replace Paid Tools: Ditch expensive monthly services by building your own automations for social media scheduling, data management, and more.
- Optimize Your Time: Automate repetitive daily tasks, freeing up valuable time which, for freelancers and businesses, directly translates to money.
The Automation Revolution in Your Wallet
In a world of soaring subscription costs and endless digital tasks, what if you could reclaim over $40 every month? For many tech-savvy individuals, this isn’t just a hypothetical; it’s a reality powered by n8n, the open-source workflow automation tool. By connecting different apps and services, n8n allows you to build powerful “workflows” that handle repetitive tasks, manage data, and, most importantly, cut down on unnecessary expenses. Here are five game-changing automations that are putting money back into users’ pockets.
1. The Subscription Guardian
We’ve all been there: a free trial quietly turns into a paid subscription, or an annual service renews when we no longer need it. This automation monitors your email for notices from services like Netflix, Adobe, or any other subscription.
How it Saves Money:
When an email containing keywords like “subscription renewal” or “trial ending” arrives, the workflow can automatically add it to a to-do list, create a calendar event, or send you a priority notification via Slack or Discord. This simple alert system prevents you from paying for services you forgot you even had, easily saving $10-$20 on a single forgotten subscription.
2. The Ultimate Deal Hunter
Why pay full price when you don’t have to? Instead of manually checking your favorite products for price drops, you can automate it. This workflow scrapes a product page on a schedule (e.g., once a day) and checks if the price has fallen below a target you set.
How it Saves Money:
When the price drops, the workflow instantly sends you an email or a push notification with the link to buy. This ensures you never miss a sale on big-ticket items, saving you a significant percentage on planned purchases.
3. The Social Media Manager Replacement
Services like Buffer or Hootsuite are great, but their subscription fees add up. For small businesses or personal brands, n8n can serve as a powerful, free alternative. You can create a workflow that pulls content from a Google Sheet, an RSS feed, or even an Airtable base and automatically posts it to Twitter, LinkedIn, or other platforms on a predefined schedule.
How it Saves Money:
This directly replaces a paid service, saving you anywhere from $15 to $30 per month while offering even more flexibility.
4. The Smart Energy Saver
This automation connects with your smart home ecosystem. By tracking your phone’s location, n8n can trigger actions when you leave or arrive home. When it detects you’ve left the house, it can automatically turn off smart lights, lower the thermostat, and switch off smart plugs connected to non-essential electronics.
How it Saves Money:
This workflow cuts down on “phantom” energy waste, chipping away at your monthly electricity bill. While savings vary, optimizing heating and lighting can easily save $5-$10 a month.
5. The Cloud Cost Watchdog
For developers and small businesses using cloud services like AWS or DigitalOcean, forgetting to delete unused resources can be a costly mistake. An n8n workflow can be set up to periodically query your cloud account via its API for things like unattached storage volumes or idle servers.
How it Saves Money:
Upon finding potentially wasteful resources, the workflow sends a detailed alert. This proactive monitoring can prevent surprise charges and save hundreds of dollars annually for those who use cloud infrastructure heavily.
Image Referance: https://www.xda-developers.com/saving-every-month-n8n-automations/