Have you ever made any big life changes and let the finances slide a little? I certainly have. With all of life’s ups and downs, it seems the moment something significant happens, finances are one of the easiest things to let go.
Moving is one of those life-disrupting moments. When we moved to a new home 2 ½ years ago, life felt crazy and cash was tight. To compensate for moving expenses and other related changes to the monthly cash flow, we cut our savings by over 50%.
We had all good intentions of it this being temporary…you know, until we got settled. Regrettably, one year later, our spending remained the same and savings continued to suffer.
Between a new home, new commutes, a new school and a new side hustle, life just seemed to take over, with finances suffering the most.
Side note: During this busy time, I stopped reading personal finance blogs and books. In the years prior to the move, I read about personal finance in one way or another every, single day. Coincidence? I think not! 🙂
Something needed to change. We had goals and dreams for the future – and we weren’t going to get there at the rate we’d been going.
My husband and I are both types of people that tend to dive right in and figure out things as we go. We had a brief conversation about it and, one day, decided to increase our automatic savings by 15% (I would honestly recommend a little forethought and planning here)! The 15% was a significant cut to the cash flow we had become accustomed to.
How we were going to do it, we didn’t exactly know but, with our frugal history and knowledge, plus more effort and a little less convenience, we knew it could be done.
How did we decide where to cut?
Even though our spending had increased with the move, I had continued to track expenses through my own spreadsheet and I also utilize Personal Capital (which, by the way, tracks your spending for you – check out their free financial software here). Expense tracking was a lifesaver.
I combed through the past few months’ expenses and focused in on the variable expenses that were under my control, such as food, clothing, household expenses, home improvement, and entertainment to decide what would make the most impact to cash flow.
How we lowered our expenses
Groceries ($200-300 savings per month)
Groceries were costing us between $550-600 each month at that point. I have successfully kept them under $300 ever since. Other families that share their low grocery spending online provided inspiration, plus the fact that I grow some of our food and cook helped me realize I could do it.
Grocery sales are great, but I discovered they prompted me to buy more food than I needed. I began studying the ads, stocked up only as much as needed and limited my shopping frequency. Coupons usage stopped at this time because I discovered I was buying things just to get the discount.
I continued to cook (and bake) most of our food. Since I’ve done this for years, it wasn’t necessarily an added change, but definitely helped ease the transition to a lower grocery bill.
Check out my monthly grocery spending for May, June, and July.
Gas (average of $150)
Some of this savings was simply a drop in fuel prices, but we made a few tweaks to help boost the savings.
- My husband and I decide each day who drives the most and that person drives the more fuel efficient car.
- I batch errands and keep all errands within the same vicinity (or wait until I have more than one errand in a certain area).
- I don’t leave the car running when waiting for my daughter (even when it’s freezing cold).
- We stay home more on weekends/evenings.
- I prepare as much as possible so we don’t run out of necessary items, eliminating last minute trips to the store (milk, toilet paper, etc.).
Lawn Care/Garden (average $100)
We moved to a home on one acre in desperate need of landscaping. Initially we had worked on building up the lawn through seed, fertilizer and aerating, started a garden, and planted trees and perennials. To cut back, we instead planted seeds and split perennials in the fall to fill in planting areas for free. In addition, we only buy fertilizer and grass seed when we know it’s at rock bottom prices.
Internet (average $50)
We had been paying around $80 for high speed internet. My husband called our internet provider, asked for introductory pricing and got it. The introductory price ran out just last month, so he made the phone call once again and got the bill back down to $30. This goes to show how important it is to call and ask for a better rate.
Utilities (average $20)
To reduce utility bills, we used energy saving strategies, such as LED light bulbs, adjusting the thermostat, and a few others. The three main ways we effectively reduced the electric/gas bill are detailed in this post.
Other (pet food, clothing and “other” expenses – average $100)
When I see a low price, I think “bargain” and tend to buy more willingly. Even though I typically only shop for clothes in thrift or consignment stores, it still adds up (only $4 for those jeans?! Throw ‘em in). I stopped frequenting the thrift stores and drastically cut back on clothing for myself and my husband.
