Your Guide to Smart Spending – November 7

We tend to buy every gadget we want without thinking about any other option – but renting electronics instead of owning them can make a lot of sense, especially for the things you only need for a season, or the ones you're not 100% sure about. You get to test and use the thing without sinking a few hundred euros into something that loses half its value the day it arrives.

I came around to the idea when I rented a TV for a temporary apartment (once you start watching movies on a 64-inch screen, it's hard to go back to squinting at a laptop). The company I used was Grover*, and they rent out phones, laptops, TVs, cameras, gaming consoles, e-scooters and much more on flexible terms – you keep the item as long as you want, then send it back when you're done. If it breaks through normal use, you're covered, which takes some of the anxiety out of borrowing expensive tech. The minimum rental period depends on the item and can start from just one month, though committing to six months is usually a much better deal than one or three. If you want to keep something, you can buy it out at the end, with your rental payments counting toward the price.

New customers get €30 off the first month with the code ERSTE30 (advertisement) on any rental of six months or more. It won't make sense for every item – do your own calculation before deciding on rent vs. buy – but for the gadgets you'd rather not commit to, it's worth a look. Rent on Grover here*.

Out of all the apps on my phone, NeoTaste* is probably the one that has saved me the most money. It gives you access to restaurant deals, and I've used 30 of them so far, saving €260 – I'm now on the annual plan because I'm planning to keep going. At first, I had a prejudice that restaurants offering big discounts wouldn't be the best ones, but NeoTaste quickly proved me wrong. The app has a lot of good places – the kind of restaurants I'd happily visit even without a deal.

Here are the types of offers you'll find on the app:

NeoTaste is now in 53 cities in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Austria, with the biggest presence in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich. You can find the full list of cities here.

If you haven't used NeoTaste before, you can try it free for two months with this link* or the code SMARTLIVING2m (advertisement), up from the usual one free month. After the free trial, NeoTaste costs €2.99 per month with annual billing (€35.88/year) or €6.99 if you pay monthly – but you can cancel anytime before the end of the trial to avoid getting charged. Start your free trial here*.

SIMon mobile*, Vodafone's discount brand, is running a Black Week offer that might just be the best phone deal I've ever seen: 99 GB of 5G/LTE data in the Vodafone network for €9.99 per month for the first 12 months, up from the usual 50 GB at the same price. From month 13, the plan goes back to 50 GB (which is still a lot) for the same €9.99. If you need even more data, there's also a 999 GB plan for €19.99 per month (down to 250 GB after a year).

These prices apply when you bring your number over from another provider – pretty much any except Vodafone brands like Vodafone itself, mobi and allmobil (BILDmobil and PureMobile numbers can't be ported either). With a new number, each plan costs €3 more per month. The offer is for new customers, and both the connection fee and shipping are waived.

All plans include speeds up to 150 Mbit/s, unlimited calls and texts, EU roaming, eSIM and Wi-Fi calling. The contract is cancellable monthly, and you can pause it for up to three months in the app, which is handy if you spend part of the year abroad. Get your SIMon mobile plan here*.

1822direkt* is turning 30 and celebrating with a €200 bonus on their GiroDirekt account if you apply by November 16 and open the account by November 23. To get the bonus, you need at least €700 to arrive in the account in each of two consecutive calendar months, any time up to February 28. The money has to come from salary, wages, pension, civil service pay or student aid (BAföG) – transfers from your own accounts or from other private individuals don't count. The offer is for people who haven't had a current account with 1822direkt or Frankfurter Sparkasse in the last 12 months.

The account itself is free if you're under 30 or have €700 a month coming in (which you'll need for the bonus anyway); otherwise, it costs €4.90 per month. It includes a Girocard, and new customers get 3.50% interest per year on the linked savings account (Tagesgeldkonto), which opens automatically with the current account. Sign up for your account here*.

P.S.: If you're also looking for a place to invest, 1822direkt is giving new customers up to €300 in Amazon vouchers for opening a securities account* by November 16 – €100 for setting up a savings plan of at least €100 a month, and up to €200 for trading.

Money-back grocery and household product promos are one of the easiest ways to cut everyday costs. A lot of promotions from previous issues are still active – you can find them all here if you'd like to try more. For more free grocery products, Rewe product tests are worth a look as well.

Handpicked Careers is a free weekly newsletter on jobs and careers in Germany by Igor Ranc, who's also behind one of the best Berlin newsletters, Handpicked Berlin. I work in tech, so I appreciate having an easy way to keep up with the job market: every Thursday, Igor rounds up who's hiring, who's cutting jobs and which startups just raised money, along with curated job openings and career advice. The salary topics are useful too, like a recent issue on where your pay really ranks. You can subscribe here.