#howmuchdoesmylifecost

Okay, so in week 1 we added up all our expenses and spending throughout the week. As we move forward these figures may change with surprises throughout the month. The important thing is to add any of these surprises to your spending. Life throws us surprises every month so don’t leave something out because it’s not a common expense. If it is truly unusual, you’ll just be better prepared next time. After adding everything up did you find you are living within your means? Are you spending every dime you earn? Are you relying on credit cards to offset expenses? Do you feel overwhelmed? These are all expected when doing this. After all, none of us would doing this challenge if we were good with finances. It is very important that you are honest with yourself about your spending or this WILL NOT help. Again, I want to say if spending is hard for you try a spend freeze month first. Last month made a huge difference for me. When I figured out all our spending, it hit me hard. I couldn’t believe how high our bills had gotten. I have figured out our monthly bills before but haven’t been tracking them or really noticing how much they were increasing. Our regular spending was a whole different eye opener. While doing the spending freeze, I realized how much aimless shopping I would do. I also seen that I was creating stress by shopping daily for groceries causing me to buy “stuff” that I didn’t need to relieve stress and feel better. This pattern sound familiar? So, let’s see what small steps we can take to reduce our spending without reducing our lives. As you can see in the pictures, I added up my bills this month and seen that they had grown to almost $3000. The last time I added up our monthly bills was 2 years ago. At that time, they totaled closer to $2000. I noticed how hard it was to make ends meet but I hadn’t actually made a conscious effort to see where our money was going till now. My family is not very big on downgrading, especially when it comes to tv. So, at this point I am focusing on smaller changes that will not cause us to lose the things we enjoy. I think there are some huge changes that we need to make but I also think in order to be successful, we’ll need to take smaller steps. For our situation, we were able to reduce our bills by over $500. As you can see, I eliminated both My van warranty and Ideal Image bills. I cancelled my warranty because I drive Uber/Lyft putting 50,000 miles a year on my vehicle. This warranty was a huge waste of money. I decided it made more sense to put $20.00 aside every day that I work for repairs and maintenance which will build money towards the purchase of a new van when needed. I will pay off Ideal Image with taxes to eliminate it since I don’t owe much. From there I signed up for autopay on T-Mobile and with their kickback on data usage, I’ll save $60 a month. I negotiated with Comcast to get a better package and it now includes Netflix bringing my bill down to $178 and eliminating the Netflix bill. We also returned all but 1 box and use the app on Roku for tv access. Look over all your bills this week and see what makes sense for you. Are there things you’re not using? When is the last time you called your cable provider to see if you’re getting the best rate? Another thing to look at is if there are any discounts by paying for a year or utilizing autopay. Another place you may find savings is in banking. I use Discover cashback checking which is a free account that offers cashback on all your spending. Many banks are charging fees, there are way too many alternatives that are free. On right hand side of this page there is Chime which will give you $50 for using direct deposit and there are no fees. I also found Simple which allows you to budget bills and goals within the app. Another one that I like Acorns which helps you grow a saving by investing your change. I know this is time consuming and you probably have better things to do on your day off but think about this; every $100 saved on monthly bills is an extra $1200 a year in your pocket. I hope this helps. Please comment below and let me know if you managed to reduce your bills. Check back next week where we will dive into lining our spending up with our life goals. I can’t wait! Read the full article