While now is the time to take a look around your doors, windows, and outlets that share a wall with the outside to make sure you’re probably sealed to withstand the cold air coming in and causing your heat to kick on more than often, there are other ways you can reduce expenses throughout the month by making a few changes. No one said it would be easy, otherwise everyone would have loads of extra money in their account at the end of the month, but with a little patience and discipline, you can see the extra savings add up quickly.
Look at Every Charge from the Previous Month
It may not add up to savings right away, but the more you review every purchase you make and put all charges under a microscope, the more conscious you will be when it comes to spending and hopefully reduce any impulse purchases. If you take last month’s debit or credit card statement you can actually go line by line and figure out how many were necessary, and those that probably could have been avoided. For fun, add up all of the charges that could/should have been avoided and see what you could be left with.
Avoid Going Out to Eat
As mentioned, saving money is not easy, so it will take some real sacrifices to see any relief. While this may sting if you’re not the best cook, but avoiding going out to eat, even skipping picking up carryout, and opting for going grocery shopping and preparing your meals at home is where you can see savings of a few hundred add up pretty quickly. You may even see the weight come off too and healthier eating options are likely occurring at home instead of the normal fast food options to this point.
Cut the Cable Cord
For some going out to eat is the norm, and for others, it may be a huge sacrifice to not have cable anymore, but it can be done. Just think about how many of the hundreds of channels that you actually watch, live for that matter and not on DVR, that justifies paying top dollar every month. By opting for a streaming service or two instead, of which you probably have one anyways that you’re paying for, getting an HD antenna as a one-time charge to get local channels, you may start seeing the savings add up and never look back. Figuring out some live sports may be the only issue that could take some research, otherwise going to the bar to watch the game and spending money may defeat the purpose of getting rid of cable in the first place.
Ditch the Gym Membership
While it’s still somewhat nice if you bundle up, why not take the dog for a daily walk to get moving around, instead of paying gym membership dues that you are probably paying every month even though you haven’t gone in months. Sure, it seemed like a good idea to join at the time when you were going for a new year’s resolution, but throwing money away and getting full use is not financially efficient.