Who doesn’t love to save a buck or two? Whether you’re trying to save big or just stash a little something for a rainy day, it’s always helpful to hear some quick way to slash that budget. Cutting these things from your life can help save you a bundle. You might look at this list and think, “No way can I cut that.” That’s fine. If something on this list is a non-negotiable for you, then move down the list and find something else to cut. We all know our priorities and where we’re willing to splurge and where we’re willing to cut. The ideas below are all over the map, so even if you just cut one or two, you’re well on your way to saving!
Bottled water: Americans blow $11 billion on bottled water per year. I wish I was joking, but that’s a fact. If you have access to tap water that is drinkable, buy a reusable bottle and stop paying for all that plastic. Your bank account and your environment will thank you! Camelbak water bottles are my fav!
Name brand anything: Brand names come at a cost. Someone has to pay the bill for advertising and packaging, and that someone is usually you. 9 times out of 10, the off-brand is identical to the name brand (this is especially true for the Kirkland brand as they actually pay companies to make their products and then market them under the Kirkland brand. Ever wonder why the Kirkland laundry detergent is so similar to Tide? Hmmm!). My exception to this rule is jeans. I’ll pay a bit more for name brand jeans and then wear them for years.
Expensive holiday decor: Dollar store. Seriously. That is the absolute cheapest place to find holiday decor. Depending on the store you go to, they have some of the exact same items that are 10x as expensive in a regular superstore. I can deck my whole house out for Halloween for $10! Sweet!
Presents: What? How can you stop giving gifts? Well, this one might depend on where you are in life. I’m not sure if I could completely cut this out if I still had little ones at home. I could limit it, but it would be hard to deprive them of Santa gifts or a birthday present. But now that my kids are grown, we can have a conversation about gift giving. We’re at a stage in our lives where if we need something, we can save and buy it ourselves. Excessive gift giving for the sake of tradition seems silly. Can you stop birthday presents altogether? Limit Christmas gifts to one? Decide not to exchange anniversary gifts? Just because the rest of the world expects you to give red roses and chocolate on Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean you must. Have a hard conversation about presents with those you are closest to and see if they’d be willing to chuck the practice or really pare it down.
Bank fees: If you don’t have a totally free checking out, find a bank that offers it. So many banks won’t charge you for bill pay, online banking, debit cards, counter checks, monthly service fees, statement fees, ATM fees, etc. If you are paying any of those fees, talk to your banker about switching to a free account. Some require a minimum balance and some are free with just a penny in there! Also, if you find yourself unable to get that account balance thing just right and you bounce a few checks a month, look into overdraft protection or a sweep account. Normally they are around $25 a year, but then you won’t be paying crazy high overdraft fees!
Books, movies, music: Do I love ALL those things? Yes. A lot. But with most libraries offering them completely free {plus a TON more!}, that would be a great first place to slash.
Getting your nails done: I know this is a splurge some of my friends would never give up. While they are capable of painting their own nails, they love to go in for a mani/pedi and get a little pampering. Nothing wrong with that, but if you’re looking for a fast way to save cash, skip the salon and buy a $3 bottle of polish. If you miss the pampering dearly, maybe make it a twice a year treat or something. I can’t tell you the last time I painted my nails. It’s not my thing. But if it is yours, find a way to set a little money aside for this or cut it altogether.
Lawn service: This one might be a doozy depending on the size of your lawn, but lawn services are expensive. Power up that mower and push it yourself. It’ll be a great workout and save you hundreds. Or if you just don’t have the time, pay Johnny from down the street to do it. Kid labor is much cheaper and they love the extra cash!
Avoid eating out for lunch: Might be hard not to go out with your co-workers at lunchtime, but the savings are substantial. I make the HH lunch every day, and if I ever sat down to add up how much that has saved us over the years, I think the number would be jaw-dropping.
Meat at every meal: Meat is expensive. Having a meatless meal even just 2 times per week, assuming $5.00 for the meat can easily shave $40.00 off of your monthly food budget.
