You’re probably overspending in key areas of your life. By making changes to these 5 things you can easily save money each month without breaking a sweat! Get extra cash into your pocket fast!
I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed and ashamed of your finances. You’re putting on a good show, but underneath you’re panicking. You’re barely keeping your head above water as it is, how can you possibly afford the next birthday, school trip, or Christmas? Your finances can’t take any more!
You don’t have to live life this way. You can be more strategic about how you spend your money. You can give yourself breathing room so you can enjoy that next event on the horizon without stressing about how you’re going to pay it off.
It’s going to be okay. Take a deep breath and let me show you 5 key places you can easily save big money.
1. Change Your Cell Phone Company
Often the cell phone bill is one of the biggest monthly expenses for a family. Living without a cell phone isn’t really an option these days, but that doesn’t mean you need to be paying $100+ each month for your plan.
My husband and I pay $35-45/month for both our phones!
We use a company called Ting.
With Ting you pay each month for what you actually used, you don’t guesstimate your usage, pay for a plan and rollover what you don’t use like most cell phone companies.
Ting’s website has a great bill estimator that will help you calculate what your typical bill would be with them. Just grab your last cell phone bill that lists your talk, text, and data usage and plug it into the site!
Another great company to check out is Republic Wireless. Republic connects to wifi to reduce your data usage and passes the savings on to you!
They are plan based but they have unlimited talk and text, you just pay for data. They also have a bill estimator.
And the last company to check out is GoogleFi. They have 2 different plans, an unlimited plan and a pay for what you use plan.
Check out each company and see which one would give you the best deal for what your typical usage is!
For my family personally, Ting has been the best deal, but my parents, who text and call more than me, have found that Republic is a better deal for them. It really all depends on your personal usage, but whichever company you go with, I bet it can save you a significant amount each month!
2. Change Your Home & Car Insurance
If you haven’t compared rates for your home or car insurance lately, PLEASE do it today! I try to compare rates every other year and I usually end up saving HUNDREDS of dollars every time I do.
Policy genius is an amazing website that easily helps you compare rates.
If you just want to do car insurance, then The Zebra is a great site. The Zebra helped me save $600 on car insurance.
Just make sure you’re being smart and vet the insurance companies you’re looking at- don’t just go with the cheapest. Check them out on Better Business Bureau and look for reviews from people who’ve actually had claims processed by them.
3. Reduce Your Internet Speed
The first thing I like to know is if I’m actually getting the internet speed I’m paying for.
Grab your last bill if you’re not sure what speed you’re paying for, and then search Google for “internet speed test”. Hit the “run speed test” button and a box will pop up and start testing your internet speed. It only takes a minute.
If you’re getting about what you’re paying for- awesome!
If you’re not, talk to your internet provider about fixing your speed so you’re actually getting the speed you’re paying for, or even better, get them to reduce your bill so you’re paying for the speed you’re actually getting.
I would also challenge you to try and reduce your internet speed to the next tier down for a month. Just try it out and see if you’re still able to do all the internet things you want to just fine at a slower speed.
I have found that internet companies like to overestimate how much bandwidth you actually need. Unless you have gamers at your house, you’re probably safe to go down one tier and won’t even notice a difference- except for the extra money in your pocket each month!
4. Cut All Your Subscriptions
Have you ever calculated how much you spend each month on subscriptions? Streaming services, gaming services, gym memberships, beauty boxes, clean living products, clubs, etc. There are so many inexpensive monthly clubs and subscriptions, it’s not hard to pile them on until you’re spending hundreds each month on them.
Go through last month’s expenses, highlight all your recurring monthly payments that aren’t related to housing, transportation or necessary family care and then add them up.
If that total isn’t enough of a wake-up call, multiply it by 12. That’s how much money you’re wasting on unnecessary things each year. Yeah, it can be a real eye-opener. I bet you can think of a lot better things you’d rather spend your money on.
Don’t let those $5 or $25 monthly subscriptions slip by unnoticed!
I challenge you to pause or cancel them all for a month. It doesn’t have to be for forever, just for one month. See which subscriptions you actually missed and which ones you didn’t even notice were gone.
You can always add them back next month. But give yourself a one month break to see if your heart grows fonder or if it wanders.
5. Use Grocery Pickup
Grocery pickup is awesome because it not only saves you time, it saves you money.
Even when the only grocery store in town that offered pickup was on the pricier side and I had to pay $5 for pickup, I still saved money.
How?
It forces me to plan my meals so there is less food waste and because I’m not the one wandering around the store, there aren’t any extra purchases of things that aren’t on my list.
You know that always happens! I go in with the best of intentions, but I always end up spending at least $20 on things that weren’t on my list.
So save yourself time and money and use grocery pickup. You’ll thank me!
Conclusion
The best thing about all these ways you’re saving money is that the savings are permanent. When you reduce your insurance, you’re saving that money EVERY MONTH. These aren’t just one-off savings, these are PERMANENT. That’s why they’re so powerful and make such an impact.
Stop stressing about making ends meet and instead optimize these 5 areas of your life so you can have the breathing room you need. Decide which area you want to start with and take 15 minutes to start saving today!