Spring is the perfect time to not only clean out your home but your budget as well.
Slash Your Subscriptions:
You may have signed up for a ridiculous amount of streaming apps starting around...I don't know...March of 2020?
Consumers spend about $200/month on subscriptions like Netflix, Hulu and StitchFix. According to a Chase survey, 71% of respondents estimate they waste more than $50 on subscription services every month. Over a year, that’s more than $600.
How can you start to get rid of apps/subscriptions you don’t use? You can either do it cheaply or pay someone else to manage it.
- There is subscription management software that can help you figure out which subscriptions you have, cancel unwanted subscriptions, and get help lowering bills. This kind of service sounds great but is not necessarily free. As with most apps, these have a free version that will do a minimal amount of services and then require you to upgrade to a premium version if you want the extras. Some have a free trial period, so you could play the game of canceling your subscriptions during the trial but that is sometimes more trouble than it is worth.
Track Your Expenses:
These websites have a main budgeting feature to track your spending and credit score. How much money do you spend eating out? What are your monthly expenses? Do you know that information or keep track of it? Perhaps that is a service you may be willing to pay for – especially if you have a budget you want to stick to.
- If you pay your bills via credit card, check with your credit card company, they may offer the budgeting features for free (Chase does) but maybe not the subscription management.
- The cheaper method is the old-school way of going through your monthly bank or credit card statement and canceling things one at a time. Tedious? Yes. However, it is cheaper than paying a subscription to keep track of your subscriptions. For the Excel lovers and do-it-yourselfers, I have some old-school spreadsheets that you can use to keep track of your expenses if that’s more your style (email me!).
Consider Drinking Less Alcohol:
Finally, let's address alcohol consumption. It's not only bad for your health, but an expensive habit to keep up with. As of January 2023, alcohol.org has some pretty staggering information about how much money people spend on alcohol. They have it broken down into the cities that spend the most (New York City, and Miami, FL) and comparatively the ones that spend the least (Birmingham, AL, and Buffalo, NY). The average cost of 1 year of drinking in Atlanta, GA (where I live) is $1412.
- If you drink 25% less in Atlanta, you would save $353.08.
- If you drink 50% less, you would save $706.16.
- if you drink 75% less, you would save $1,059.24.
It's not just Dry January anymore, there is a "sober curious" movement to either stop drinking altogether or cut back on the amount. I'm sure we could all use an extra $300 - $1,000 in our pockets by cutting back on alcohol, not to mention the health benefits of doing so.
Spring is the perfect time to not only clean out your home but your budget as well.
Schedule A Call With Me!
