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I want to pay off my student loans so badly I can feel it in my bones. Seriously. After being on this debt free journey for about 6 months now, I’ve become a bit more experienced on ways to cut costs while one the journey. So I thought I’d share some of the basics with you guys today! Here are 10 ways I cut costs in my own life.
- Begin on a budget – It all starts and ends with a budget. I know, I know. Insert the eye roll for reading this the millionth time [here]. But it is so true, and so critical to your success that it is impossible to not mention budgeting. 6 months ago, my husband and I put ourselves on a budget for the first time. We were so frustrated trying to figure out everything and with the baby’s child care expenses, it was turning into a nightmare. When we added our paychecks together, we were making $X amount of dollars, but for the life of us we couldn’t figure out where that money was going. Enter: THE BUDGET – ahhhhhhh! and stick to it! This will save you so much money in the long run, because you will avoid overspending, mindless shopping, and impulse purchasing which can save you thousands. I will never go back to not budgeting. Ever.
- Slash your budget. Did you do your budget? Ok, Awesome! Now, look at everything, and cut out 3 things. No seriously. Slash it. Cut back just the basics – electric, groceries, housing, and water. What can you live without? Get rid of that cable bill. We cut subscription boxes, got rid of our storage locker, cut cable entirely and got YouTube TV instead, then we cut YouTube TV because we wanted to save even more money. We set a grocery budget, but now I play a game where I try and spend less than the budget, and put the money back into our student loans.
- Ditch the gym membership – this cut me the deepest. I HATED getting rid of our gym membership, and it’s the membership we held on to the longest. I actually go to the gym 4ish times a week, including when I was 9 months pregnant. I used the pool every day in the summer (hello, teacherlife!) I had watched all the other mommas take their babies to the little teeny baby play area for years, and for years I could not wait to go to the pool with my baby girl. It hurt me. It hurt me bad. It cut me real deep. But that money had to go to the student loans. The sooner we pay these student loans off the sooner we get to enjoy things like this again. Instead, I purchased the Beachbody App for my smart tv and there are a million home workouts to do that are all super challenging and have kept me active. I plan on buying a $20 baby pool for my sweet girl this summer. This will have to do! She’s not going to remember it anyway….
- Meal Prep – having a plan always saves you money. I repeat, having a plan always saves you money. Now, I’ve always been a weekly grocery shopper, I’ve always been a meal prepper, and I’ve always been a healthy eater. Because of #QuarantineLyfe, my husband and I have been limiting our exposure by only going to the grocery store once a month. That means we sit down at the good ol’ kitchen room table, search through pinterest for healthy meals, and plan them out for a month. I have never tried a month of meal prep before, but holy hell, does it save time, energy and money. We look for recipes, we add the ingredients to our shopping list. If there’s anything strange on the list that we don’t have handy, then we find another recipe that will use that ingredient, we add it to the meal prep calendar. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
- Cash Back Apps – I would be remiss if I did not address Ebates and Ibotta (referral code is IMUPSCY). I’ve received over $500 cash back from just using these two apps alone. You can really get some killer savings with these apps when you combine your cash back savings with shopping in the clearance section, using coupons, and purchasing with gift cards. I will not buy a damn thing unless I can save money using at least two ways, no matter how big or how small the purchase.
- Groceries – do you need designer groceries? While you may think this question sounds ridiculous, that is exactly what you are doing when you buy a name or commercialized brand of groceries. Let me introduce to you: Aldi. Another store that has changed my life. It is a no frills grocery store. I’m talking you bag your own groceries, and they only stock one brand (their own, which is delicious btw) of groceries. But do you really need to deliberate between 3 different types of Caesar Dressing? I don’t. Time and money. When they have a sale, too? All bets are off. Last time I went grocery shopping, their honey wheat bread was on sale for 50 cents a loaf. 50. Cents. I bought four, and froze 3 of them. Boom.
- Download reward apps – and actually use them! Dunkin’ and Starbucks both have amazing reward apps. My husband and I, both being teachers, get HELLA gift cards at Christmas and the end of the year from our kiddos, and I immediately load them into the app. Once you’ve earned X amount of points or bought X amount of drinks you get free coffee. Free coffee! I’m obsessed with free stuff. Whatever your ‘thing’ is, see if you can find a reward app for it.
- Credit Card Rewards – tread carefully with this one. If credit card usage is too tempting for you, you may want to avoid this entirely. My husband and I make a purchase that we budget for, and then we immediately pay it off, like when I get in the car after the grocery store, or after pumping gas. Day care gets auto paid to our credit card, and then we immediately pay it off. We don’t wait until the end of the month. We don’t carry a balance ever. BUT – for every purchase on our card we get cashback – score! We take that cashback, and transfer it into our student loans. Every little bit helps!
- Groupon – I’ve been a groupon customer for 8 years. Whenever I’m looking for gifts, experiences or something to do, I always start on Groupon. They sell all kinds of gifts (Christmas, Birthday, Etc) on here, as well as deeply discounted experiences. For example, last year for my Mom’s birthday, I wanted for all of us to go to an escape room together. I searched on groupon – BAM – fifty percent off. Oh, also? You can layer on Ebates on top of your already discounted Groupon purchases. DOUBLE BAM. BAM BAM. Winning. My referral code for Groupon is here if you are interested in its awesomeness.
- Just Say No – The hardest thing to do when you are trying to cut costs is to just say no. The amount of times I have been unable to join friends for dinner, or say no to happy hour after work, or pass on a morning coffee craving for Dunkin, or pack a lunch instead of going out with coworkers on a half day is endless. The list goes on and on.
My goal is to pay off my student loans, and I feel that goal so deeply, to the core of my being. There is nothing at this moment I want more than to pay these loans off so that I can give our family the life I want for us. Read more about that here. To me, that’s worth the price of a couple of dinners and my gym membership. My friends and family understand. This moment of sacrifice is temporary and worth the price we have to pay to be debt free and get rid of those student loans.
What about you? How have you cut costs to better your life? Feel free to comment below on ways you’ve cut costs in your own life – I’d love to hear from you – this journey is all about support, right?
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