4 Ways to Reduce Unnecessary Expenses

In order to really ensure that you not only have more money coming in than going out each month, but enough funds to properly saving for your emergency fund and 401(k) accounts, you really need to cut down expenses.  By the time we pay our necessary monthly bills such as the mortgage, car lease, insurance, and utility bills, not to mention factoring money for food and gas, there isn’t a whole lot left.  Reducing unnecessary expenses is where you will find being able to really open up extra money each month.

Cut the Cord

According to a recent study by eMarketer, 22 million Americans will have cut the cable cord this year, which is up 33% from just under 17 million in 2016.  Being able to have streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or even subscribing to HBO stand alone, you have plenty of access to premium shows and movies that it really makes you wonder why you need to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for cable.  Plus, the fact that you can spend $20 on an HD antenna for the local channels, you won’t miss a thing.

Brew Morning Coffee at Home

A $3 cup of coffee in the morning doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but if you’re stopping every work day, that could be over $60 a month on just coffee, not to mention if you throw in a bagel or breakfast sandwich on occasion, you could be looking at $100 a month.  If you can buy a programmable coffee pot for around $20 you can prep and set the timer to be finished brewing as you are ready to walk out the door for work, only needing to fill your travel mug and be on your way.

Grocery Shop Regularly

Sure, going out to eat is great, you can have great food prepared, served to you, not to mention cleaning up as well, but that comes at a premium price.  If you eat out for lunch every work day that could be just under $50 a week, not to mention if you take the family out for dinner, that could be hundreds of dollars a month spent on food, where if you went grocery shopping you could spend a fraction of that monthly expenses and prepare your meals at home, for both lunch, dinner, and snacks, not to mention home cooking will improve the waistline.

Review Credit/Debit Card Statements

Now you may think you have spending under control, but let’s take a good look.  If you can take last month’s debit or credit card statement you can really go line by line to see exactly what each expense is.  For fun, put them in categories of necessary monthly expenses and those that could be avoided.  Add up all of those that could have been avoided and see what that total is, money that could be used to pay down debt, build an emergency fund, or better yet, saving for the future, growing over time now instead of missing out later on.