Hey everyone. After my whale of a post yesterday, I have a shorter one today about cutting or keeping certain expenses in your life.
I’m always talking about how I want my student loans gone as quickly as possible. So that’s probably why I often get asked why I don’t cut more expenses out, since there is obviously more room for things to be eliminated.
We have cut a lot out of our lives, mainly by calling and asking companies to lower our bills and give us discounts. And there are certain things that we have cut, such as our gym membership (we never went so we couldn’t justify the cost). We also lowered our food spending. It’s still not exactly where we want it, but we are doing much better.
However, there is a long list of things that I willingly pay for (as described below). I don’t plan on eliminating any of them, as they help me enjoy life (yes I enjoy watching my favorite TV shows).
According to what I could be saving below, the amount that I could be saving is not a big enough reason for me to eliminate all of them.
1. Cable.
I love watching TV. Yes I know, I’m a horrible person, blah blah blah. But I actually enjoy shows like Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy, True Blood and sadly some others that I will not say the names of.
Our bill right now is right around $50 a month for a lot of channels, plus HBO and Starz as well. I watch a lot of shows on HBO, so it is worth it to me.
2. Cellphones.
Technically, the boy needs it for his job, so we can’t get rid of his. But why do I need mine? Well, I just enjoy having it. It’s really that plain and simple. I like to easily reach my friends and text people all day long (I text much more than I call, aren’t most people like that?). I, however, do not have a smart phone. I plan on getting the iPhone 5 soon, but I keep pushing it off. It would make life easier though.
We recently added my sister to our cell phone bill, so now she’s paying a third (since there are 4 of us, we didn’t have her just pay the extra added cost because she should be paying her fair share). It used to be $130 a month, but now it’s $170 a month. So with her paying a third, we are actually saving a little more money on our cell phone bill. So technically our cell phone bill is around $110 a month.
3. Cars.
Yes, I could technically cut this out and do public transportation. However, I live in a very unfriendly public transportation area. It would take HOURS for me to get to work, yet my work is only 10 miles away.
Without cars we would save around $400 for the Jeep payment, $100 in car insurance on both cars and about $300 a month in gas, for a total of $800 a month. Monthly unlimited passes (an estimate) are probably around $100 each, so we could be saving an extra $600 a month by not having a car.
Even though $600 a month sounds like a lot, I would have no time for anything, since I would be spending around 4 hours a day commuting to and from work, instead of just spending the 15 minutes to drive there and the 15 minutes to drive back home. The time saved is worth $600 to me.
What would or have you eliminated in order to pay off your debt quicker?
What would you not eliminate?
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