Regular monthly purchases, such as pet food and toiletries, presented an area for more savings. By simply finding lower prices on those items, I could cut expenses. I stock up and/or buy in bulk at the lowest prices to have enough of these items to get by for a few weeks.
My “other” category on my expense tracking spreadsheet was running $100+ each month. Since this was a very vague category, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what those “other” expenses were. Come to find out, when you really try to avoid buying things that aren’t absolutely essential, these “other” expenses basically disappear on their own. Apparently “other” doesn’t equal “need”.
There you have it – how we cut over $600 from our monthly expenses. Over a year later, we are successfully keeping our expenses down. And our lifestyle? Our lifestyle hasn’t changed a bit and we haven’t felt deprived in the least! For us, the crucial factor was to become more conscious of spending and squelch unnecessary shopping.
Where have you been able to save the most on your monthly expenses? Where would you start to cut expenses if you needed to?
Here are some tools that I use myself that you may find helpful:
Want to painlessly save more each month (without even lifting a finger!)? Try out Digit. I really thought I was saving all I possibly could. Digit proved me wrong. See my review and updates on how much I’ve saved here.
Personal Capital tracks your expenses for you for free! Have all your accounts in one place and utilize their free expense tracking tool! I use their free net worth and expense tracking tools. Sign up for a FREE Personal Capital
account.
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Amanda, $600 a month in savings is really great! I was just talking to my wife about that this morning. We need to sit down and take a close look at our monthly expenses. I think we can save $200 easy. The starting point will be our cable/phone/internet plan and then our mobile phone bill. We already killed a few gym memberships that were not getting enough usage…
Thanks, Jon! Our mobile phone bill could stand to be paired down as well – we have 9 lines on a shared plan, so changing providers at this time would be difficult. For TV options, we just have Netflix, so only under $10 there. Gym memberships and subscriptions are a great place to start!
That’s terrific! We’ve pulled a lot down by cutting back on eating out ($100 a month), cutting our Y membership (we were only using the pool–$115 a month), switching phone providers ($80 a month), switching to basic 15 channel cable/internet and buying our own router ($110 a month), being more careful about our grocery spending ($200+ a month), and cutting back on the other little impulse buys (at least $50 a month). You really can cut a lot without changing too much quality of life.
Wow, Emily, you’ve really been able to cut your expenses! That’s great. I agree, you can cut expenses by a significant amount without affecting quality of life. It’s just a matter of digging into those regular expenses to see what little tweaks you could do to lower them. Thanks for sharing what you have been able to cut.
Congrats! That’s great.
We saved around $100/month by switching from cable to Netflix and Hulu and after a month or so I started not to miss it.
“Coupons usage stopped at this time because I discovered I was buying things just to get the discount.” I have also found this to be true. I guess those marketers know what they are doing!
Wow! That’s great savings on TV options! Great job there. Sometimes those changes take a little getting used to, but a little time passes and you really don’t miss what you had. And, yes, the marketers do know what they are doing (that’s an entire post itself!).
Our introductory rate is coming to end and I am preparing for the call! thankfully we got a new provider in our development and I have a fallback plan if I don’t get what we want!
Smart moves on the gas savings, even though gas is “cheap” right now you will have the habits down when it rises later.
Unfortunately, we only have one provider, so I’m grateful they keep allowing us to get the introductory rate! In another year, we will cut our fuel expenses further, since my daughter will be going to the same school as my son, saving us 40 miles/day! Huge savings, even with gas being cheap!
I have our internet bill hanging on our builtin board because we have been meaning to call. It’s gone from $50 to $63 and now $72. We don’t have a lot of other options here, but are going to try our best.
It’s worth it to make the call just to see. We occasionally get flyers in the mail that show the introductory rate so we know what to request. If they were to deny us the lower rate, we don’t have any other decent options, so we would be stuck.
