This post is part of a 13 money resolutions for 2013 series. You can check the first post for an updated list of the following ones.
Do you need a car?
Yesterday I talked about how to kick start your finances for the new year, by starting with one small, easy financial goal. Just to get you on track and gain momentum and motivation. Whether your goal is to pay off debt, your mortgage, or saving for a big item like a trip or a replacement car, you need more money than you currently have. And one great way to get more money is to check for areas of your budget where you are wasting money.
It will not always be obvious. When you throw leftovers, you are throwing money away. But when you pay your electric bill? Well, you may be able to get a better deal on your utilities or broadband package. And overpaying is just as wasteful.
Let’s start looking for areas where you can cut the fat in your budget.
Car
Do you need a car?
Really?
Can you work from home a day per week, or commute?
Can you walk or cycle more?
Do you pay the minimum amount on insurance for the coverage you need?
Do you need two cars?
Housing
Are your utility bills as low as possible or are you wasting energy?
Do you need cable?
Do you turn off the lights when you leave a room?
Can you switch to a better deal for broadband / Netflix / utilities?
Is your house properly insulated?
Could you dry your clothes outside?
Groceries
Are you eating everything you buy?
Could you switch to the store’s brand?
Do you eat meat with every meal?
Could you reduce meat, dairy and alcohol consumption, even temporarily?
Have you gone through your stockpile for products about to go bad?
Do you use coupons?
Personal
Can you do without new clothes for some time?
Can you ask a friend to cut your hair, or do your own manicure?
Can you find a free course instead or a paid one?
Can you get your books from the library instead of buying them?
By making sure that you are getting the best deal on everything that you buy, or every monthly expense, and that you buy only what you need, you can cut a lot of fat out of your monthly expenses. And that is a lot of extra money to put towards your 2013 money goals.
Launch of the Debt Movement
Speaking of money goals, today marks the launch of the Debt Movement, initiated by Jeff over at Good Financial Cents.
The goal of the movement is to help the community pay $10 million of debt in 90 days. Yes, you read that right. Ambitiously awesome, isn’t it?
$10K will be given away to the community in the form of debt scholarship, you can check here for more information. Time to tackle that debt!!
The actual pay off period starts on February 1st, so in the meanwhile, you can have a look around the PF blogosphere and keep reading some cool posts, as well as this 13 money resolutions for 2013 series. See you tomorrow for more financial resolutions goodness!
Have you decided to cut an unnecessary expense this year?
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I’m working on cooking more to help lower our grocery spending and keep us in healthy meals year round. Win-win!
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted..PoP Income Statement – December 2012
Me too, except there is no way my BF would cut on the meat, he says it is the only thing that makes him feel full.
Have you tried a mix of meat and other things?
I used to make tacos and wraps with lots of meat. Now I mix in lentils and chickpeas and add less meat. They’re cheaper than meat, and with the spices involved everything tastes the same anyway.
If anything, I’m more full when I cook it now, and eating healthier too.
Alex recently posted..Money and Happiness: Where to go in a Career
ha! we had ground beef with lentils and minced veggies today, I had to cook him an extra couple of sausages to avoid complaints! Will try the taco trick, he may not see that one.
I’m cutting way back on alcohol this year, and will continue with my cold showering because it’s awesome.
I’m already running the world’s leanest budget, so won’t be further trimming until we move closer to work – we’ll probably get rid of a car then and massively reduce our insurance and petrol bills.
James @ Free in Ten Years recently posted..The hidden psychological stress of work and why I want out
lol the world’s leanest budget. Great job!
Oh I will have to check that out! While paying down more than the minimum on our student loans is not a priority or goal of mine for 2013, It would be fun to participate in this challenge. In particular I would like to put a bit towards our highest interest rate student loan (a private loan through Wells Fargo).
I love all the questions you posed in this post, and got me thinking about my own lifestyle. While most of our expenses are fixed, there may be some room for cutting in 2013.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..How to Know the True Value of a Home
It is a fun project, I guess even if you make minimum repayments it counts towards the $10M.
Great thoughts Pauline! My wife and I had a very similar discussion about this the other night. Since we’ve been budgeting for some time we’re pretty good at keeping things to a minimum, but we do not want to become complacent. That complacency can cause you to lose your focus and open to things like lifestyle inflation.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..What My Air Conditioner Taught Me About Saving Money
Right, it is so easy to let go, just a little, then a little more…
I am working on shopping less and saving more. It will take a bit to get in a groove and break the habit but I think I should be able to do it.
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter recently posted..How to Prevent Three Common Disastrous Personal Financial Mistakes
Good luck Miss T, and happy new year!
We haven’t made the decision to cut back on particular categories (as our budget is already scaled back); we’re simply focusing on sticking to our plan and make sure we don’t spend more than we’ve allocated on a monthly basis.
Jason @ WorkSaveLive recently posted..Do You Want to Pay Off Debt – Join the Debt Movement
I have been cutting the fat for about 7 months now. I have been doing well, but now I need to look deeper. I need to find more ways to be efficient with our energy use and many other things. I wish I could get rid of one of our cars, but public transportation is poor where I am and my work is 30 minutes away by car. I don’t think walking is in the picture.
Grayson @ Debt Roundup recently posted..How Are Your Retirement Savings Shaping Up?
maybe carpooling would be possible? Even with a colleague living further away, who could leave his car at your place or some other arrangement.
We dropped Netflix last year. Just weren’t getting enough out of it. We may not technically “need” cable, but I’m pretty sure we would go crazy without it for an extended period of time.
