We all go through periods in our life where we need more money! Whether you’re going through a job loss, career change or trying to survive college.
Over the years, we’ve had our fair share of people ask us, “how do you guys save money.” What do you guys do differently?
The answer is simply.. SIMPLE..
We stopped buying to save money!
We managed to save over six figures while I was in college and my husband was enlisted in the military and pursuing his bachelor’s degree.
Did I mention we had a baby or two somewhere in-between there and we were living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S?
It wasn’t about saving money
We were able to save that much because we cut out things from our life that we didn’t need to have!
You can’t keep spending money the same way you always have and expect change. You have to make sacrifices if you want to change!
If you’ve tried to save money and it just hasn’t worked for you.
You need to do these three things:
- Grab our free budget binder here and take control of your money.
- Find a side hustle! Yes, go find another part-time job.
- Stop spending money!
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How To Stop Spending Money
Have you ever stopped spending money for a long period of time? Or even just a weekend?
Let me tell you it’s hard work!
It’s amazing how fast money flies out of your pocket. Especially in this day and age where compulsive shopping is such a real thing.
I wanted to share a few pointers on how I stopped buying so I could focus on my goals.
Here are my favorite ways to quit spending money:
- Set goals for your money
- Make a budget and stick to it
- Always stick to your shopping list
- Stay away from the MALL
- Don’t compulsively shop – wait 30 days before buying something you think you need
- If you have food in your fridge EAT IT – don’t eat out
- Pay with cash
If you don’t like the financial situation you are in now, you have to make a change in order to see change. You can’t continue down the same path expecting a different outcome.
Need Help Saving Money
For those who continue to struggle with saving money, you must take advantage of our FREE BUDGET BINDER. This simple tool is going to help you start saving money!
We began our journey with paying off debt and saving money in 2011!
Within 5 years we had paid off our debt, and saved over six figures.
We were able to make this happen by budgeting our money and living below our means.
In our free Budget Binder, we included the necessary worksheets for you to get your budget started. These printables are an essential part of your money saving journey!
Download your free printables here!
If you need more help with creating a budget or want step-by-step instructions. Check out our FREE BUDGETING COURSE HERE.
That 5 part course will walk you through, step-by-step, how to create a budget. The very same budget we used to save up six figures. It works, we’re proof of that.
Grab Your FREE 2019 Printable Budget Binder
12 Things To Stop Buying To Save Money
1| Cut your cable bill
How much do you spend on your cable bill every month? I bet that it’s a lot!
We gave up cable years ago! We were paying close to $70 a month just for the basic channels, no extras. I have friends and family who pay much more than that!
According to US Today, the average TV subscriber pays about $85 per month and the average satellite provider tops $100 per month.
That is a lot of money!
For most, that’s over a full days work just to pay to have cable.
Now I’m not saying you need to cut your cable and give up watching TV completely..
There are so many other ways you can get your TV fix for cheap!
If you are still looking to get your nightly “cable fix” or just looking for some background noise in your house an HDTV Antenna is a great choice.
All you have to do is pay the one-time small fee for the antenna and then you get to enjoy all of the HD cable channels for FREE.
How awesome is that!!
There are also other alternatives such as Hulu, Netflix, HBO Now, Sling TV, YOUTUBE TV, or Prime Video.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member there is no need to find an alternative. You can simply stream thousands of tv shows from Prime Video for FREE.
If you aren’t an Amazon Prime member and would like to give it a try, grab your free 30-day trial below!
Start Your 30-Day Free Trial HERE
With all your newfound free time you’ll have from limiting your tv time, start earning free gift cards by simply completing surveys!
Heck, this can even be done while watching your favorite show.
Head over to Swagbucks, one of the most popular survey sites and start earning money by watching videos, taking surveys and so much more.
Swagbucks is one of my favorite ways to redeem gift cards to my favorite stores!
It’s completely free to get started and only takes a few seconds to sign up! Sign up today and score some free gift cards!
Right now if you sign up using our link you’ll get a FREE $10 welcome bonus!
2| No more paper towels
Paper towels are expensive and unlike toilet paper, they aren’t a necessity!
You can get by without them.
Paper towels are highly used throughout homes mainly because of their convenience factor.. However, there are other affordable alternatives that can be used that are environmentally friendly.
If you haven’t considered switching over to cloth products, you should. These reusable kitchen cloths can replace all of your kitchen paper products.
Depending on how often you buy paper towels, this simple change can save you hundreds of dollars every year!
Quit buying paper towels and reach for a reusable cloth next time there is a spill.
3| Avoid buying bottled water
I don’t know why we let convenience play a factor when choosing what we drink, but we do.
Let me tell you this convenience factor is costing you a lot of money!
