Small Ways to Save without Cutting Lattes

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Is there anything better than sipping on a morning cup of coffee after a groggy wake up? Rolling out of bed after hitting the snooze button three times. It’s one of those days where things just aren’t working. Mornings are crunch time and you have to get out the door before traffic gets bad. The only redeeming quality for this time is stopping by your nearest Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up that sweeeet and joyful latte.

It’s the the little things, right? Right.

Despite your addicting latte habit, you’re trying to save some money. There are the big ticket items to go through (cutting cable, eating out, looking for ways to save on car insurance) but what about the small stuff? I like to call them money leaks.

Money leaks are areas where you don’t really notice your money slipping away. If you’re a person without a budget (which let’s be honest, most don’t have one), then the money is gone before you fully realize it.

*cue the horror showdown that happens when you look at your bank account*

I wonder what amounts like an extra $30 or $50 or even $100 per month could bring me. Right now it’s all about paying off student loans. Maybe it’s different for you.

Subscriptions 

I love Spotify, I mean I really love it. It’s playlists make it so much better than Pandora. It just gets me, ya know? Haha. Anyways, despite the love, I recently cut it. I mainly used it for ambient music while working and dealing with ads wasn’t as bad as I thought. $10.81 per month saved.

Photoshop was the next thing I cut. I did graphic design stuff in college and used it a lot. As time went on, I realized using things like PicMonkey or Affinity Photo are cheaper alternatives. $10.81 per month saved.

I’m willing to bet, subscription expenses have risen for many people. There are clothing and jeweler services like Bombfell and Roxbox and magazine, music, cloud storage, and other subscriptions that can drain away money.

I saved $21.62 per month eliminating some of my subscriptions, how much can you save?

Drinks

I’m not just talking about alcoholic beverages here. I used to go to the grocery store and get those individual packs of beverages to drink.Snapple’s only cost one dollar, so I would load up on them.

Have people forgotten about drink mixes? Koolaid! That Country Hill lemonade stuff I always see. With these you can make quarts and have beverages for only a handful of change each.

Also, next time you go to the bar for happy hour with friends, just get a water or cranberry juice, it’s cheaper and you’re morning self will thank you. 🙂

Memberships

Be honest with yourself, do you ever actually use your gym membership? You saw that New Years crossfit commercial, dropped the candy and ran to the nearest gym to sign up. Now it’s March and you’ve only been once.

Personally I still have a gym membership since I regularly attend it. My membership is to Planet Fitness and it only costs $21.70 per month. Super affordable compared to most others.

Evaluate whether you use your gym membership or not. There are lots of free workout/yoga/zumba workouts online. Consider looking into lower cost gyms as well.

Expensive Cell Phone Plans

Why. Do. People. Pay. So.Much. For. Their. Cell.Phones???

Seriously though, people spend a ridiculous amount on their cell phone plans every month. Did you know the average American now spends around $110 per month on their cell phones.

I’m with Cricket and I spend $35 a month (taxes and fees included). I get unlimited talk/text and 2.5gb high speed data. Check out Cricket, Republic Wireless, or Ting if you want to lower your cell phone bill.

Credit Card Interest

I don’t have much experience with this considering how I just got my first credit card back in October and it has 0% APR for the first year. But my personal banker did tell me people throw away money on credit card interest a lot. The best way to combat this is to call the company and see if there are any promotional offers or other ways to lower your interest rate.

I’m still looking into different ways money “leaks” from my bank account. I’m stopped renting Redbox movies, don’t get “convenience foods” at the grocery store or gas station as much and cut down on my subscriptions.

I still get to get my morning coffee! Granted I don’t go to Starbucks every weekday (more like 1-2 times a week), it’s still nice to find ways to cut expenses without sacrificing coffee runs.

What are ways you’ve cut expenses? Do you still drink+enjoy a morning latte? 

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Colin // RebelwithaPlan

Colin Ashby is the writer behind Rebel with a Plan, a website dedicated to people who choose to rebel against the norm of living in debt and feeling financially unenlightened. He believes everyone has an eccentric quality to embrace and that lattes are sometimes a necessity (despite what the personal finance community tells you).

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