15 everyday life hacks to save money while eating, drinking and living it up in Vienna

1. Get the Stempelpässe (aka loyalty cards) from your favourite cafes, restaurants or bakeries and get stuff for free

Okay, let’s say you get a coffee to-go from your favourite coffee place every second day of the week. Let’s say the coffee costs 3,40€ and let’s say you use a Stempelpass from this coffee shop that offers you a free coffee after you’ve collected 10 stamps (1 for each coffee that you buy). This means you’ll be getting a free coffee around every three weeks!

This also means you’ll get 17 coffees for free throughout the year and that will save you around 58€. BOOM! Will you ever say a bad word about Stempelpässe, again?

We doubt it.

2. Use the app “Too Good To Go” to eat your way through the city

If you haven’t heard of the app, “Too Good To Go”, please do yourself a favour and check it out. The app offers up food that restaurants, bakeries, and stores have left over at the end of the day for way cheaper than it normally costs. This is not just a good way of saving money, but you’ll also be doing your part to stop the shit ton of food wastage going on every damn day.

3. Use outdoor public workout gyms instead of paying for a gym membership

Vienna’s got a ton of outdoor gym areas where you’ll see a bunch of very fit people doing their thing, flexing their quads and pectorials and other muscles that have impressive sounding names.

We found a list of outdoor gyms around the city.

You can join all those fit people and save big bucks on that gym membership you hardly use.

4. Join a running, or yoga group

If you are more of a ‘I can only motivate myself to move my body when other people are doing it with me’ kind of person, you should probably join a running, or yoga group. The city has a ton of them. Check out Facebook for the many groups on there. There’s also the adidas runners group who offer running sessions almost daily.

If you’re a dedicated yogi that doesn’t want to pay a bunch of cash for yoga courses, you should check out the Free Mediation and Yoga group that organises online and offline courses.

5. Get a JÖ card, collect points and get discounts every month at a lot of different stores around town

You’ve no doubt had somebody at a supermarket Kassa (checkout) ask you before if you want it and maybe you mistook them for participating in a bit of offensive cultural appropriation – the yo, yo, yo, JÖ card. This JÖ card is a loyalty card that earns you points every time you pay for something at the supermarket. These points lead to discounts and free stuff. Simple.

A lot of different stores are part of the JÖ club like Billa, Bipa, Pagro, Libro, etc.

But keep in mind: If you say yes to this card, you’re basically selling your soul aka. your data. Just sayin’.

6. Get your bike checked and repaired for free at one of the “Die Grüne Radrettung” pop-up stations

The political party, Die Grünen Wien, have an initiative  happening every summer that will see you getting your bike fixed for free called “Radrettung” (translation: bike ambulance).

At several pop-up locations around the city, a bunch of bike mechanics will fix your bike, and give it the TLC it needs to ride like a dream.

For the latest news and upcoming “tour dates”, check out their Facebook page.

7. Jump on a city bike for under an hour and ride them around town ‘for free’

In case you don’t have a bike, you don’t necessarily have to buy one. Just register for the city bikes (registration fee is 1€) and grab one from one of the many stations around town. As long as you return the bike within one hour, you can ride it for free.

8. Go to the museums on their free entry day

Yeah, we know museums are currently closed, but when they are open again you don’t have to pay to actually get into all of them.

Many of Vienna’s museums offer a free entry day. We’ve put together a guide on how to enjoy the abundance of culture in Vienna on a budget. 

9. Get a Jahreskarte (an annual pass) for your favourite museum, or a card that gives you access to many of them 

Most of the museums in Vienna are too big and interesting to cover in one visit, so it’s well worth considering buying an annual pass for them, especially if you’re really in love with one.

There’s also the ‘Bundesmuseen card’ that gives you access to a bunch of different museums. This is a great alternative to buying a day ticket every time you want to visit one of the city’s popular museums (it actually saves you 44% of the cost of paying for individual entry tickets for each visit).

10. Try to get those -25% stickers for various supermarkets and drug stores

We all know those -25% stickers that you can use to reduce the price of your favourite products (or the most expensive ones hehe) at supermarkets like Billa, Spar and Bipa. And while we admit that we used to make fun of our mums for using them back in the day, we are now obsessed with them, as well.

Normally, these discount stickers are attached to the free newspapers available in the U-Bahn stations, like the Heute, or the Österreich. Otherwise,  you get them in the mail sometimes  (if you don’t have the “Bitte keine Werbung” sticker on your mailbox).

11. Buy your wardrobe second hand

Making up your daily outfits from clothes you’ve bought second hand isn’t only a fun and a creative way to find your own look, but it will also save you a bunch of money. Vienna has a lot of stores stocking quality second-hand stuff, otherwise, you can buy almost anything on the online second-hand markets,  willhaben and Shpock.

Also, check out your local flea markets when they’re happening again (we’ll be sure to let you know when they’re happening if you sign up to our newsletter).

Meanwhile, depop is a new, cool second-hand fashion market app out of America which is growing in popularity in a big way that you should check out.

12. Swap stuff with random people on the internet

There are lots of Facebook groups in which people are swapping random stuff and giving it away for free in Vienna.

Also, you can use the “zu verschenken” function on willhaben and find stuff that is being given away for free in the city.

13. Make use of your student card at all museums and theatres

So, if you’re a student and therefore own a student card – USE IT!!!

This is one of the best ways to save some money as a lot of institutions offer a discount for the owners of this precious little card.

14. Use the cash back option that many food delivery apps offer

Have you noticed that a lot of food delivering apps are offering cash-back?

When you order from your fav’ restaurant, you’ll get a certain amount of money added to your cash back account, and if you order from the same restaurant again, you’ll get this amount of money discounted from your next order.

Another insider’s tip: you should always check out the website of the restaurant you’re ordering from.

Most of the time, you can order your meal for cheaper if you order directly from the restaurant itself.

15. Get yourself an ÖBB Vorteilskarte and travel the country

ÖBB, the national railway company of Austria, offers a little magical card called the Vorteils card.

If you’re a holder of this card (you have to pay a sign up fee at the beginning), you’ll get your train tickets WAAAAY(!) cheaper than the full price.

So, if you’re a fan of traveling this fine Alpine land of ours by rail, you should definitely get yourself this card.