Being on a journey to debt freedom and financial independence can cause you to evaluate your budget and your spending habits. Whether you want to reduce your expenses so you can get out of debt faster or save up for something fun like a family vacation, I’ve got you covered. Here are five financial moves we made to save over $3,500/year.
I work hard to bring you amazing editorial content. Some links on this page are from my amazing affiliate partners which earn me a commission at no cost to you and helps make this blog possible.
RELATED: To see a list of all the different ways I save money each month, check this out.
1. Canceled Our Family YMCA Membership - $1,200/year
You guys, there is a great YMCA right in our neighborhood—even within walking distance if you ask my stepson, though I don’t think I’d ever walk that far! We love it though. We often worked out together as a family, or went to the “dive-in” movies they would show outside from the pool in the summers, and take them up on their monthly Parent’s Night Out activities, so the hubs and I could catch a date night while the kiddo was occupied and having fun.
So making the choice to cancel this wasn’t easy, but we know it was the right decision financially. Sometimes you have to sacrifice what you want right now for what you want most on this debt free journey, and that’s exactly what we did. We paid approximately $100/month for our membership which translates to a savings of $1,200/year. Once we are debt free, this may be something we add back in to the monthly budget, but truthfully, we don’t miss it nearly as much as we thought we would. Knowing the decision is helping us reach our dreams of financial freedom faster helped make the decision easier.
2. Canceled the Self Storage Unit - $1,440/year
My hubs is a semi-hoarder (sorry, babe, but you kinda are—I love you!!) and I’m a semi-minimalist. Before we bought our current house, we rented, and most of his stuff was in a gigantic storage unit we were paying about $120/month for. After we bought this house, I thought it was stupid to pay someone else to store our stuff. We brought it all home and have slowly started sorting through what we want to keep, what we can donate, and what we can sell.
This debt free journey has 100% led me to minimalism. Once I started going through everything to sell and then selling so many things, I began to question why I ever bought all that stuff in the first place. Which then led me to question why I buy anything anymore. Which led me to realize I am so much happier with less. As a friend of mine recently said, it feels GOOD to have less, which means we must be doing something right.
So, if you have so much stuff that you have to pay someone else to hold all your stuff, you may want to consider owning less stuff. For more on minimalism, check out Joshua Becker’s book The More of Less and Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki.
3. Canceled Satellite Radio - $233/year
I used to love listening to The Today Show on my morning commute. But, I didn’t always listen to satellite radio. In fact, sometimes I listened to e-books I downloaded for free with the Overdrive app, or music on my iPhone, or a million different podcasts.
When I became serious about putting every spare penny to debt, I realized this luxury of satellite radio was an easy way to cut costs while barely noticing. I canceled it and never looked back.
4. Quit Getting My Nails Done - $600/year
Back in the day, I used to get my nails done every two weeks. Embarrassing confession here, guys, but I still bite my fingernails. And, I’m like, really old. And they look hideous pretty much at all times. So, I would get them done to look like a decent human being. I can’t just paint my nails and have them look normal. Nope. I need to actually go get acrylics put on.
But again, this debt free journey forces you to really examine WHY you spend your money the way you do. Honestly, if I was the only human being on earth, would I still care what my nails looked like? Was I just spending my money trying to present an image of myself to the world that I thought I should be presenting? Basically, yes. And honestly, is anyone even really looking at my nails anyway? Unlikely. And even if they are, who cares? Yes, my nails look like hot poop on a stick, but again, I say—who cares? What would I rather have? Debt freedom as fast as possible or good looking nails?
5. Canceled Monthly Subscriptions - $395/year
Specifically, I cut PicMonkey (a photo editing software at $12.99/month) and Rocksbox (a monthly jewelry subscription at $19.99/month). Honestly, there were probably more subscriptions we had and cut, but if there were, they were so inconsequential to my life that I don’t even remember them.
The Results - $3,868/year
With these 5 cuts alone, we managed to save $3,868/year. Y’all, that’s almost FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS a year on things we barely even missed! Some of the items were indeed small—PicMonkey was only $12.99/month. Don’t be fooled into thinking “Oh, it’s only $12, no big deal.” Multiple, small changes to your budget can have drastic impact on your bottom line.
When you extend this $3,868/year savings out (btw, what a fantastic family vacation $3,800 would pay for once we are debt free!) that translates to $19,340 after five years and $38,868 in savings after ten years! By making small changes I barely even noticed!!!
What are you willing to cut to save money and reach financial freedom even faster?
RELATED: For more ideas and ways to reduce expenses, check out the March 2019 Personal Finance Challenge, where I give you tons of ideas on how to reduce expenses.
**This post inspired by Melanie at Sweet Frugal Life. To see the 5 things she cut to save $2,500/year, click HERE.
