Saving money on everyday expenses has become more challenging than ever.
Despite the many modern developments that were supposed to make our lives easier, it seems like a lost battle to be on top of our finances.
I’m not even talking about the big-ticket items like rent or car payments – it’s the everyday expenses that really add up. We find ourselves overspending on groceries, eating out too often, and buying things (online) we don’t really need.
Now, if you’re already a master at managing your finances and have plenty of savings to spare, please, click away. This post isn’t for you.
But if you often catch yourself wondering if you can ever be at the top of your finances. If you can end up with even a little money left before payday. Or if you can have even a little more money to cover other expenses instead of spending all of them unnecessarily on your everyday expenses. You’re in the right place.
This was me a few years ago.
Not until I realized that some of my spending habits were wasteful, unnecessary, and downright reckless. I realized that I can take control of my finances if I make some changes.
That’s why I think it’s time for you to make these changes and save for yourself more money you can use for other purposes or expenses.
Do a Personal Finance Assessment
You’ll have a hard time fixing your counterproductive financial habits if you don’t know where you are financially. Don’t pretend you have it all figured out when you don’t.
You need to understand how much money you have coming in, how much you’re spending, and where your money is going, to make informed decisions and take control of your finances.
Gather all your financial documents. Including pay stubs, bank statements, credit card bills, and any other bills or receipts.
Have a clear understanding of all your income and expenses including fixed expenses like rent or mortgage payments, utilities, and car payments, as well as variable expenses like groceries, dining out, entertainment, and other discretionary spending.
Most people would rather remain in limbo than confront their financial situations, spending habits, and the patterns that are underpinning their financial mistakes, which is understandable.
Because to reach financial awareness, one must overcome the fear of discovering something they don’t want to know, the shame or embarrassment about their financial decisions and situation, and the overwhelming feeling that comes with dealing with finances.
We might not want to realize how badly we’ve been handling our finances or how badly of a mess our finances have been. We might not want it. But we need it. You need it to for the sake of this post, identify areas where you can cut back on expenses.
Stop acting like you don’t care
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Cancel or Sign-out of Your Customer Loyalty Programs
One critical point in my life that I’ve always been grateful for. I realized that I had to put an end to some supposedly “smart” financial decisions that aren’t really as favorable as I hoped they’d be for me.
I decided that I couldn’t keep making financial decisions based on promises of rewards and benefits that I wasn’t really benefiting from.
I had always been a personal finance enthusiast that’s just as obsessed with making smart financial decisions.
If you’re one of those people who read personal finance books, blogs, and articles or watch videos on the topic, you would have gotten the wind of how certain smart financial decisions like signing up for customer loyalty programs will help you save money.
Or rather, how some credit cards and cash-back offers can help you get the most out of your everyday spending.
Even as someone living in a country (Nigeria) where credit cards and customer loyalty programs aren’t that common among consumers, my obsession with personal finance helped me find ways to get access to these services against all odds.
But over time, I realized that these programs were costing me more money than they were saving me even though it seemed like they were serving me initially.
This doesn’t mean that services like this are generally bad ideas to sign up for, but if you’re like me, you’ll likely find yourself spending more than you normally would just to meet spending requirements for certain reward programs.
And if you aren’t that careful unlike me (because I wasn’t), you’ll accumulate debt on your credit cards because your spending more than you can afford just to earn rewards.
Canceling or signing out of these loyalty programs that are costing you more money than they’re worth will be the smartest financial decision your future self will thank you for.
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Reconsider Cash-Back Cards
Some people make the mistake of assuming that since a world full of benefits awaits them when they’re starting with cash-back credit cards, they’ll just blindly use them in ways that’ll cost them more money than they’ll ever imagine.
The more they use these services in hopes of getting the most out of their purchases, the more it’ll feel like they’re in financial stagnancy or regression. This is the reality for a lot of people.
