Saving Tips & Side Hustles! (pt. 1)
Welcome Back Good Girls!
As we already know, the key to building wealth is multiple streams of income.
I absolutely love the posts, I see all over social media, teaching our community about investing, flipping properties, purchasing stock, etc. But at the same time, I would like to see more transparent posts acknowledging the fact that everyone isn't quite there yet.
Of course we need to be making those moves on a large scale, but for most it's going to take discipline on a smaller scale first. We've all gotta start somewhere right?
Here is Part 1 with some Saving Tips you should know about.
Re-evaluate Your Bills & Subscriptions!
If you're anything like me, then you've got a list of various automatic monthly payments coming out your account.
Since the payments are spread out, I never really noticed just how much money I was wasting. Take some time to list out all of your bills/subscriptions and see what you can either negotiate, condense, or get rid of!
Tip #1- Review Your Car Insurance
I remembered my premium was kind of high due to a few speeding tickets I had in the past. So, I called my insurance provider, and asked how long it would take for them to fall off my record.
Come to find out, they'd already been removed a few months prior. They just never updated my account -_- So by just being curious I saved $30 immediately! I then decided to call a few of their competitors, and got 3 separate free quotes.
The last quote was the lowest, saving me an extra $19/month. Although, it doesn't sound like much, this was a total of $49/month I saved moving forward....from just a few, quick phone calls! That's an extra $588/year put back into my pocket!
(Update: this blog post was written prior to the corona virus pandemic, so it didn't include the extra $21 I saved from the tweet I posted about working from home)
Tip #2- Review Your Cell Phone Service
I browsed my provider's website, and noticed that they were advertising a special for a free Netflix subscription, if you purchased a second line.
Since my fiance and I are on a family plan, I called to find out when this incentive began. Turns out, it started prior to us getting a joint plan, but the representative that set it up never told us!
We ended up getting that free Netflix account, and by cancelling my old one I saved $12.99/month! (You may be reading this thinking "orrrr she could've just borrowed someone else's account" lol I definitely support that as well...do whatever works best for you!)
Along with discovering that free subscription, I noticed there was a plan listed on their site that was $15 cheaper than ours. It was almost identical to our plan, except it had a couple of slight changes that wouldn't negatively affect us. So I made the switch!
This new phone plan (plus eliminating my Netflix) put $27.99/month back into our pocket...that's $335 a year!
Tip #3- Review Your Electric Bill
(This would only work if you live in a state that has multiple options for energy companies.)
Bae handles our utilities, so while I was negotiating our phone bill, he was getting new quotes from competitors of our electricity company. He ended up getting a quote for $11 cheaper than what we were paying, so we switched. That's $132/year!
Tip #4- Make Temporary Sacrifices!
I created a list of my needs vs. wants, then decided to eliminate a few wants temporarily until I reach my short term savings goal.
Our apartment complex has a really nice gym that I never use. So, I canceled my gym membership. Aside from using the machines in my complex, I've been pushing myself to do more in-home and outside workouts as well. This is saving me $15/month.
This might be a tough one for some of ya'll....but I decided not to upgrade to the newest iPhone! As bad as I wanted a nicer camera, I chose to pay off the phone I had and started saving an extra $27/month (because I no longer had a "phone note" lol).
I made my mind up, moving forward, if I can't afford to pay for a new phone in cash, then I don't need it. (Plus Bae has one of the newer upgrades, so whenever ya'll see me post a portrait mode pic, it's probably from his phone)
These quick tips helped me save a total of $1,559 that year, but more importantly it pushed me to maintain a new mindset of consistently looking for ways to save money!
Building better saving habits or earning a side income is a great start to financial stability, but remember discipline is key!
Whether you're making an extra $100 or $1,000 a month....it's not really going to matter unless you learn to have discipline (But that's another conversation for a different day lol)
Stay tuned for PART TWO (featuring Side Hustles) coming soon....