BONUS EP #2: How Casey Cut $780 from Her Monthly Costs & Her Financial Mindsets
WHAT UP. I'm really excited about this episode but reallyyy nervous because it's my first solo episode and I definitely had to record it more than once and I still say "um" too much BUT HEY, I think this might help some people and since you guys expressed interest so kindly, I wanted to give it you ASAP. SO HERE IT IS in all it's shaky/weird glory. P.S. I'm sorry you have to listen to me gulp like a hippo LOL #1 You've got to stop being fancy. It's all in your head. P.S. ALWAYS COMPARE PRICES! All those dollars add up BIG.#2 WANT vs NEEDThings you need to stay alive/keep other humans you may be in charge of alive: food, water, shelter, simple clothing (unless you a nudist) access to medical. THAT'S ITSo one of the things that's helped me in cutting back on spending money on myself is asking myself, "Will this keep me alive?"#3 Use what you HAVE, sell what you don't want. I recently ran out of my favorite protein powder and went to buy a new container when I remembered we still had the hemp protein powder I had to try last year but hated. It SUCKS but ya gotta stop being fancy.Drink the wine that you have instead of going out and buying it. Yes you may not feel like having white in winter but do you want wine or no?#4 Check your priorities.Some people live to shop. I SUPER GET IT kinda. I'd much rather spend $300 on a flight and hotel accommodations for a 2 day trip to Miami than buy clothes BUT maybe you're the opposite.What are THE most important things you want to spend extra cash on. Write them down, meditate on them, and only purchase things like this once in awhile.#5 Let's get tactical - $780 of savings -CALL YOUR PHONE COMPANY and ask them how you can get your bill down. You will be surprised how helpful people are! Are you due for an upgrade? DO NOT DO IT. We saved $100/month by paying off the rest of our phone payments and taking our date limit down to 15GB and obsessively find WiFi spots everywhere I go.-ASSESS YOUR MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS. We were spending $300 a month on Wine Club Memberships - I cancelled all of them except for Gary Vee Wine Club because it provides the most value.-CANCEL YOUR GYM ($140) and fancy exercise classes. It's all on YouTube and it's all free and you can do it in your living room. You can also run/walk outside for free. Stop yourself from thinking you're above this aka fancy. I love Tone it Up and Yoga with Adrienne. -CUT THE CORD! We are paying $180/month for cable and internet but next month we are cutting the cord and going to just internet for $40/month-STOP GOING OUT TO DINNER. Maybe try cutting it half at first and then slowly cut it back to once a month. If we really want to get out of the house we will go out to breakfast or lunch SO MUCH CHEAPER y'all.-WHAT CAN YOU GET FOR FREE? Always be on the look out for things around you that are offered for FREE. Does your office have a coffee machine? Our apartment lobby has a coffee machine I didn't know about for the first 4 months we lived here! If you are buying $5 coffees M-F, you're spending $100/month on coffee. Buying coffee grounds and making your own coffee everyday is still way cheaper.-PAY YOUR BILLS MID MONTH. Richard gets paid every two weeks and even though most of our bills are due at the end of the month, I pay most of them mid-month so we have a better idea of how much cash we will actually have leftover by the time rent comes around. I also make our biggest credit card payments at this time.-TRANSFER DEBT. Transfer as much as you can to a 0% APR credit card. It's honestly so much easier than you think and we didn't pay any penalty fees. This is the Bank of America card we used. -BUT FOOD ONCE A WEEK. Go grocery shopping once a week and don't go until you eat all the foods you bought. Typically my husband plans for 3 "dinners" and we make them to serve 4 so that we can have leftovers for lunch OR dinner the next night if we're feeling like not cooking, this helps us not order out. We typically spend $120-180 a week. We definitely could save more on food but we like to buy quality meats and produce.BONUS: Sell your stuff on eBay! We've made $400 in the last 6 weeks just from eBay. Things we've sold include: old sunglasses case, old dog hair comb, old jewelry stand, old jewelry, old shoes, clothes, a wine holder and an old camera. I also hoard all of our boxes and also dumpster dive in our apartment building for good boxes so we don't pay for supplies.
