Low-Effort Ways to Lower Your Spending

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

Many times in the past, I used to tell myself I needed to earn more money in order to improve my financial situation and make all my money problems go away. Once I started earning more, I found that this thought process was wrong as my money problems didn’t subside at all.

This leads me to ask you: Do you have an income problem or a spending problem? Maybe you have both, but you can’t expect to fix your income problem and improve your situation without fixing your spending problem first.

Overspending can look very different depending on the person. You may be an emotional spender and make impulse purchases at your favorite store each week. You may buy one too many lattes. You may not take the extra effort to lower your expenses so you spend less on utility bills each month.

Whatever you spending habit is, there are so easy and low-effort ways to lower your spending so you can have more money to put toward your financial goals whether they are paying off debt, saving, or investing.

Leave Credit Cards at Home

If you tend to overspend when you’re out and about, research shows that we spend more with a credit card than we do with cash. I know that personally, having a credit card in my hand makes me feel like I have more flexibility. If I go over my budget with a purchase, it’s not as big of a deal since my account won’t go negative and I can always pay the expenses off in 30 days.

The only problem, however, is that sometimes you don’t pay your credit card balance off in full which can lead to debt. It may be better to take your credit cards out of your wallet, or even switch to a cash budget and utilize the envelope system when you go out so you can avoid spending extra money.

Invite Friends Over Instead of Going Out

Going out when friends is super fun I’m not going to lie, but it adds up over time. A great way to lower your spending on dining out and having fun with friends is to invite them over to your place instead.

My husband and I like to go out, but we also tend to stay in quite a bit and watch movies or play games together to save money. We like hanging out with each other, but when we invite our friends over too, it’s also super fun because we get to laugh and talk all together as a group.

You can host potlucks at your house or even prepare cheap meals and snacks like nacho dip, cookies, popcorn, etc.  and have a fun night in with your favorite people. You’ll save a ton of money if you do it regularly or even let other friends host you as well.

Unplug Electronic Devices You Aren’t Using

This is a super easy way to save money on electricity. Besides clocks and your refrigerator, you should take the extra minute or two it requires to unplug items in your home you aren’t using.

Electronic devices that are plugged in 24/7 take up a small amount of electricity each day, but it adds up. I personally can’t stand when my son leaves the television on when he’s done watching it or playing a game. And I’m sure his Xbox eats up quite a bit of energy as well.

Plus, it’s not good to leave things like chargers plugged into the wall because it can drain their battery.

Read Through the Circulars Before You Go Grocery Shopping

If your grocery spending is out of control, you’ll need to take advantage of more sales and deals. The good news is that grocery store savings are all around you. You should receive weekly sales and promotions at local stores in the mail.

Most promotions are time sensitive so make sure you check the expiration dates for the deals. Before I go grocery shopping and as I’m making my list, I always check out the circulars to see what sales are being promoted.

If you don’t like looking at sales papers, you can download an app that will gather all this information for you and provide you with coupons that you can clip digitally. Free apps like Grocery Pal and Checkout 51 are great for this.

Stop By a Consignment Shop First When Buying Clothes

Clothes can be pretty expensive but if you need to buy something, you have no choice but the spend the money right? Wrong. If you’re heading out to pick up some clothing items anyway, stop by a local consignment shop first to see if you can score any deals on gently used apparel first.

Stores like Goodwill have monthly discount sales where nice clothing is dirt cheap, and other stores like Plato’s Closet offers trendy clothing for both men and women. If you have kids, I’d recommend stopping by Once Upon a Child for some good deals. I purchased half of my son’s school clothes from there and saved a ton by doing so.

If you don’t have any of these stores near you, you can try online consignment shops like ThredUp.

How about you all?  What techniques do you use to lower your spending? What do you do with the extra money?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/10891438675/