It’s entirely possible to earn more money by cutting expenses.
I have heard from so many people that are unhappy with their current financial situation. Do you know what they always think they need? More money. But, from my viewpoint, their financial woes are typically due to an expense problem, not an income problem. If you find that you’re bringing in less than you’re earning each month, sometimes the best way to correct the problem is to cut out some of your unnecessary expenses.
source: aarp.org
Get Rid of Your Smartphone to Earn More Money
My friend is really trying to correct her financial situation, and I commend her for that, but she is still blind to many of the expenses that could easily be corrected and bring her back into the black each month. Her biggest stumbling block (in my opinion) is her iPhone5 that costs her $112 a month. She told me that she WILL NOT switch plans because she doesn’t want to lose her unlimited data plan.
First of all, how many of us really need data plans? I bet if we really had to, we could all survive on a track phone and buy prepaid minutes. Sure, it would suck for a while, but it would save us about $100 a month, which translates into $1,200 a year. That’s a serious chunk of change!
If you really can’t do without texting or the data plan, there are other providers that might work in your area. Sure, you might not be able to get the most awesome phone on the market, but you’ll be paying $55 a month instead of $112. That’s a huge difference.
How Many Songs Do You Have On iTunes? Cut That Expense!
Apple is a brilliant company. They understand that people might stop for a moment to think about paying $15 for an entire disc of music, but when songs are just 99 cents, who cares? It’s practically nothing compared to our income, right? But, when you look through your playlist and discover that you have 1,000 songs, guess what, you’ve paid $1,000 for that list!
You know what I do instead? I listen to Pandora, it’s free and I hear most of the songs that I want because I just make a genre that caters to what I want to hear. If I really want to hear a specific song, I just pull up YouTube. I can listen to every single song that you can and it cost me $0 vs. your $1,000.
Eat At Home to Cut a Huge Expense & Earn More
Yes, I get it, making meals takes time and it’s not that fun. But, on average, it costs about 30% of what it would if you went out to eat! You could make a large batch of chicken or fish at the beginning of the week, keep the leftovers in the refrigerator , and eat for cheap while saving time in the process!
Find Your Unnecessary Expenses
No matter who you are, I’m sure you have expenses that could be cut out of your spending. We may think of them as necessities, but when you look at them with an objective mindset, you’ll soon realize that they’re actually just luxuries that you thought you needed, but don’t.
Have you earned more money by cutting expenses?
I really appreciate the last point: find your unnecessary expenses. I do realise that I am one of those who worship in the Temple of (everything) Apple but my iPhone is pretty vital for what I do.
I am struggling with the data plan thing. My frugal self really really wants to get rid of it. However I do use it for business purposes as well which is more than convenient. I am not always near a computer to be able to answer business needs. After our contract is up with Verizon, I’m seriously considering going to the no-contract, unlimited-everything plans they have at Walmart for like $40.
Daisy! These are wicked good tips! We do use iTunes, but it took us about 10 years to get 90 tunes. Has it even been around 10 years? Smartphones are totally outta the question for us though. When we own a corporation, we’ll consider it.
I’m always looking for new ways I can cut expenses. Just when you think you couldn’t cut anymore, you always seem to find a way. Sometimes you’re right, it’s hard at first, but you usually find a way to cope.
I don’t even own a cell phone, but my wife does. She has an older style phone that does everything but connect to the internet. Her friend told her to get with the times last week and to buy an Iphone. She won’t, what’s the point when the internet is at home. She doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time. In some ways I wonder if times will change as we may be forced in that direction, especially if we want to save more money. It seems companies are offering amazing deals to those with SMART phones and the rest of the people are left out.
My mobile phone is not a smart phone type. It is new but old style of nokia mobile phone. I don’t even have a mobile phone plan, I have a prepaid type. I put a credit at least $25 per month, enough to call my wife and my family. Most of the time I am using our company telephone for local call.
These are all good tips. I have a smartphone but switched to an unlimited prepaid plan and pay a touch over $40/mo. I’ve written about it a lot & encourage everyone looking to save money to consider doing the same! I’m also a huge music nerd, I used to have hundreds of CD’s and once filled a 500GB hard drive with mp3s. Nowadays I listen to all the music I want thru Spotify and Pandora which saves me a ton of money each year.
Wow, that is a crazy amount to me for a monthly phone plan! I only recently got a smartphone, and it caused my bill to jump from $25 / mo (unlimited talk & text) to $48 (that includes taxes). You are right that most of us could definitely do without it if necessary; it’s a luxury.
Ah, I just got an iPhone, but it was after months of careful consideration, and we decided to cut satellite TV and switched to save a ton on our homeowners insurance to off set the cost. The problems come when you keep adding and never subtracting.
I actually just got a new iPhone, but after months of consideration. We also recently cut satellite TV and switched companies to save money on homeowner’s insurance to offset the cost. The problems come when you are always adding something but never subtracting anything.
I have a smartphone because I need it for work (emails, texts, Skype, etc.) but I don’t have too many songs on iTunes. When I buy stuff (expensive or not), I make sure I am doing it because I need them.
I have learned to stop buying things that I don’t really need. Like buying clothes – I have too many clothes now that I haven’t worn in like a year.
I would disagree with Derek.
I think data plans are essential with smartphones, otherwise it is not smart any longer.
You need it for all the perks, bells and whistles…
We are doing our family budgeting, but if you look at the overall profile:
https://www.niterainbow.com/search/label/Family%20Budget
What typically takes you down is house rent/mortgage, kids and entertainment.
I think some unnecessary expenses, is what makes as humans…not robots 😉
Your earnings and savings will go up if you do away with unnecessary expenditures. You are absolutely correct. There is no better way than being thrifty when needed.
Being thrifty is really important!