10 Easy Ways To Cut Spending (Part 2)
Strategies to save hundreds of dollars per month.
Introduction
I’ve been discussing steps to take before investing in non-retirement accounts. In my last post, I discussed getting rid of credit card debt. Once again, here are the five things that I believe are very important before investing in non-retirement accounts:
Cutting spending
Creating an emergency fund
Creating an IRA account
In this post, I’ll finish my list on cutting spending. The first five steps are here. Coming out of college, I had thousands of dollars of credit card debt and a job that wasn’t paying all that great for the time. Cutting spending was one of the biggest things I had to do to have the extra revenue to pay off that debt. Decades later, I still use most of the strategies below.
Take one day and spend it on the strategies I’ve outlined below and my previous newsletter. And please let me know how much you were paying before and how much after. I’m not kidding when I say these steps can save hundreds of dollars a month.
In the coming days and weeks, I’ll provide a first-hand look at how I'm investing today. This is not financial advice, just myself sharing my investments, stocks, index fund strategies, what I'm buying, and where I plan to take those investments.
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6. Cancel cable or satellite
A lot of you might know me from founding Wrestling Inc. and probably watch pro wrestling. If you’re paying more than $80 / month for cable or satellite, cancel it as soon as you can. You can use a service like YouTube TV, Hulu TV or DirectTV Stream for under $80 / month which probably has all the channels you’re looking for. Sling TV has packages for as low as $40 / month (with half off right now) that include USA, TNT, TBS, and FS1, although their local packages aren’t the best depending on where you live. Dropping cable or satellite seems like a huge pain, but doing it can save you big time.
7. Cancel / Share streaming services
A lot of us are guilty of this, and that’s signing up for a streaming service for one show and then keeping it. Look over your monthly bill and see what streaming services you're subscribed to and ask yourself if it’s worth keeping.
A lot of streaming services also provide a family plan. For instance, YouTube TV allows up to 5 members on their plan. You can split the cost with other friends or family members, or you have the other friends and family members sign up for the family plans on other streaming services. If you do that, you’re only paying for one family plan while having access to several others legally.
8. Refinance your mortgage
Eh, not right now.
8. Cancel (or threaten to cancel) your phone service
Mobile services are ultra-competitive, and just moving to a new one can save you lots of money. Mint Mobile right now has plans for $15 a month. Tello and Red Pocket are at $10 a month. Ultra Mobile and Airvoice are $30 / month and include more data than the others. Shop around, it will pay off.
And if you’re happy with your current service? Call and threaten to cancel anyway, and you’ll likely get a great deal to stay on. Almost anyone in business will tell you this… keeping a customer is much cheaper than getting a new one. Studies have shown that acquiring a new customer can cost 5-7 times more than retaining one. Calling your mobile provider can sound like a gigantic pain in the ass. But it can save you a lot without having to do much except for making that call.
9. Once a year, shop around for car and home insurance
There are a few things I hate worse than shopping around for car and home insurance. But if you set a calendar reminder once a year to do it, it can save extra money for the same coverage. Like with the step above, your existing insurance provider will likely do whatever they can to keep you on, so ultimately it’s dealing with annoying calls to send hundreds of dollars a year without doing anything else. Companies like Progressive boast that people can save $650 for drivers who switch and save on car insurance. QuoteWizard has a good tool here that lets you compare home insurance companies.
10. Home improvements
If you have an incandescent bulb that goes out, replace it with an LED. According to the Department of Energy, “Lighting accounts for around 15% of an average home's electricity use, and the average household saves about $225 in energy costs per year by using LED lighting.”
Also, switch that thermostat to something like Nest or Ecobee (we personally use Nest), which saves 10% to 12% on heating and 15% on cooling, which is an average savings of $131 to $145 a year.
Conclusion
The next issue will have my stock holdings. I’ve been a little hesitant about it because I actually don’t recommend investing in individual stocks for novice (or even experienced) investors, but rather buy a broad market index fund like VOO or VTI. But I’ll share it regardless. Please let me know your thoughts on this newsletter and submit any feedback. You can follow me on Twitter at @TheRajGiri or on Threads at @RealRajGiri . If you haven’t already, please subscribe below: