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Cutting Expenses

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 52 Comments

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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.

Related: 16 Alternatives To Cable TV That Will Save You Money

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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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. DC@Young Adult Money says

    You aren't a horrible person for liking TV! My wife and I both love watching TV and have a number of shows we enjoy. In fact, we are rewarding ourselves with DVR as soon as we get all moved out of our apartment, into our house, and are settled.

    I also checked and I would have to leave by 5:30am to get to work and would get home about 8pm or so if I took the bus. No thank you, I value my time more than that! I'll keep my car.
    My recent post No Job Is Safe

    Reply

  2. Allison says

    I think you are doing great. You have a great income and you work so hard to reduce your costs.
    This is the first city I have ever lived in that offered a good public transit system. It takes about 20 minutes more in the morning but I get home at least 25 minutes faster—so for me it works. But, if the system is not good where you live, dont waste your time.
    When we were getting out of debt, we went bananas. We cut everything. Our income was not great, so we had to cut cut cut. You have to find the balance. Because if you cut so much and make yourself miserable, its only going to get worse, because you will splurge or just quit all together.
    I think you have to be stringent, but give yourself some luxuries too!
    My recent post I thought they felt bigger

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  3. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    I think you're doing fine. There's a fine line between cutting costs in order to paying off bills and making life no fun. I am an ardent supporter of cutting costs and living frugally, but you have to have fun things in life. Otherwise, you'll just end up failing in the end because you're cutting too much. If you're a horrible person for liking TV, then count me in too. 😉 I know you can save money and get your shows elsewhere…but you have to have something to enjoy.
    My recent post 7 Frugal Ways To Save Money While Eating Out

    Reply

  5. Brian says

    If I HAD to, I could cut cable, but I don't want to. I enjoy HBO too much (HBOgo is the greatest ap every by the way!). At this point I don't think I would cut my cell phone either.

    As far as transportation, we couldn't get rid of our cars. Where we live the public transportation is too crappy to allow me to use it and it would take me 2 hours to bike to work according to google.

    Reply

  6. laura says

    We haven't cut cable either, we love TV – we did just reduce the cost though as we're trying to eliminate out mortgage as soon as possible. 🙂
    My recent post Grocery Spending September 2012 #2

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  7. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    Michelle! We don't have cable and quite honestly I thought I would be miserable. I really do like the set up we have now. We have Hulu at $8 per montha and Netflix at $8 per months. Those two combined have all of the shows we could ever dream of watching. Every once in a while we splurge and order an HBO show off of Amazon Prime- we ordered Game of Thrones for instance.

    But I agree with John above….there is only so much you can cut. We all still have to live and be happy!

    Reply

  8. bogofdebt says

    We cut cable but have Hulu and Netflix for a total of $25 a month. But I know that I could cut those out if I *really* wanted to. But honestly? I'm okay with having little perks! It makes paying down debt or saving worthwile. We also drastically cut back on our eating out budget. Ugh, and yes, we can't eliminate our car either-not a lot of public transportation here.
    My recent post Learning to say no

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  9. Budget & the Beach says

    Well it's not to pay off debt but to lower my monthly expenses. I cut down my cable, extracurricular activities, going to the movies (not completely), trips, going out to social things. I haven't cut out, or cut down the cost to get my hair cut. I just get freaked out by going to someone new, but with short hair I have to get it cut about every 8 weeks, and my stylist is $75!! Not uncommon around here, but I know I could go somewhere cheaper. And my rent of course. That's the biggest. I could move in with a roommate but I LOVE where I live and being 41 and someone who works from home and has a cat makes nauseous at the thought.
    My recent post Life, an update

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  10. DebtsnTaxes says

    We have cut a lot of expenses to help lower our monthly payments. I'm not sure on if we would want to cut any more as I don't think the reward would be that great. I think one of the biggest things we could cut down on more would be eating out. I probably could cut out Netflix but seeing as it is so cheap and I use it so often I think it's worth it. Even in the long run it wouldn't cut our debt payoff date by even a month.
    My recent post You Got Fired, What’s Your First Step?

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  11. @RFIndependence says

    I watch my shows through streaming sites, or use a service similar to Netflix. And I switched a while back to a pay as you go cellphone, which is costing me about $5 a month. I don't call a lot when I am out, and in the house I have free calls to landlines and Skype, so I combine both. Lowering your phone plan may be worth if you have such alternatives and limit cell phone calls to moments when you are out.
    My recent post Watching your Alexa ranking every day is like checking your weight daily when dieting

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  12. SavvyFinancialLatina says

    I think we still have to cut out a lot of our expenses. For example, groceries and eating out. It's our guilty pleasure.
    I do have netflix, hulu, and cable. I want to cut netflix and hulu, but my family (parents and brother) use both, so I can't. We need cable. It's our main source of entertainment. We cut it out last year, and my husband was miserable without sports.

    Reply

  14. plantingourpennies says

    As long as we're using it, one of the things I refuse to give up is the gym. It's such a de-stress place for both of us that it pays huge dividends in health – mentally and physically.

    Reply

    • MakingSenseofCents says

      I think if our gym was closer, we would continue. However, the gyms around us that are close aren't 24 hour so we had to drive further for the one we had. So that was a main contributor for why we cancelled it. The drive was just a little too far.

      Reply

  15. Bill says

    Your cable bill is awesome! I pay more than that for no extras at all. I might cut out the Jeep and look for a small car that is more fuel efficient.
    My recent post How to Budget A Raise Like a Genius

    Reply

  17. Newlyweds ona Budget says

    We could definitely pay our student loans faster if I put traveling on the back burner until we paid them off, but by that point, it will be time to have babies, and then we will NEVER get to travel! (at least for a few years til hte baby gets older). I'm fine with the pace we're going at, even though that means it may take longer to be debt free : )

    p.s. every time I try and leave a comment, I get an invalid email address message. Does anyone else have this problem? I have to try like 3 times before my comment will go through…

    Reply

  18. Emily @ evolvingPF says

    We aren't paying off debt but we do have a low-ish income to deal with, so we make lots of these types of choices.

    We have one dumbphone between the two of us right now – hopefully this is a temporary situation! We also share one car as our city is also public transport-unfriendly. We don't have cable but watch lots of Netflix/Hulu.

    We spend our money on a nice, spacious, safe place to live (2BR/2BA for 2 people), frequent travel to weddings, and aggressive retirement savings.
    My recent post What Do You Want Your Life to Be Like in Five Years?

    Reply

  19. RichUncle EL says

    I am in the process of cutting out some life and car insurance costs by getting estimates from other companies, I aslo want to reduce my cell phone bill and have looked into virgin mobile as a cheaper option, just scared of how bad their serivce will be. Since you get what you pay for. HBO with the new go app is the best by the way, and Bardwalk Empire
    is the best show right now, right below Mad men and Breaking Bad.
    My recent post Blog Anniversary and 100 Posts

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  20. Rachel says

    I'm in the same boat. My student loans is where my money goes first and foremost (for the next 10+ years sadly). I skimp on eating out, clothes, weekend activities, but I agree that having a cell phone, watching all my tv shows and having a nice car are important to me. I feel like so many people don't have cable and complain about it, but then wastefully spend their money on fancy dinners or daily trips to Starbucks. If you cut out those luxuries you could have the cable, people!
    My recent post The Very First

    Reply

  24. Frugalista Married says

    Yeah, I suppose you could live in a box and eat stale bread if you REALLY wanted to cut expenses right? I think we all have to draw the line somewhere on how much suffering we are willing to endure in order to cut costs. I enjoy TV too and sometimes I hate to admit it but I really do. It brings me joy to watch my fav TV shows so I'm going to keep doing it and my cable bill is double yours!
    My recent post Pre Vacation Confessions

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  29. Inside-Out Design says

    I'm so glad I found your blog! thanks for the comment you left on mine! I love this topic; my husband and I want to eventually get to where we are debt free. Not an easy thing (as you know) with student loans. He's currently in law school. Before starting school we finally got our vehicles paid off which is saving us a ton every month. We sold my husband's precious motorcycle to help us do that. We figured it will be more fun to have "toys" someday when everything is paid for. I totally agree with you about not just getting rid of your vehicle though. Some people can do it, but if it's going to be that inconvenient that it's going to completely wreck your whole day because of the way longer commute, then I definitely don't think it's worth it. I'm so excited to keep reading your blog! It'll keep me motivated to save money and remember my goals!

    Reply

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