According to Business Insider, “Americans spend over 12 billion dollars a year on bottled water.”
Are you contributing those numbers?
Next time your thirsty grab a reusable water bottle. Spend $20 dollars on an awesome bottle (we LOVE our Hydro Flasks) you’ll bring everywhere and don’t waste money on another plastic water bottle.
4| I stopped buying books and magazines
I used to spend a ridiculous amount of money and time at bookstores. Books are amazing BUT, the $20 price tag that comes along with each individual book isn’t.
Especially when the chance of you reading that book more then once, is VERY unlikely.
Instead of buying books and magazines head to your local library. They have more books and magazines then you could ever imagine.
You could also start your own, “little free library.” These are becoming very popular. Set up a library stand in your front yard and you and your neighbors can share books and magazines year around.
If you don’t have time to run to your local library, Amazon offers free books online.
Head over to Amazon and type in “free books” in the search bar. Pick one and download it for free to your computer, phone or tablet.
Also, if you haven’t heard of Audible, I highly recommend you giving them a try! If you’re always on the go, you will love audiobooks.
With two little kids of my own, finding time to sit down and read is nonexistent.
If your life situation sounds similar, you need to give audiobooks a go. When I jump in the car I turn my audiobook on. When I workout, I play my audiobooks instead of music.
Grab Your Free 30-day Trial With Audible
Give Audible a try, if you decide audiobooks aren’t your thing start a “little free library” for your neighborhood.
5| Quit dining out
How many times a week do you eat out?
Even if you and your family only eat out once a week, at $50 a week. That is $200 a month spent on dining out!
That adds up quick!
Does your family eat out more than once a week??
I know we did for a long time. It was just easier than cooking!
What it wasn’t easy on was our wallets. We were literally spending thousands of dollars a year EATING OUT!
Cut this expense out of your life!
Kick things off the right way with a 30-day no eating out
6| Hello $5 Meal Plan
After convincing you to no longer eat out. I couldn’t leave you hanging with no direction on how to meal plan.
Are you ready to save money and time??
For just $5 a month, $5 Meal Plan will send you delicious meal plans for every single one of your meals. It gets all the complexities of meal planning out of the way for you!
How awesome is that!
Best of all when you use our link below they’ll give you a 14-day trial for FREE!
If you don’t like the service, which I think you will. Cancel at any time, no questions asked!
Grab your FREE 14-day trial here
7| Skip out on the manicure and pedicure
This might not pertain to everyone but by giving yourself your own mani and pedi.. lets just say it will save you a lot of money.
I have been giving myself my own mani and
The best part about doing your own nails is when you chip a nail or it starts coming off you have fingernail polish to fix it.
Do yourself a favor and skip the nail salon this year.
8| Stop bringing family members grocery shopping
Do you spend more when you take your spouse or kids with you grocery shopping?
If so, leave them at home every time you shop!
My kids aren’t too bad, at most they’ll ask for cookies BUT my husband, he puts anything and everything in the cart.
He doesn’t stick to a list.
So yes, I leave him at home EVERY time I shop because I know if I don’t, I’ll spend an extra $20-$30 per shopping trip. =)
9| Have a no-spend weekend
Learn to be content with less because less is more!!
Have you noticed that you spend more money on the weekend then you probably spend all week!
If this has become a pattern in your home try having a no-spend weekend once or twice a month. This is a great way to get your spending under control so you can start SAVING MONEY!
Here is an awesome list of FREE things you can do on a no-spend weekend!
Related articles: 30 Things To Do On A No-Spend Weekend
10| Cleaning s
Buying every type of cleaning solution to clean different areas of your home is a thing of the past!
I usually keep all of my cleaning solutions under the sink and BOYYY was that a mess. I had so many different things stashed under there I could never actually find what I was looking for.
That’s when I switched over to making my own cleaning supplies.
Mixing vinegar and water is all you need to create an awesome all-purpose household cleaner!
If you like scent add your favorite essential oil!
Head over here to check out my favorite DIY recipe to make your own.
If you want to find other great DIY all-purpose household cleaning recipes jump on Pinterest!
Related article: 10 Awesome Hacks That’ll Save You Thousands On Your Household Items
11| Your gym membership
Unless you can actually make it the gym 3 days a week, is your gym membership worth it??
Probably not! Even a membership at the YMCA costs more than $70.
If you aren’t using it, give it the boot!
Now I’m not saying you should quit working out altogether because we don’t want that either.
There are so many other alternatives!
Check out YouTube! You’ll find a large selection of different workouts you can do.
I’m a huge Beachbody fan! I’ve done their home workouts for over 9 years now and still do them to this day!
You can stream over 700 workout videos right to your phone or home computer for less than $100 bucks a year!
