A surefire way to speed up your debt removal process is to reduce your spending and increase your income.
This just might be the part that you enjoy most! This is where you have a chance to get creative.
This week and next week, we’ll find ways that you can trim your spending to make room in your budget for paying off debt or saving up for your next financial goal.
Today, we’ll focus on eliminating some expenses from your budget.
Examine Your Budget
Pull out your monthly budget.
Examine each expenditure. Go through line by line to come up with some potential expenses you can cut from your budget.
What are some expenses that you can get rid of completely?
Other than your basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, carefully consider each expense.
Do you really NEED these items?
Challenge yourself to write down at least ten expenses you can eliminate from your budget.
For now, these are just thoughts.
You’re not going to act on each item you list at this time, but I want you to spend some time on this and add as many ideas to your list as possible.
Get creative.
Don’t worry if an idea sounds ridiculous or impossible. It may lead to a better idea later.
Once you have at least ten items listed, add ten more.
No matter how big or how small the potential decrease in spending may be, don’t disregard any idea.
Small changes add up over time.
Expenses You Can Cut
Here is a list of 20 ideas to help you get started on your own list:
- Cable
- Dare I say… Internet?
- Landscaping
- House cleaning
- Pest control
- Gym membership
- Kids’ activities
- Hobbies
- Monthly insurance fee on cell phones
- Data plan for smart phone
- Modem rental fee
- Daily espresso
- Daily lunch out
- Alcohol
- Soda
- Snack foods
- Entertainment
- Restaurants
- Magazine subscription
- Vacation
Again, these are just ideas. It doesn’t mean you have to implement every single one, but understand that the more you trim your spending now, the quicker you’ll get out of debt.
You don’t have to be as drastic as Miriam and unplug your fridge to make quick progress. My husband Mike and I paid off $65,000 of debt in 11 months on a single, middle class income, and we haven’t cut all of the expenses that I suggest.
Every situation is unique. What worked for us may not work for you.
The Point is to Be Intentional With Your Spending
I’ve stated this before, but the point of this whole process is to be intentional with your spending.
If you don’t cut an expense, then you should have a good reason for keeping it.
There are a number of expenses in our budget that we could cut, but we haven’t.
For example, we put our son in preschool last fall. We didn’t have to do that. We could have saved the expense and taught him his ABC’s and numbers at home.
But we feel that education is important, and we want him to be prepared for kindergarten when the time comes. While we’ve sung the ABC’s and worked on counting with him, he’s shown tremendous progress since September. He loves school and is already trying to read — at 3-and-a half!
Take Action
Decide on two expenses that you can cut this week.
Then take action to do so by the end of the week. Make a pact with your spouse or accountability partner that you will act on these ideas by the end of the week.
Put it on your “To Do” list or add it to your calendar of when you are going to remove these expenses from your budget.
Two items is manageable for most people, and you will feel accomplished by freeing up even a little bit of money in your budget. But if you want to cut more, by all means, trim away!
Read Our Popular Articles
If you are serious about getting out of debt, read our other popular articles:
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Ron and Thu Paid Off $137,000 in 7 Years
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Yes, You Can Pay Off Debt When You’re Behind On Your Bills
Lastly if you are snowed under with debt, consider refinancing with SoFi. They have solid customer service and a competitive model.
What About You?
Participate in the conversation. What are some expenses you have cut from your budget to reach your financial goals? What would you add to the list? Share in the comments below.
Another suggestion would be calling up your utility suppliers to ensure that you are on the lowest tariff/plan. I did that this morning with my gas/electricity and come to find out I could say like about £100 per year if I set up monthly direct online payments. Similar with cable, mobile phone, Internet, etc., you might not need to get rid of them completely, just downgrade the package you are on. Either way, all great suggestions.
That’s a great tip, Ursula! We’ve negotiated with our Internet provider multiple times to sign up for their new customer deal to keep our costs low. 🙂
Great list, Monica! I definitely agree with Catherine that “inaction” has become a powerful saving-tool as well. We do the Netflix thing, instead of cable. I was really tempted to get Amazon Prime this year, since you can use it to stream movies. But we very rarely shop on Amazon, so you can guess what would happen if we signed up for Amazon Prime… I’d be on there every day, haha.
(Thanks for the shout out on #10. It was an honor to make it on your list!)
Thanks, Laura! We love Netflix, too! So happy to link back to your interview. Really appreciate you sharing your story with us!
Oh dear expenses – yes to cutting cable I think that is very reasonable; it is a good idea to review and look at what we spend our money on and if it really benefits us. If the benefit outweighs the burden I think the expense is well spent.
I definitely agree! Sometimes there are expenses we hold on to because of the convenience factor. Thanks for reading!
My action on this front is inaction: A magazine subscription has recently been yelling at me to renew, but honestly I have so little time to read it, so I’m NOT going to renew. Also, when we switched phones recently, I realized we’d been paying insurance on our POS cell phones for two years. I was so bitter!
I’ve been there with the unnecessary phone insurance, Catherine! That experience is why it made the list. We could have bought a new phone with the money we spent on the insurance. Lesson learned!
About half of these we already live without…and several of them I need to work…but thanks for the reminder….that coffee habit of mine gets a little excessive at times! 🙂
I’ve definitely had the coffee habit. When I was working my corporate job, it was just so easy to take a short afternoon break for a little treat and pick-me-up. But it definitely added up!
Good list! I do without many of these items, although some of them are critical to my job, and making money 😉 But it is a good reminder to take a look at expenses and ask the hard questions about what is necessary and what is not. Thanks!
Thanks, Marlynn! I have a hunch that you may be referring to the Internet. 🙂 We’re not going without the Internet any time soon, but it could be an expense we could cut if we had to so it made the list!
magazine subscriptions are off my list, recently. and i very very rarely get coffee anywhere that’s not home. it’s a ridiculous expense. i have also never had cable but that can be SUCH a good one to cut out!
I’m with you on all those accounts. I very rarely buy coffee out, and it’s been a long, long time since we’ve had cable.