My family and friends tell me that I’m good with money in order that they often ask me: “How does one save money?”
That’s a really general question that I sometimes find hard to answer because I prefer checking out ways to form extra cash and building some passive income streams to form saving feel a touch easier.
However, I could still answer that better once you specifically inquire from me what things I ended buying to save lots of money.
So, this is often what I noticed once I spent a while brooding about my past (unnecessary) purchases…
I saved far more money than I could have imagined once I became more mindful and intentional about my spending.
If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I’m not a lover of cutting things I enjoy. Definitely not!
Instead, I paid attention to the unnecessary purchases that didn’t add any value to my life.
Here are the items I ended buying to save lots of money!
I want to means #1 helped my fiancé and that I economize without having to chop back on the drinks we enjoy! ❤️
On top of that, you’ll read my story of how cutting cable and HGTV channels made an enormous difference to not only my checking account but my life as well! I honestly didn’t expect that coming. ?
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The Struggle is Real: the way to economize on a coffee Income (or One Income)
1. REDUCE YOUR SPENDING BY EARNING FREE GIFT CARDS TO STARBUCKS.
Okay, so I didn’t stop buying my favorite drinks from Starbucks!
I’m ready to economize and reduce my spending because my favorite money-saving resources like Swagbucks allows you to earn FREE gift cards by watching videos, surfing the online, buying belongings you normally buy, playing games, and completing surveys!
I always get so excited when it involves redeeming those FREE $50-$100 Starbucks gift cards!
Yep, the tiny and quick wins make me a cheerful gal. ?
In addition to Starbucks gift cards, I prefer how they provide other gift card selections like Amazon, Walmart, and more!
This is one of the foremost well-known and popular surveys and cash rewards programs in North America. It’s absolutely liberal to use!
Swagbucks is 100% legitimate and has paid out its members over $321,087,343 to date! I’ve been a Swagbucks user since 2009 and that I recommend them to those that want to earn free gift cards.
You can get a FREE $5 bonus from Swagbucks here just by signing up today. ?
⭐️ Important: confirm you verify the e-mail from Swagbucks in your inbox so you’ll get your FREE $5 bonus and begin earning free gift cards immediately!
2. CUTTING CABLE HELPED ME MAKE MONEY.
According to this USA Today article, the worth of cable service has increased by 53% since 2007. the typical bill was around $100.98 per month ($1,211.76 a year) in 2017, which is nearly twice as fast as inflation.
$100.98 per month? That’s no chump change!
Though our cable bill wasn’t that prime, we still stopped spending $55 per month ($660 per year) because we were barely using the service.
Even once I was using our cable service sometimes, I might binge-watch my favorite HGTV shows for several hours which led me feeling sluggish and unaccomplished for the whole day!
TRUST ME, once you discover more meaningful activities to try to during your free time, you’ll economize and won’t miss cable at all!
HOW TO STOP BUYING THINGS:
After I ditched cable and focused on hobbies that make money, I naturally stopped pocket money on unnecessary things within the past year (without even noticing)!
One of my favorite activities to try today is blogging! actually , since I started a blog, i ended pocket money on unnecessary things and managed to save lots of plenty of money!
Plus, I’m now ready to make $10,000+ per month online with my small blog! ? Just imagine what this extra cash could do for you.
Could it assist you to pay off some debt, pay the monthly bills (on time), or perhaps economize for your other financial goals? you’ll decide! ?
⭐️ If you asked me over a year ago, I had absolutely no clue that blogs could make money! I didn’t even know what blogs were! You can also find out how a little blog like mine makes money online. In fact, you’ll start with my easy step-by-step tutorial on the way to start a profitable blog here.
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In the end, I used to be so glad to seek out this perfect alternative to watching TV! ?
That brings up my next point…
Do your skills many hours of TV the typical American watches per day?
FIVE HOURS and 4 MINUTES PER DAY!
Geez, that’s almost a full-time job consistent with The NY Times!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that watching TV is bad.
Just an excessive amount of it causes you to become sluggish and unproductive consistent with a Forbes article I read. That’s exactly why I watch less TV these days!
BTW, I’m not saying you’ve got to chop cable. I personally made the choice to urge obviate it because I actually enjoy blogging (and making extra cash from the blog) during my spare time.
3. I ended BUYING PAPERBACK BOOKS ON AMAZON!
During my college years, and even a couple of years after I graduated, I loved buying stuff on Amazon and spent $15-$20 per month ($200 per year) on the best-selling finance books.
Some books were unnecessary purchases since I haven’t read them and they’re collecting dust as I speak.
