Steal these 15 claude code habits (to go from $400 per week to $15...) 1. use haiku for 80% of your work: set haiku as default...it costs 5x less than sonnet and handles bug fixes, file reads, and simple edits just as fast. save $0.80 per session. 2. search first, read second: type "search for x in file" instead of "read file"—searching a 50mb log costs $0.05 vs $5 to read it all. that's 100x cheaper. 3. read files in chunks: say "read lines 1-100" instead of "read entire file"—reading 100 lines costs $0.10 vs $10 for the whole 10mb file. 4. run tasks in parallel: say "run these in parallel" when giving multiple independent tasks—3 files read at once = same cost as 1, but 3x faster. 5. use the explore agent for unfamiliar code: say "explore this codebase for x" instead of random searches...trial-and-error costs $20-30, explore agent finds it first try for $5. 6. plan major changes first (most skip this): say "create a plan for refactoring x" before touching code...costs $0.50 to plan, saves $50 in wasted rework when changing 5+ files. 7. turn on budget alerts: I created a setup script to get automatic warnings at 70% and 90% of your monthly budget. never overspend again. 8. limit search results: ask for "find first 50 matches" instead of "find all matches"...10,000 results cost $5, top 50 cost $0.50, and you only need the first few anyway. 9. be specific in requests: say "fix the login bug in auth.ts line 45" instead of "help me fix this"...vague requests = multiple back-and-forth rounds = 3x cost. 10. use path shortcuts: setup script creates shortcuts automatically so you type utils instead of /src/lib/utilities/helpers/index.ts every single time. faster = cheaper. 11. create task checklists at the start: say "create a todo list for x" at the beginning of multi-step work...prevents forgotten steps and re-reading files, finish 40% faster. 12. read smart: load only what you need: say "read lines 100-200 from database.ts" instead of "read database.ts"...reading 50 lines you need costs pennies vs dollars for all 5,000 lines. 13. don't ask the same question twice: say "use the errors we found earlier" instead of re-running the same search. session memory is free, re-running costs money. 14. let the system filter first: say "show only x from y data" instead of "show all data" get 5 rows with errors instead of loading all 10,000 rows. 95% cheaper. 15. make these habits automatic: I use a setup script to build these into my workflow automatically. install once, save forever. (real data in the screenshot!)