Have you changed any of your daily routines or spending practices?
My husband and I recently did a major overhaul of our monthly budget and spending. A few of the greatest areas where we overspent were dining out frequently, grocery shopping and buying name brand products, services that were set-up on automatic draft (that we really never needed and forgot about) and our cell phone accounts.
• We first started by evaluating the services that were set-up on auto draft from our bank accounts. Funny how most were totally unnecessary but had a purpose for a short window of time. We quickly stopped those services and carved out $200 a month.
• We didn’t realize it but we had separate cell phone accounts and we were not a family plan. Hello…what were we thinking?!? One thing you can count on is that people in the service industry are not going to look out for your best interest – you have to. There are some that step up and do the right thing and interestingly it’s rare but OH SO appreciated. We are finally on a family plan, saving about $60 a month.
• We pay much closer attention to the price per ounce at the grocery store on many products. For instance, coffee, there are days and weeks when Starbucks coffee is competitively priced and other weeks….holy cow, they are insanely overpriced. Yep, you guessed it….I stock up when prices are good and pass when prices are high. I do this throughout the grocery store now. I also buy store brands on products that I know taste the same or nearly the same. Even better when you have a super awesome grocery store like HEB that does an incredible job at store brands that taste even better than “brand names”. We probably save $100 – $150 at the grocery store.
• The last and most important cost saving exercise was re-financing our home mortgage. This made a serious difference in our monthly budget. If you have not considered this, I encourage you to do so. If I can help connect you to mortgage lenders that can help explain your options and potential cost savings. Please let me know how I can help.
Keep me posted on your “New Normal” activities….even if they have nothing to do with spending or saving money. Sharing is a beautiful way of helping others learn and see different and better ways to make it through life. Until next time…