Hi and welcome back. In this post I'll give you some pratical tips when it comes to saving money. Even if you apply just a couple of them, you should have some extra cash at the end of the month.
Usually, we all want to have more, when it comes to money. And, to be fair, it's quite normal. However, when it comes to saving some cash, some people tend to think the following way: "I earn X - how much can I save, given all my expenses?!". Look, in some cases, I agree that there isn't much that can be done; sometimes you just don't have enough and you can't spare a dime. I empathize with this because I WAS in this situation not so long ago. Sometimes all you can do is try like crazy to increase your income, either by a raise, either by having a second job or any other side hustle. If that's you, I salute you and I wish you the best of luck!
Now, coming back to the topic of the post, there are quite a few ways that you can save some money. It all starts with a decision of writing down all of your expenses; and I do mean ALL of them. Everything.
Starting from groceries, subscriptions, utilities, gas, credit card debt, transportation costs, etc. Write everything down. And then, being objective (I know, it's hard as hell), identify what you can live without and what you can optimise (in terms of costs). What is critical for your existence and what is not.
If you can do this, you'll probably be surprised to learn that you spend some amount of money without actually being 100% aware of it.
Let's look at a clear example. Say you have subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video. Let's say you started in 2019 with yearly subscriptions for all of these services. After a while you just forget about them; sure, you may be using one of these subscriptions more. But you probably didn't cancel the other two. Given all of these subscription, in the example above, are yearly subscriptions, you probably barely notice that once a year your account takes a hit.
The point I'm trying to make is that you should be conscious about all the money that comes and goes, even if for some services you have quarterly or yearly payments. Don't lose track of these! Also, in the example above, do you really, really need to have all three subscriptions?
Next, let's focus on how many times you eat at a restaurant / how many times you're going for drinks at a pub/bar.
"Come on man, why the f*ck are we busting our tails if we can't enjoy ourselves once in a while?!"
Well, once in a while is ok. However, some people do this three, four, five times a week; in some cases, daily. For example, some people made it a habbit of ordering food for lunch / dinner. It's not a secret that if you cook your own meals, you are going to save money. Also, it can be a fun activity to do with your partner 😀
Some people tend to go for drinks immediately after work. Look, nobody is telling you to become a monk, but daily alcohol consumption may be a problem; let's face it, nobody goes to a pub/bar and has only a beer/glass of wine 😀it's usually more than one round. Strictly from a financial perspective, see how much this "sport" costs you per month. I don't know any of you, so I won't judge; but maybe, just maybe, you could cut back on the number of times you hit the pub.
Let's look now at transportation costs. The average monthly car lease, in 2024, in the USA was 638$ (quite a lot if you ask me). If your monthly car payments are quite expensive, maybe you could downgrade a little and have a different car? Look, no offence, but, if you could afford that new BMW X5 or Porsche 911, chances are you would not be reading this post 😃 I get that cars are a social status symbol. But acting/looking rich when you are broke/struggling is a very, very bad financial decision.
First of all, if you really need a car, try to find a compromise that you can live with in terms of "fun"/"status" vs financially wise to get. I won't lie to you, I very much like all sort of fancy cars - including the two I mentioned above; however, maintaining such a car is sometimes a nightmare; a nightmare that I really don't want to have.
Let's say you have a "normal" car - how can you save a dime in this case? One idea is to be very precise when planning your trips. Why shop daily when you can go once a week? Try doing more things when you're "out and about"; for example, after going to the gym, maybe you can also take care of X or Y before going home.
Depending on where you live, maybe you could ditch the car from time to time - use public transportation, if it's reliable. This kind of brings me to a point I made above - try to be objective and answer truthfully if you really really need a car. For some people, if you only use the car once a week for some shopping, you'd be saving money by using some sort of ride sharing service. I'm just saying, having a car implies quite a few costs - maintanence, ensurance, gas (make that premium if you leased the fancy new 911 😀), road taxes + other taxes and fees.
Moving on, yearly upgrades - for example, your phone. Do you really, really need that new model? Your current phone is probably ok. Ask yourself - are you doing this upgrade because it is a necessity or are you doing this just to have some sort of "social validation"? It usually is the latter. News flash - nobody will give a damn if you are financially in trouble. News flash #2 - if always having a new phone / new car / new w/e is what it takes to "hang out and get validated" by the people around you, maybe you should consider new friends. A person's character, their principles and moral code are far more important, in my opinion.
I'll close this post with certain "small pleasures" that we kind of mark as "critical", when, in reality, we could do without them. I'm not going to judge anyone when it comes to these. However, what I will say is this - try to cut back on them. If you can't ditch them entirely, reduce them. For example, let's say you like to eat something sweet after each meal. How about you only have desert after lunch? Could you live with that?
Another example; let's say that you drink daily a big bottle of juice/soda. Can't you make it a small bottle or maybe drink some tea? 😀Maybe alternate the days? One day juice/soda, one day tea, until you can switch to tea only.
Last one; going weekly to a very expensive place. How about going once every fortnight? Or once a month?
As I said above, I won't judge you or your decisions. But, if you want to save some money, I hope some of the points I presented will be useful for you!
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