Gourmet coffee: Skip Starbucks and make it at home. You’ve heard that one too many times to count, right? And rightfully so, since the average Starbucks order is over $5. Many people do that 5x a week. That’s $100 a month for coffee. So making it from home seems like a better alternative. Except when that coffee is just as spendy. If you can’t stand bad coffee and you drink it black, this is probably one step you’ll skip. But if you dress it up with so much sugar, cream, and caramel that you won’t know the difference between spendy coffee and Folgers, go for the cheap stuff and skip the unnecessary expense.
Cable: There is LAC {Life After Cable}. And it is a life where you have about $100 more in your pocket each month. Satellite TV is expensive, and with so many alternatives, it’s no longer necessary. There are literally hundreds of thousands of shows, movies, news programs that you can stream online. Hundreds of thousands people. With so many alternatives, cable has got to go!
Car washes: This is a DIY money saver that many view as a horrible chore. But if you take your car through a fancy car wash each week, you can add $60 to that monthly budget or more! Wash it yourself or hire a few of the neighborhood kids to do it for you. If you don’t trust them with your baby, even a cheap gas station car wash with fuel purchase will only set you back $5. It’s about a third of the cost of the big car washes and while it might not be as amazing, it just might be worth it!
What are some quick things you’ve cut from your budget? Was it hard? Was it worth it?
Save on,
~Mavis
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LIVINGRICHONTHECHEAP says
There is one place cheaper for Christmas decorations than the dollar store, thrift stores! That includes wrapping and ribbons and bows. I find almost full rolls of paper every year there for 10 to 25 cents. I usually spend about 3 bucks a year on all the Christmas trappings. I also recycle nice fabric ribbon and reuse (the secret to recycling Christmas bows is to gather all the wrappings in a garbage bag when gifts are opened then store it for a week or two and sort it out after Christmas, just make sure no one throws anything other than wrappings in the bag.) I also recycle Christmas cards received one year into tags the next. I collect antique and vintage Christmas decorations and I find those there too.
tholl says
I disagree on the car washing, your car actually needs a good layer of wax over it to help protect your paint and your moldings, and with the size of most vehicles these days it makes them hard to reach all the high spots.
And on the gift giving front, I think it can be a slippery slope. I agree that there is no need to blow the budget, but on the same token I do believe those days need to be acknowledged, special and celebrated. Sure, maybe you don’t give gifts, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook…the less effort we put into things, the less special they are.
Mrs. M. says
A study found (by interviewing car owners of older vehicles) that washing a vehicle without waxing was just as effective at preventing rust and corrosion as washing and waxing. The biggest downfall to your vehicle’s exterior is to leave mud and dirt on it.
I wish I could cite the article as a reference for you, but I read it years ago and do not recall where.
Pat says
I totally agree. It makes us feel as good as the receiver which is healthy. If you can’t afford something don’t buy it. Something meaningful doesn’t have to be expensive.
KC says
Alcohol. Although this is somewhat like work lunches, in that if you’re forgoing “networking” that will end up helping you get raises or get promoted, skipping the alcohol can cost you more than it saves you. But otherwise, wine and mixed drinks especially can be a surprisingly large money drain.
Also, check your hobby (or “aspirational”) purchases against logic. If your friend goes skiing every weekend, then it probably works out for them to have their own equipment; if you go once every three years, maybe less so… Similarly, there’s the category of unused subscriptions; magazines you don’t read, gyms you don’t go to.
Also phone/tech upgrades. If your old one still works, you can skip paying $$/month to upgrade to the newest version.
But what’s worth it/not worth it to each person varies, and as long as the overall financial picture is responsible, that’s okay.
Brianna says
Processed Snacks: I commit to only buying only 1 box of crackers (graham or ritz) or sometimes another dry snack when I go grocery shopping each week. I don’t buy excess because prepackaged processed snacks can be expensive. Save the budget and waistline.
Trash service vs. DIY: I was paying $90+/quarter for weekly trash service, now I pay $5 annually to haul my trash to the dump myself. I can also go up to 2X day if I needed to.
Not buying school lunch: $2.60/lunch per child would add up quickly for me for 3 kids. I can make them lunch a lot cheaper. If they do get school lunch it is a special treat and they are likely to eat it all and get my money’s worth.
I know you’ve said it before, but Breakfast for dinner. It is filling and so much cheaper and on our weekly menu every week.