Grab your 14-day Free Trial
Pinterest is another great place to find good workouts. If you like Yoga, type in Yoga in the search bar. It will pull up hundreds of different workouts.
I love doing quick mini WODS (workout of the day) so ill search WODS and pick out a quick workout that looks fun.
12| Quit buying name brand food
I can’t tell you how much you’ll save if you stop buying name brand foods, but I can tell you its a lot.
I constantly try to cut back on the amount of money I spend at the grocery store. Although it has been a never-ending struggle, I have learned a few musts when trying to save money.
Stop buying name brand foods. Most generic brands taste the same!
They’re just much cheaper!!
Take Target for example. I love doing my grocery shopping at Target (only because I don’t have many options where I live).
Target has their own generic brand called Market Pantry. Their brand foods taste exactly like the name brand stuff it’s just a lot CHEAPER!
If you want to know how I save $10 on all my grocery shopping trips at Target, check it out here!
Related article: The Best Grocery Store Hacks That Will Help You Save Money On Food
13| No more impulsive shopping
Have you ever gone to the store to buy one thing and you walk out with a cart full of stuff?
Yep, it happens to all of us!
If I head to the mall and somehow get away empty-handed chances are I’m going to leave thinking about something I saw in the mall.
Something that I now think I NEED, that I probably didn’t even know existed before I went to the mall.
Crazy how that works isn’t it!
Next time you have the urge to go to the mall or Target! Stop yourself!! More than likely you don’t NEED what you are going there to get!
14| I stopped feeding my need for caffeine
Okay not completely! I wouldn’t ever recommend giving up caffeine!
But I do recommend staying away from coffee joints! For the price of your Starbucks, you could buy a whole bag of coffee that would last you 2 weeks.
Buy a coffee maker, anyone will do the job! Invest in a nice coffee cup that will keep your coffee hot all day long.
15| Stop buying stuff online
Why is it so easy to spend money online?? You click a few buttons on your phone and the next thing you know you’ve spent a few hundred dollars.
Electronics have made it so easy to spend money.
Do yourself a favor and eliminate spending online. If you need an item head to the store for it.
16| Greeting cards
This might sound a little ridiculous but, by no longer buying greeting cards has saved us a lot of money!
Greeting cards are expensive and kind of a thing of the past, for the younger generations that is.
Let’s face it, most of the cards you send or receive probably end up in the garbage.
I love using Ecards!
If you haven’t used Ecards before you should give them a try. They are super easy to create, pretty much in the click of a button, and you can send one to a special someone in a matter of seconds.
Most importantly they are usually free!
If you aren’t a fan of Ecards, buy your cards from the Dollar Tree!!
At the Dollar Tree, you can pick up 2 Hallmark cards for $1. If there is a sale on cards you can pick up 4 for $1. You really can’t beat their prices!
Lastly, if you are buying a gift for a baby, toddler or young child write out what you’d write to them on the side of the bag or gift.
Related article: The Best Things To Buy At The Dollar Tree And What To Avoid
17| Makeup
If you’re a girl then more than likely you love makeup! We all go through our own little phases.
Me, I gave up wearing expensive makeup a long time ago.
I’m not saying you should completely let yourself go. But you should limit yourself on how much you spend.
I’m pretty sure all of my makeup could fit in a sandwich baggie and I’m okay with that!
I could never tell the difference between my $30 bottle of mascara and a $4 bottle of Lash Blast!
18| Stop buying movies
Do you still buy DVDs and then watch them pile up around your home? At one point so did we!
Nowadays, there are so many less expensive alternatives to buying a $20 dollar movie.
New movies hit Redbox around a week after they come out on DVD.
It only costs $1.69 to rent a movie for a day.
If you don’t have a smart tv, buy Roku or a Fire Stick for your TV. Both allow you to stream thousands of free movies.
You can also hook up to apps such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video and many more.
Netflix account holders are allowed to share their passwords with 3 other family members. So if a family or friend has Netflix use their account and enjoy hundreds of free movies.
19| Home decor
Us women love to buy home decor! We get so caught up in wanting our homes to look picture perfect, you know, just like we see online.
Sadly, home decor isn’t cheap and it never will be. Let’s learn to be happy with what our homes look like right now!
In this stage of life, whatever “this stage” might be.
If you’re trying to save money and stop buying, this is one habit that must go.
You can always pick it up again later in life when you’re happy with where you are
20| Dryer sheets
I bought some awesome drier balls roughly 2 years ago and I haven’t looked back!
Dryer sheets are full of chemicals and honestly, you don’t need them!
So grab some environmentally friendly drier balls and never spend money on dryer sheets again!
Grab Your FREE 2019 Printable Budget Binder
What have you stopped buying to save money?
If you LOVED this post save it for later!!
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