Groceries are a great place for many people to cut back. It’s in most people’s top 3 expenses, and it’s one of those areas where it’s so easy to justify any cost because food is necessary. But there are certainly less expensive, nutritionally dense foods that can save money. Another area we’ve cut back without feeling it is restaurant spending.
Agreed, Kalie. Whenever I need to trim expenses, the grocery bill is where I start. I think some people get into the habit of buying the same brands at the same store each week, but looking at other types of food and store options may help to trim the grocery expenses. Restaurant spending is a great place to cut!
Another trick I learned is to do some of my personal needs shopping online through Walmart. It has saved me from having to make a trip to the dollar store for what I need. I’m going to try doing that on my grocery shopping next month. I only buy clothes now when I need them. I stopped buying clothes I want to wear (only to find out that they sit in the closet after wearing them one time).
Thanks, Steven! Ordering online is a way to cut back on trips to the store, for sure. I use Amazon in the same way for personal needs, vitamins and some household items as well. I’d be curious to hear how you do with online grocery shopping!
Nice job! We were also able to cut our grocery bill by about $100-$300 on average by being more strategic about meal planning and being aware of deals, coupons, etc. Reviewing your spending can have a big impact on your finances on a monthly basis, and if you calculate it over the course of 6 months, a year, or even a few years, it can have a very material impact.
Thanks, DC! Tracking spending is the key here, in my opinion. If you don’t know where you are spending, you can’t adjust accordingly. And those smaller savings absolutely add up to significant savings when extrapolated out to years!
We’ve also managed to cut down on our grocery and food bill by decreasing the number of times we go out to eat, and instead eating and cooking at home more often. We manage to make leftovers as well, which help out for eating lunch at work. We also bought some ethically made coffee, which is helping out a lot since we spend so much money on coffee!
Hi Alexis! Decreasing the frequency of going out to eat can really add up since meals out cost several times what making food at home costs. We make lunches for work/school as well. We brew our own coffee and take it with us in our travel mugs to save buying when we are out as well.
I can relate to being more likely to buy clothes/other useful stuff if they are a true bargain – how can I pass that up?! AND I can keep those items to give as future presents, win win right? Well…it gets to a point where I don’t *need* that particular item – when we’ve got all the clothing items we need for the time being and I’ve already got a nice stash of presents ready to go…
Keeping myself from browsing the discount stores and email offers definitely helps keep it “out of sight out of mind” – because if I KNOW there’s a fantastic bargain I can’t pass that up.. but if I don’t even know there was a bargain I’ll have an extra few dollars in my pocket (and we all know I’ll pick right back up looking for bargains when we need something).
Jasmin
Yes, Jasmin! I used to peruse the discount websites and utilize email offers for great “bargains” as well. Like you, I stopped even looking at them and just shop for discounted items when we truly do need something, otherwise I end up with too much “stuff” that I really didn’t need in the first place. Stashing future gifts is a smart way to use the bargains, though!
It’s just helpful to be aware if you shop more for great “deals”. Once I realized I was doing this, I really started taking a hard look at the actual needs and didn’t shop for fun anymore. (Though, I admit, a couple hours at a thrift store is still great entertainment for me – I just have to keep it in check.)
Nicely done, Amanda. Those things definitely add up. $600 a month is serious money.
Thanks, Linda! All the little things do add up!
Nice work! On the thermostat thing, we are considering upgrading our controller to a Nest. They seem really slick and I like how it basically learns your patterns.
Thanks! Interesting – I’ve never heard of a Nest, but going to look into it now!
Great list! Our expenses are about as low as we want them to be at this point. We could possibly go lower, but we’re happy. We don’t spend on a lot of extras anymore.
Thanks, Holly! While I’m always on the lookout for ways to lower expenses, we haven’t gone any lower over the past year. Like you, we are at that threshold where we are happy with what we are saving and aren’t spending on a lot of extras.