Edward Antrobus recently posted..Optimism vs Depression in the New Year – The Debt Movement + a $100 giveway
Have you looked into streaming? I see most major networks offer movies and shows for free online. So do news channels. It may require a bit more organization, but I enjoy movies and tv shows here all on my laptop at no cost.
Very well structured, Pauline. Though I made a point of always keeping some ‘fat’ – life can become very boring if we get rid of all of it. The important thing, I found, I to keep some fat on purpose rather than without noticing (or worse, presenting it as pure protein).
maria@moneyprinciple recently posted..About goals, priorities and general orientation: my words for the year
Thank you Maria. Of course we all need little luxuries to make life worthwhile. Mine are travel, food, wine… but not utility bills or even a car. To each his own and I hope people can figure out what is worth keep and what is not.
Great questions/post! I’m working to cook more in an effort to slash food costs and be healthier overall.
The Happy Homeowner recently posted..2012 Hits and Misses
Great goal, good luck!
Our expenses are pretty low at this point so the key for us to make the rest of the money finds itself into the savings account and not frittered away. I’m pretty confident we’ll meet our savings goals as both my husband and I are very mindful of our money. We decided today actually to rent a car as my husband has many late nights of work coming up and it’s just not safe enough to our liking to travel with the public transport during the night. Otherwise we’d have nixed the rental costs for sure!
K.K.@ Living Debt Free Rocks! recently posted..Currency Conversion. Reality Check.
the idea is to limit expenses that bring you no value, in this case the car is really worth it. I have ridiculous travel expenses but I wouldn’t live otherwise. On the other hand I have no cable, no car, no smartphone. It is all about what you want.
These are interesting ideas that you have brought up. I’m going to examine our utility bill and see what we can do about lowering it. We always turn off every light and such and do not waste electricity, but I might be overlooking something.
Mackenzie recently posted..Let’s Get the Ball Rollin’: 2013 Goals
I have super low electric bill in my UK rental because the flat is very well insulated and there is a thermostat allowing to set the temperature for each room. Looking that windows are insulated and so is the ceiling is an easy DIY to save on energy. Trying to leave the heat on low all day or only heat when you come back from work can be another experiment.
I’m pretty confident that the fat has been nicely trimmed from our budget. The only thing we pay for that I could easily do without is TV but my husband really loves it and sort of needs it (he runs a sports blog and is often required to watch live coverage stuff). We have few ‘luxuries’ in our life, so this is something small he requested we keep. Great Post
Catherine recently posted..What Would You Do With $2013.00 (Giveaway)?
In this case TV brings you value so it is worth it, and a conscious choice.
I need to do another once over in my budget and see where I can cut back a little, which is funny because I’ve yet to stay in budget with what I already had! Not once! Oh well, worth the effort right? LOL!
Budget & the Beach recently posted..2013: Living in the Moment
worth the effort, and it will pay off eventually!
These are all excellent tips! We don’t have much fat to cut…. We did do it a few years ago and now our expenses are very minimal. Our only splurge is a second paid off car. We could probably make it without it but for now we are keeping it.
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..Can You Afford to Live Until You’re 90?
I’ve often thought about whether or not our family could get by without a car. It certainly is a drain on the monthly budget. Could we purchase a home on the bus line? It’s exciting to consider how we could accelerate our financial independence date by not having the automobile expense.
Buying another home is quite the change, just to get rid of the car! In the meanwhile you can probably optimize errands to take the car out less, or cycle to anything near enough.
We’ve actually cut down on Brian’s personal spending money, haha. Down to $70 per week from $80. He was giving himself more than I was giving myself… and I make more money!
CF recently posted..Net Worth Update: January 2013
lol I am sure he was spoiling you with those $10!
We had optimized our spending for two incomes. Now that we are a one income family, we need to do a lot of trimming. All the fat needs to go. The major change will come from our car and housing. We will be selling one car and moving to a much cheaper place. I am going over all our bills to see where all we can cut costs.
Suba recently posted..Save $1000 in 30 days challenge
Wow that is quite the change. At least with one income the other spouse has lots of time to look for ways to stretch a dollar!
Excellent advice. We went form a 2 car family to a 1 car family in 2012. I now take the bus as I work on a bus route.
There has been very little inconvenience and a whole lot of cost savings. I can’t complain!
Alex recently posted..Money and Happiness: Where to go in a Career
Actually seeing the savings is the greatest motivation boost!
I completely agree. I was smart and switched to public transit when the weather was nice, so it was easy. Now that winter is here and it’s more challenging, I months of saving money to remind me why it’s worthwhile.
Alex recently posted..Money and Happiness: Where to go in a Career
I’m cutting back on all 4 areas that you mentioned:
1. My expensive leased car has to go and be replaced with a lower and older model. The goal is to replace it this month.
2. Utility bills will be attacked by increasing insulation and reducing temperature in the house. My internet provider has already been switched to a more competitive provider.
3. I’m limiting my cheap lunches bought at work. Although they are cheap and subsidized, they are still too expensive for my budget.
4. Hair cuts are expensive therefore I will be exchanging haircuts with another friend of mine. I expect for them to be bad at first but the intent is to get skillful.
Goldeneer recently posted..2013 Goals
I do quite a good job cutting my bf’s hair with a machine, it is really easy, with different lengths so you can still keep a decent length of hair. With scissors it is just about getting used to I guess!
You have written truth that nobody cares what they are doing every day. Most of the people spent their half of the salary on useless things such as enjoying in party, drinking beer, alcohol. It is very difficult for anybody to maintain all those things which you listed above. But I want to say thanks because you have written the reality.
Groceries is my best part. One thing is very interesting (“Do you eat meat with every meal?) ha ha, What do you want to says we stop eating meat or food this will save money.