If your finances don’t feel like it’s getting any better despite employing some of the best financial tips and tricks like trying to save money on every single purchase through cash-back credit cards,
It might probably be that the high-interest rates on the balance (you’ve been carrying over) as a result of your overspending—because you’re spending more than you can afford just to earn cash-back rewards, are outweighing all the benefits and rewards you’re earning and even puts you in the debt way.
Let’s not even begin with cash-back cards that charge high annual fees or the ones that have redemption restrictions.
Again, this is not to dispute the fact that cash-back credit cards can be a good way to save money on purchases and earn other rewards even.
But it’s important, to be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you’re using it responsibly. If you can even use it responsibly. And If the terms and conditions of the one you’re using are worth it.
The answers you come up with will help you make better decisions about whether to close them or change your usage habits.
An investment that has little to no ROI is as good as no investment at all.
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Negotiate For Reduced Interest Rates
Unfortunately, as a personal finance enthusiast, I’m obliged to think and talk more about paying off debts a lot of times. But who knows if negotiating lower interest rates on your credit card or other debts might just be the magic you need to pay them off more easily.
Now, not all creditors will be willing to negotiate their interest rates with you, but it can be a significant game-changer in your quest to pay off or manage your debt.
A successful attempt to negotiate a lower interest rate won’t only reduce your fixed costs, but will in some ways, reduce your everyday expenses.
Negotiating lower interest rates on your debt can reduce your everyday expenses by reducing the amount of interest you have to pay on your debts over time.
If you are to pay a lower amount of interest over time, you’ll have a lower minimum monthly payment and more free money in your budget for other expenses or to put toward paying off your debt faster.
Reach out to your credit company and try to negotiate lower interest rates giving them reasons why you want reduced interest rates.
Maybe the first few call center agent you’ll talk to might be bad news, but if you try a few more times, you might be lucky to have your interest rates reduced even if it’s by 5% — that alone, is a big win for your finances.
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Make Extra Payments on High-Interest Debts
A friend of mine suggested I used the extra money I made from my freelance work to do something that’ll better my finances.
So I decided to use a significant part of it to make extra payments toward my credit card debt. It felt great at that time, and ever since then, I’ve fallen in love with that idea.
When you have extra money from your side hustle or elsewhere and you use it to make extra payments on your high-interest debts, you’re in a lot of ways, saving money on your everyday expenses.
It’s nearly identical to how negotiating lower interest rates can positively affect your everyday expenses.
Because by paying down your debt faster, you’ll pay less in interest charges over time, which means you’ll have more money available for other expenses.
You don’t need to make large extra payments.
You don’t need to use all the extra money you’ve earned from other income streams you have.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be extra money earned from side hustles or other income streams, it could be unexpected or surprise bonuses, or even performance-based bonuses from your employer or something like that.
It’ll help a lot if you make significant payments above the minimum payment whenever you have such opportunities because it’ll go a long way helping you pay down your debt faster and save money on interest.
This is what I’m sure you want.
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Minimize Your Desires For Unnecessary Things
Remember the whole point of this post is about saving money on everyday expenses.
While the idea of minimizing our desires for unnecessary expenses might seem obvious, it’s a crucial step towards staying on top of our finances and achieving our financial goals.
I have one rule related to this that has served my finances well over the years.
Cancel all unnecessary memberships and subscriptions.
Of what use is it to have over 10 entertainment subscriptions when you only use a few actively?
Many of us have active gym memberships even though we rarely go to the gym for some reason.
I had a gym membership too, but it got to a time when I realized it wasn’t worth the cost since I wasn’t using it as much as I thought I would.
You could cancel it as I did and instead look for alternative ways to exercise that don’t require a gym membership.
You could also negotiate a lower gym membership fee and work more on your usage pattern.
Either way, avoid spending money unnecessarily when you could save the money for other expenses.
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Buy Store Brands Instead of Name Brands
You think you’re always going for high-quality products and getting the best out of your money since you often buy name brands.
You mostly aren’t.
Most of the time you’re better off buying store brands.
The truth is that, most of the time you’re just paying for the advertising and marketing cost of the brand name products you’re buying and not always the quality.
