Save Hundreds of Dollars Each Month with these 5 Tips to Cut Back on Spending Long-term
Saving money is necessary to build wealth or achieve financial stability- especially in the beginning. The more money you can save each month, the sooner you will be able to:
- Eliminate debt from your life
- Save an emergency fund
- Invest in growing your income
Saving hundreds of dollars each month is possible. With a scarcity money mindset, it can be easy to think that this is BS. But it’s not.
Keep reading to find out what you can do to make this a possibility in your financial life today.
Related article: 5 Reasons to Save an Emergency Fund
Disclaimer: I am NOT a Financial Advisor, Planner, or Counselor. Hence, the information presented here is NOT professional advice. It is my own opinion and exists only for educational and informational purposes.
1. Cancel unused subscriptions
The first place to look when trying to cut back on spending is your bank statements. There’re lots of things you may notice if you haven’t checked in a while:
- Spam transactions – it happens.
- Duplicate payments- if you signed up with multiple accounts.
- Unused and forgotten subscriptions- things you thought you might like but ended up hating and forgot to cancel. Or you signed up for a free trial and missed the date to cancel before payment starts.
Paying for unwanted subscriptions is not at all uncommon. But it can cost you hundreds of dollars each month based on how much of these you have.
Unsubscribe immediately by calling your bank. If you are using services like PayPal, use the option to view all your subscriptions and cancel the ones you no longer want.
Afterward, you will want to find a way to keep track of all the things you signed up for so that this never happens again. Or check your bank statement regularly.
2. Renegotiate your bills
When you first signed up for a service, e.g., your internet service provider, you may have been given a discount as a new customer. But, as time passes, the amount you pay increases each year even though there has been no upgrade to your service.
The solution is to call up these companies and ask them to lower your bill. Explain to them very nicely that you do not use the service as often as you’d like and do not afford or wish to pay so much money for a service you barely use.
They may try to decline your request, but if you speak nicely and firmly, I promise you that they will work with you.
Unfortunately, you may have to do this once every year for as long as you’re their customer, but it works every time.
3. Be Strategic about repaying debt.
There are two methods to follow when trying to pay off debt.
- You can start by paying more than the minimum balance on the debt with the lowest interest to eliminate it as soon as possible and work your way up.
- Focus on paying as much money as you can each month on the debt with the highest APR while making only the minimum payments on all other debt. The one with the highest APR costs you the most in interest, and the sooner you can cut it, the less money you’ll be paying in the long-term.
Whatever method you choose, always try to be strategic about repaying your debt. Not only can it help to boost your credit score, but it will also help you to save hundreds of dollars on interest.
Paying only the minimum balances on all your debt each month costs you more money in long-term interest.
4. Work on Improving your Credit Score
Credit Scores determine your ability to get credit (debt) and how much interest you will pay on that credit. The higher your credit score, the less interest you’ll pay, and the lower your credit score, the more interest you’ll pay.
Popular ways to improve your credit score overtime include:
- Using your credit cards to purchase items you can pay for in full before the end of the month
- Repaying more than the minimum balance each month
- Paying your bills on time
Maintaining a positive payment report will help your credit score to improve.
5. Meal Plan
Food is one of the highest expenses that many people face.
Therefore, you should carefully budget for it each month. To consistently stay on budget, you will need a meal plan.
The whole point of meal planning is to use the food items at hand before buying more. And to also not go crazy during the week while wondering what to cook every day.
Utilizing the items, you have on hand in your meal plan will shorten your shopping list or drop the need to go grocery shopping some weeks.
And if you spend $100 on food per family member each week and you have two or more household members, that’s a whole lot of savings.
Related articles:
How to Come up with a Food Budget
5 Tips for Eating Healthy on a Budget
In conclusion, any tip that you take away from this article will help you save a ton of money- some soon and some eventually. The important thing is to act.
Like Benjamin Franklin said, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
Related article: 10 Practical Ways to Start Saving Today!
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