It’s amazing how those cuts don’t really affect lifestyle, isn’t it? We have been spending VERY little on entertainment the last two months, and we are still highly entertained. 🙂 Great work on cutting costs!
Thanks, Laurie! It is amazing how cutting expenses doesn’t affect lifestyle (or doesn’t have to). We don’t really go out to eat much, so this wasn’t a targeted area for me, but I imagine if someone needed to work on cutting back on eating out, there would be some adjustments. You guys have totally rocked your budget the last couple of months!
I like that you mentioned the splitting of perennials for improving on landscaping. That is one of our favorite fall/spring activities. Using annuals for landscaping not only requires purchasing new ones every year but also having to do the work to plant over again. And its also nice to exchange perennial plants with family and friends – a great way to gift something of value at no cost.
Yes! I need to get moving on splitting some of the perennials for fall. I had many friends and family give me small sections of their perennials when we moved in and now I plan to share with the neighbors, as mine are getting quite large. Each year, there are more and more plants to spread around. This year, I only spent $10 on annuals for my pots on the front porch this year, so not too bad.
Shutting off the car when waiting for children…my wife teaches dance from our house and it’s one thing I don’t understand as some parents will sit idling for 90 minutes sometimes.
We have a waiting room, so it’s not like parents have no place to go while class is going on. I understand if you want some “alone time” but I guess I’m too cheap to idle the whole time if it’s just me in the car.
Wow! 90 minutes of idling! I don’t get it. Today it’s hot here, but I dress appropriately and roll down the windows. When it’s cold, I bundle up and even stick a blanket in the car. I’m too cheap to sit and idle too – just seems like a waste of fuel and money.
VERY interesting that you stopped reading personal finance books and blogs during your spendy time! I am convinced that reading pf blogs on a daily basis counters the powerful influence of ads more effectively than anything else. Really impressed with your grocery bill!
Thanks, Ruth! Isn’t it interesting though? I am with you – I think the daily reading of pf blogs helps keep the influence of marketing (and the Joneses) at bay.
I love cutting grocery and gas bills. I’ve been bringing my lunch to work every day and man the $35 – $45 I save every week I realized could mean $1440 a year. That’s a lot of green paper that I could use at the end of the year! I also drive the least amount possible, I think I spend like $20 a month and a half on gas. I rarely use my car except to drive myself to work.
Groceries and gas are two areas that can add up to big savings. $1440 each year is nothing to sneeze at – and just from making one small change! You really do save on gas. We live at least 2 miles from anything and 20 miles from work, so our fuel costs really add up. Next year, we’ll take 40 miles off the weekday commute for one of us, so I’m looking forward to that savings.
I cut my food bill by $90/month by bringing lunch to work every other work day. In a few weeks, my cell phone contract is up and I’m gonna try using a low cost carrie. I found one that would bring my bill down to $20/month (I currently pay $65). Similar to what you listed, these are changes that won’t affect my lifestyle in any way.
Exactly! Those little things add up to great savings, but don’t have any impact on lifestyle! Honestly, we need to work on the cell phone bill. With 9 lines on our plan, we would have to make the entire family switch, plus we would all have to buy new phones. It’s on my someday list.
A couple of tips I have implemented to cut my car gas consumption by a couple of simple steps:
– Check tire pressure
– When running the AC turn it off two minutes or couple of blocks before reaching your destination
– Instead of running to AC open the rear windows of the car by a couple of inches. Apparently it generates a drag that makes the hot air out allowing cooler air to get into the car. Some days you just have to run the AC thought.
– See that red light half mile ahead? Well, stop pressing the gas pedal and let the car roll.
– If you have the windows down and get to your destination turn the car engine off and then close the windows. Apparently most of the people close the windows while the engine is running.
If you keep track of your millage between gas fill ups you will notice the difference.
Thanks Nelson! Those are great tips. I had no idea about opening the rear windows to cool the car or rolling the windows up after shutting off the engine. I’m going to do all of this and track my mileage. Thanks again for the great information!