How to decrease crave in daily-life?

Dhammadinna once approached the Buddha asking about life balance and progress on the Noble Eightfold Path.

SN55.53:2.4: “Sir, we live at home with our children, using sandalwood imported from Kāsi, wearing garlands, perfumes, and makeup, and accepting gold and money. It’s not easy for us to undertake and dwell from time to time upon the discourses spoken by the Realized One that are deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness. Since we are established in the five training rules, please teach us further.”

And the Buddha answered:

SN55.53:3.1: “So, Dhammadinna, you should train like this: ‘We will have experiential confidence in the Buddha … the teaching … the Saṅgha … And we will have the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones … leading to immersion.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.”

Following the five training rules (i.e., refraining from killing living creatures, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking alcohol, which is a basis for negligence) is an important step in dealing with craving and aversion. It is important because it involves restraint. We don't steal what we want and we don't kill what we don't like. We restrain ourselves.

With restraint, craving and aversion diminish but we still suffer. So we study ethics to understand and deal with our cravings and aversions. MN8 has a long list of things to consider. For example:

MN8:12.2: ‘Others will be cruel, but here we will not be cruel.’

Yet as our body, speech and mind abide in ethical behavior, we still suffer from craving and aversion. So we study further to understand how craving and suffering arise. We might, for example, learn about dependent origination, which helps focus our restraint where it most matters.

SN12.23:4.3: I say that suffering has a vital condition. And what is it? ...

The Noble Eightfold Path ends with Right Immersion. Before that are seven other steps: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort and Right Mindfulness.

Note that Right Livelihood does not require us to be impoverished.

DN33:2.1.48: Firstly, an ethical person gains substantial wealth on account of diligence.

Right Livelihood requires that we give up Wrong Livelihood:

MN117:29.1: And what is wrong livelihood? Deceit, flattery, hinting, and belittling, and using material possessions to pursue other material possessions.

Living ethically is quite important. It is also not easy. Living ethically we learn and practice restraint. Practicing restraint, craving and aversion decrease along with our suffering.

Established in Right Livelihood, we can then face the rest of the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Immersion. At that point we are back at meditation, which you asked to not discuss.

Regarding money and material goods, although monastics do not deal with money, householders do. So what is a householder to do with the madness of craving for more money?

Long ago, a king sent Ghaṭīkāra the potter five hundred cartloads of rice and other wonders. And what Ghaṭīkāra said is simply this.

MN81:22.6: I have enough.

Ghaṭīkāra sent the carts back to the king telling the messengers that the king worked very hard and was very busy and therefore it made more sense for the king himself to have such wealth. Ghaṭīkāra was Kassapa Buddha's chief attendant and was a non-returner.

Let others grasp at money and material wealth. Here let us have enough.

From Mahayana perspective, your problem is self-centered (egotistic). Either when participating in society or when being BPL, in both cases your target is yourself, your concern is about yourself.

If you don't think about your own benefit, but focus on the benefit you can bring to any situation you are in, to anyone who surrounds you - then this problem does not exist. When your goal is to help others, you can either make millions / use technology, or be poor - it does not matter, what matters is that everything you do is altruistic as opposed to egoistic.