Membership sharing and cutting: Costco and amazon prime we split with others. Also review you annual memberships and decide if they are still wanted or needed. We just let out H.O.G one go and a few others and it will save us $400+ a year. Also those monthly memberships that send you a special box every month.
Dry cleaning: I’ve gotten rid of Most items that require dry cleaning. I have learned how to press and starch my hubby’s work clothes too. We save $20/week. I’m embarrassed to say I had a new zipper put into my son’s winter coat for $18.50! I know I wasn’t going to be able to get it done before he needed the coat, but I should have done it when I knew the zipper broke. A few days afterwards I went to Costco and saw winter coats for a bit more than I had paid for the zipper, lesson learned.
Storage units: these are suppose to be temporary places to store items, not permanent and not as a second garage. These can cost $40+/month. If you live in an HOA and can’t store campers and boats, you have to choose between storage or giving up the toy. We’ve had storage off and on for years for big toys, but we got smart and left the HOA places.
Sell a vehicle or big toy: why keep the extra car that never gets driven if you don’t have enough drivers in your household or keep the big toy you use every few years? Even if it is still paid for it costs maintenance and insurance.
Angela @ Tread Lightly Retire Early says
Presents is something I will never give up because I LOVE gift giving. That said, I focus on handmade/homemade gifts, usually edible or consumable items, so they don’t cost a lot and they don’t fill up the person’s home with more stuff.
Jenny says
In the summer and nice weather we wash and wax our cars at home. In the winter we wash at car washes pretty often to keep the salt build up off the car. It can get big clumps under the car and stick to the undercarriage and cause rust. The cost of a car wash is less than repairing rust damage.
As far as gifts go, I think a part of this goes back to love languages. I am not a gifts kind of person but my husband can be. He sees gifts as a way to express affection for people. I think that is why some people are touchy about this. When you reject the idea of gifts, to them it can feel like you are rejecting their affection.
Joanna says
I started buying Winter/Christmas fabric on sale and making drawstring sacks to put presents in. We reuse them year after year. I just have to break myself of wanting to put the present in tissue paper before it goes in the bag…
Noel says
I remember the days of the Santa bag.(that’s what we called them) can you tell me what’s sizes you make. Thank you
Jamie says
I read somewhere years ago an article talking about expanding the time you go in between for services you can’t give up. If I remember right, things you get done weekly try doing every 10 days (like lawn service or a car wash), monthly try every five or six weeks (like a men’s hair cut). It would save you the cost of 16 car washes or lawn services and 2 hair cuts a year in my examples with most people not knowing the difference.
Candy C. says
Don’t indulge in any of what you listed with the exception of gift giving. I am a giver and will never give that up. Ever.
Mary Beth says
This post is so timely! Today at lunch, I mentioned an upcoming vacation and my coworker assumed my parents were paying for it. I’m in my 30s, why would my parents pay for anything?!? He said that we make the same salary and he can’t afford to fly anywhere for the fun of it. I pointed out that every day he shows up with a large Starbucks cup, buys his lunch, and talks about what he watched on cable the night before. He also makes fun of me for washing my own car, buying clothes at the thrift store, and growing my own vegetables. I could pay for a vacation almost every month with the money he’s wasting!
Denise says
Yep! From a book I read by David Bach – “The Latte Factor” – eats up a HUGE amount of money. All of those little things add up to big money. I like being frugal so I can spend where it really means something to me. I am not poor but have been there and learned how to save money which I am so grateful for. Finding treasures at the thrift store or garage sale (when I need something it usually turns up sooner or later, patience can save us money also), using my library for books, movies, ebooks, audio books. My library sells donated or excess books, movies, cds, audio books for very little, often as low as .10. I often find gifts among these gems. I get so many compliments on my thrift store outfits, I find unique and high quality for little cost. And I find saving money makes me happy, which might be the biggest benefit of all.
Tamara Reid says
Hair cuts. I grow my hair long and trim the bangs myself. Once or twice a year I get a couple inches trimmed off the ends.
And I cut my husbands hair myself using a Wahl trimmer.
Saves a lot!
Judy says
I make my own detergent. I never buy new clothes, and I home-make all of our meals!