Overall, I don’t have an enormous library of books lying around my place, but it’s enough to mention I wasted money, so I ended buying books on Amazon to save lots of money!
? SAVING MONEY TIP: If you wish to buy books or shopping on Amazon, you’ll earn FREE Amazon gift cards by taking easy surveys with legitimate resources like Survey Junkie here.
It’s liberal to use check-in and you’ll start earning free gift cards immediately today! I personally like using it to redeem $20 in FREE Starbucks and Amazon gift cards each month!
On top of Swagbucks, I actually like using this free resource to assist me to save extra cash monthly. ??
4. EATING OUT TOO OFTEN.
how to stop buying things – economize on food by meal planning
Before making trips to the grocery, we wont to eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner almost every single day! once we reviewed our past bills, we were spending over $20,000 on food annually.
Mediavine
I know you would possibly be reading this and thinking: “What??? That’s insane. Impossible!”
We even asked our friends and coworkers to feature up their annual food costs (groceries, takeouts, restaurants, drinks, snacks, etc.) and that they were shocked at what proportion they were spending! ?
So, before you jump to conclusions, there may be a breakdown of our personal food costs NOT including snacks, special drinks, or appetizers!
Breakfast & Tea Lunch Dinner Total
Monday $5.00 $10.00 $12.00 $27.00
Tuesday $5.00 $10.00 $12.00 $27.00
Wednesday $5.00 $10.00 $12.00 $27.00
Thursday $5.00 $10.00 $12.00 $27.00
Friday $5.00 $10.00 $12.00 $27.00
Saturday $5.00 $12.00 $35.00 $52.00
Sunday $5.00 $12.00 $30.00 $47.00
Weekly Total $35.00 $74.00 $125.00 $234.00
Yearly Food Cost Per Person $12,168.00
Yearly Food Cost Per Couple $24,336.00
It’s insane because we thought we were just “living a traditional life.” That’s actually quite common once you sleep in an upscale city.
After realizing what proportion of the money we were wasting, we started packing our lunches and making meals reception.
Today, we balance between eating in and going out. To be honest, we enjoy this lifestyle far more because we start to understand the foods we eat once we leave for special restaurants!
I highly recommend you to review your personal food costs to ascertain what proportion you’re spending as well! you would possibly be shocked yourself but the numbers don’t lie!!!
According to this CNBC article, the author writes: “It’s easy to start out from a $10 salad at some point and find yourself with a $30,000 MasterCard tab a year later. In fact, it’s becoming common.”
This is exactly how I felt throwing money away at restaurants and takeouts…
THE $5 MEAL PLAN!
If you don’t skill to hotel plan, or the thought sounds too overwhelming, I highly recommend this $5 hotel plan service which can assist you to save time and money! ??
This is simply a weekly hotel plan service that aims to form your life SUPER easy and stress-free!
For only $5 a month, you’ll receive a delicious hotel plan that costs but $2 per meal. Stop dining out often and begin saving a minimum of $400 monthly per person!
Again, my fiancé and that I saved over $11,000 during a year once we reduced our food expenses!
If you’re unsure whether this hotel plan service is true for you, they provide a FREE 14-day risk-free trial here for you to check out.
They’re very serious when it involves customer satisfaction. So if it doesn’t compete, you’ll cancel at any time without ever spending a cent. Absolutely no questions asked!
With that said, we stopped dining out so often to save lots of more money!
Read also: the way to Stop pocket money on Unnecessary Things (#5 Really Works sort of a Charm!)
5. IMPULSE BUYS AT THE grocery (THIS IS quite YOU THINK).
After reducing our spending on takeouts and restaurants, we started making trips to the grocery stores more often.
My fiancé is that the one who likes to buy groceries and on most days, he would walk into the shop with no plan and buy on impulse. BAD MOVE!
Most of the food visited waste because we were never ready to finish it before the expiry date. to repair the matter and economize, I made it a habit for him to write down down the things we’d like (and the things we actually eat) with this cute printable I made.
I USE RESOURCES to seek out FREE MONEY HACKS! ?
On top of ditching the impulse buys and following a shopping list, we use Checkout 51 (available within the U.S. and Canada) to urge FREE cash back on our groceries and residential goods!
Every Thursday, the app would update the list with 100+ offers. We shop the offers from that list since they feature items we normally buy.
Then, we might quickly snap an image of our receipt through the app with our smartphones and wait a couple of days for free of charge cash to hit our accounts. Once your account reaches a minimum of $20, you’ll request your check at no cost.
