Yes we need money to survive. Without it we can’t provide food for ourselves and loved ones, put a roof over our heads, put clothing over our bodies and provide transportation to and from work and other important places.
However, do we need to spend so much on our lively hood, that we are putting ourselves in the red every month? Preventing ourselves from saving for emergencies, retirement and other important purchases, that may come up in the future. Can we live comfortably without paying out so much? Let us examine some areas we may be able to cut back on and see if we can make ourselves some money.
Is This Necessary?
1. Vehicles. One of my most popular post, was about downsizing to one vehicle, if at all possible. I will link it here, (Is One Vehicle Enough?) Basically, most households have more vehicles than they have time to drive. This is especially true if one person works from home or doesn’t need to work at all. That second car is just sitting in the drive way collecting dust, only to leave its spot to make an unnecessary errand. Even if the errand is necessary, could it have waited until the other person was home?
Getting down to one vehicle can make you money, especially if you do not need it. You pay one less car insurance bill, one less registration, maintenance for one less vehicle and more. If you are paying a monthly car loan or lease on two cars, when you have only one, you would be making even more money. So do the math, how much are you dishing out, on a second car that you could probably do without? If you see that you have the circ*mstance to get down to one car, how much could you add back to your monthly income?
2. Coffee. Who doesn’t like a nice hot cup of coffee. The smell of it, the warmth of it in a mug between your hands and the robust taste. Cafe’s know just how lethal this stuff is, that is why they are so popular. You walk in and you are instantly hit with the aroma of coffee, glorious coffee.
However, having a regular habit of purchasing your coffee one cup at a time, can be quit expensive. A tall, regular, black coffee from Starbucks, can cost you as much as $2.15. Multiply that by 5 and you are spending $10.15 a week on coffee or $43.00 a month on coffee. Annually you are spending $516.00 on coffee. Ouch
On the other hand if you purchase a nice quality bag of coffee from your local grocery store, for $4.99, that bag could last you a month. Essentially you are paying only $0.17 a day for coffee. So $4.99 a month for coffee or $59.88 a year, for two people, to have a cup of coffee, 7 days a weeks, 365 days a year. You could make $456.12 extra a year, just by brewing your own hot cup of coffee.
3. Dinning Out. Most people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Paying for take out for each of these meals regularly, can be very expensive. Even if you just choose to buy lunch daily, those cost can definitely add up. A salad out or a combo meal from a fast food restaurant, can easily run you $6 or more. At the low end of $6, you are paying out $30 a week just for lunch. Costing you $120 a month or $1440 a year for lunch. Double ouch.
A loaf a bread, would only cost you about $4 and it would last you at least 2 weeks. Yes how much money could you make, by making your own meals?
4. Grocery Shopping. We’ve all done it, gone to the grocery store because the cabinets and fridge are empty. But what are we buying, besides a random selection of sell items, staples and things we just like to have in the house? How much have we thrown away, because we either forgot we bought it, didn’t need it or just did not know what to do with it?
Shopping with a list will make you so much money and save you so much time. Plan all your meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Write what you plan to eat on a list, any recipe you plan to make, put it on the list. If you like to snack, like me, put it on the list. Shopping with a list has saved me so much time and money. It also prevents me from having to go back to the store often, because I have what I need on hand, to prepare each planned meal. It is also important to stick to the planned meals, they have already been shopped for and it will prevent you from using ingredients ear marked for another recipe, thus derailing the whole plan.
If you are able to grocery shop online and have it delivered or pick it up yourself, I highly recommend it. Not only does it save you from wasting time, wandering through all the grocery aisles and still picking up things not on your list, but it also makes you money, by keeping more of it in your pocket. Before you check out, you can see your total and go through your cart and make adjustments, without asking the cashier to put it back or worse, paying for it all, because you are to embarrassed to put stuff back. Yes make money by making a list and sticking to it. Buy only what you need and keep more money in your pocket.
5. Impulse Eating. You need to run a few errands, however you are out longer than expected and you still have more errands to run. But now you are hungry, do you stop at a fast food place and get a quick bite or do you look for something at the checkout?
Planning is very important here. You know you will get hungry, but you don’t know how long you will be away from home. So those snacks you bought when you went grocery shopping, they will come in handy here. Grab several and drop them in your bag or carry a lunch bag. Don’t forget to bring something to drink too, water should do it. This way when those hunger pains hit, you can keep that hard earned money of yours that you just saved, (by not buying to much at the grocery store) in your pocket.
6. Lights. We need light in our lives, to see a great many things. However, I have noticed that many people shut the free light that is provided, out. They keep the curtains and blinds closed, when the free natural light is so bright and uplifting. True there are certain times of the year, when you may want to keep your curtains and blinds closed, to prevent your AC from coming on. But when its fall, winter and spring, why not keep some money in your pocket and use the free light provided by the sun. Even if where you live is cloudy and gloomy, unless you are reading or doing something that requires a lot of light, use the natural light available to you.
Natural light can not only lift your mood and make you productive, but it can also make you money. The less you flick the switch to turn on the lights, the more money you save in your pocket. Notice your energy bill decrease over time. Look for more ways to cut down on electricity, to see even bigger savings.
7. Subscriptions. There is a brutal onslaught of subscription services available today. From perfume, toothbrushes, meals, razors, shoes and much much more. You could literally subscribe your whole paycheck away. However I will focus on the biggest one here.
TV subscription services, continue to pop up. It use to be, you paid for cable and had lots of uninteresting things to watch. Then came Netflix, cheap affordable reruns you could watch at your convenience. Then Amazon prime saw an opening for themselves and launched Prime Television, then there was Hulu, Disney and more. Some people subscribed to so many streaming services, that their bill is as high as or higher than, when they had cable.
However, do we really need to spend that much money watching other people live their lives, when we ourselves have our own lives to live? Can we cut back to just one streaming service? Pick the one you watch the most and stick with that one. When it no longer suits you, end the subscription and switch to another streaming service if you so choose. Keep more money in your pocket, by losing all those unnecessary subscription services.
Summary
There are many ways to make money, by spending less on life’s necessities. Look at your budget and see where you can cut back on things that you could live without. The more money you keep in your pocket, the more you have to save, invest or use to travel the world. Gain life experiences, instead of things that will break, rust, mold, deteriorate or be stolen from you. Just because you can afford it, doesn’t mean you need it.
In what ways have you been able to keep more money in your pocket?