After you’ve compared the prices, read reviews online, check labels to confirm the ingredients and nutritional information, and started small, you’ll eventually incorporate store brands into your shopping routine.
Because you’ll most often than not find that store brands can offer similar or even better quality compared to brand-name products at lower costs.
Meaning you’ll enjoy significant savings over time.
However, it’s important to note that there may be some situations where there’s a noticeable difference in quality or taste between some store brand products and brand name products.
That’s why it’s wise to always make careful comparisons with the help of reviews as earlier mentioned.
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Alternate Coffee and Tee
You don’t see any need to think much of some “insignificant” expenses, but you should.
Instead of always going for a cup of coffee for prices that seem insignificant but will eventually add up over time, why not switch to tea that’s generally less expensive and will cost significantly less over time?
Your finances will certainly be impacted by your everyday expenses no matter how insignificant you think they are.
As earlier hinted, if you keep spending ‘insignificant’ amounts here and there, those small expenses will quickly add up and even lead to a situation where you spend more than you can afford, especially when those insignificant amounts aren’t really small and insignificant.
For example, spending about $70 a month on coffee, which is about a cup of coffee per day, which can, in turn, add up to $840 a year, can be mitigated by switching to less expensive tea.
Because if you buy a pound of tea for maybe $100 for example, you’ll certainly have more than 30 or 31 cups of tea that you’ll get if you’re to buy coffee for let’s say $70.
Hell, you’ll get anywhere between 80 to 200 cups of tea from one pound which is significantly cheaper than you’ll get from coffee even if you buy the pound of tea for $200.
However, if you must do with coffee, it’s important to find a balance that works best for you, based on your personal preference and budget.
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Pick Up a Side Hustle
Sometimes, it won’t be just easy to avoid unnecessary expenses.
Because sometimes, you have to, you know, distract or keep yourself engaged.
Do something. Something. Anything that keeps you busy enough that you don’t really have much time to shop and spend money.
I just can’t be thankful enough for deciding to chase my dream career as a side hustle at a critical time when I was drowning in financial struggles and bad money behaviors.
At first, I was only looking for ways to make extra income that’ll be directed toward other expenses.
But now that I think of it, I realized that the time I spent learning the hook and getting better at my craft actually took something away from me that helped my finances too.
It took away the time I would have used to look for things I would spend money I don’t have on things I don’t really need.
I don’t know but it feels like a double win for me. I earned extra income and have since quit my day job. And I’ve somehow gotten over the urge to shop or spend because I’ve learned to use my time for other things that matter the most.
That’s why I hope something like this might work for you.
However, it’s important to note that you have to pick a side hustle that aligns with your personal and even professional goals if you’re going down this road.
Also, you should endeavor to pick up a side hustle that’s sustainable in the long run.
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Preventive Health Care Saves Money
We can be so dumb at times. Although sometimes it might be because of situations beyond our control, some of us simply delay or avoid medical health care because we feel we can save the cost for something else or something like that.
We may notice some symptoms and might even feel unwell but might quickly decide against the idea of going to see the doctor because we feel like it’s nothing serious and we don’t want to incur additional expenses, even though we can actually afford the medical care at the time.
Why does it feel like a good financial decision? It’s most often than not, a very bad decision.
Because turning a blind eye to your “minor” health issue can lead to more serious health issues, which can be more expensive to treat than if you had addressed the issue earlier.
Because by seeing a doctor and addressing the issue earlier on, you can prevent more serious health problems from developing and potentially avoid more costly medical bills in the future.
So it’s wise to get regular check-ups, screenings, and other preventive health measures as they can save you money in the long run by catching on to potential health problems earlier on before they become serious.
However, I understand that there are various reasons why someone might avoid seeking medical care promptly, such as anxiety about diagnosis, limited time, financial constraints, or lack of access to healthcare due to geographical or other barriers.
While I empathize with these concerns, I urge you to seek help from the appropriate resources. It’s important not to suffer in silence and to prioritize your health. Please take care and stay safe.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
