8 Expenses you can Remove from your Budget Today
Is money tight right now? It may be time to decide what expenses you can cut from your budget TODAY! Read on to find out how to reduce household expenses.
For many, times are tough right now. There’s so much uncertainty in our world. People are out of work. Businesses are closed. Many people don’t have their regular level of income.
And so, this is the time you want to be looking at your finances. You may need to save money any way you can. And so today I’m going to share with you some things you can take out of your budget TODAY.
If you’ve lost your job or are really financially struggling you are going to want to be ruthless when it comes to your budget. Anything that is an “extra” needs to go.
You may be able to add it back in when you are in a better spot financially, but if you want to avoid going into debt because your income isn’t covering your expenses, I highly recommend cutting whatever you can.
WHAT EXPENSES TO REMOVE FROM YOUR BUDGET TODAY
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Too many online streaming subscriptions
There are so many options when it comes to streaming TV and movies these days. The unfortunate thing about this though is that they offer different shows and so many of us have subscriptions to multiple streaming services.
However, when money is tight it’s time to cut back. Cut back to just one streaming service or if you want to be really extreme cut all streaming services for awhile.
Entertainment fund
Frankly I believe we all need to make room for a little fun, especially when times are incredibly stressful. However, when times are tough we need to make decisions that aren’t always fun. Maybe you don’t need to cut your entertainment fund completely, but you could really cut it back.
For example, for our family recently our entertainment has been nacho and movie nights at home. We rent a movie online for about 4 dollars and we buy stuff to make nachos with. We do it around dinner time so the nachos are really just the expense of dinner, which we would need to eat anyways.
Eating out
So, here’s my confession. I’m a big foodie. One of the most fun things for me to do is to go out and eat. I love to try different restaurants and different food. BUT – it doesn’t really fit well into my budget. And so, especially since having kids it’s definitely not a frequent thing for us anymore.
However, we do go from time to time. But when money is tight that’s when we slam on the brakes again and take it completely out of the budget for a little bit.
You can either take it out completely (a necessary step if you are in a financial crisis) or cut back to only once a month or something like that. Eating out is one of the biggest expenses people have that they can easily stop doing.
Salon visits
If there’s anything that 2020 taught us, it’s that we can do a lot of our own hair care at home. Boxed dye has come a long way over the years and is easy to use at home. Purchasing a set of hair clippers like these ones can help you with cutting hair for your kids and husband.
Gym membership
Now, this one pains me to say it. I am definitely a huge advocate for taking care of your body. But the gym is not the only place we can do it and if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills the gym membership has to go.
You can do a lot at home. Purchase a few dumbbells, a resistance band, and a yoga mat and try out some videos from youtube. My favorite channels on Youtube for exercise videos are Jessica Valant Pilates and Hasfit for strength training.
Costco Membership
Oh, I went there. There’s a few things I need to say about this. First of all, for some people shopping at a place like Costco IS cost-effective, not to mention a huge sanity saver, especially if you have a large family.
However, when you do the math there are a lot of things that are sold at Costco that aren’t actually cheaper than if you bought them at your budget grocery store, or bought generic brands at your local supermarket.
Now, a Costco membership isn’t a monthly fee anyways, but when renewal time comes around you can consider not renewing to save that money in your budget.
Brand new clothes
From time to time clothing is a necessity. But I think we need to have an honest conversation with ourselves on how often you really do need new clothes. Of course, your lifestyle will also affect how often you need to purchase new clothes.
If your job requires a separate wardrobe you might need them more frequently. If you are like me and you work from home you may get away with less frequent clothing trips.
Whatever the case, you don’t need to buy them brand new. Save money in your budget by buying clothing second hand for a lot cheaper than what you would pay for if you purchased new. This idea can apply to many things you purchase such as furniture, kitchenware, or toys for the kids.
The Landline
These days everyone pretty much has a cell phone. And yet, many still have the landline. Personally, I much prefer a landline. Cell phones frustrate me because I find I can’t hear people as well, and let’s face it – none of us really like to be accessible WHEREVER we go.
But we are often driving on dark, country roads at night and a few years ago I decided I finally had to enter modern society and get full cell phone service. It didn’t make sense for us to both have cell phones AND a landline, as much as I wanted to keep the landline.
Save yourself some money and get rid of the landline if you have a cell phone. For us that landline cost kept creeping up to a hundred dollars a month! Cutting it was a significant savings for us.
How to Reduce Household Expenses – One step at a time
Let’s all be honest – none of us LIKE cutting things from our budget. But you know what you WILL like? The feeling that comes when you can pay for all your expenses and you don’t have to worry about finances.
It might feel hopeless to reduce your household expenses but you can do it by taking one step at a time, and the first is to take some extras out of your budget that are listed above.
