In 2016, my husband and I decided to charge everything on credit to reap the rewards on our cards instead of using debit or ACH payments. Of course, we paid off the cards every month to avoid interest or else that would defeat the purpose of using them. We both had a full-time job each and he had a side business as well so the triple income was great. It’s true what they say that when you make more, you will spend more. This was surely the case for us and in 2018 that came and hit me like a bus! My Capital One card sends me an annual spending report of what I spend each year and splits them into categories for me. In 2018 alone, we spent over $40,000! That’s a salary in itself. I could not believe what I saw. This doesn’t even include my husband’s Chase card! I got concerned and reevaluated our spending. How we were able to spend that much and why that money did not go into savings instead? Most of it was eating out and buying stuff that was not needed. Our house was filled with junk and our savings was barely growing. We didn’t have 6 months saved up at all for emergencies. I knew it was time for a change.
The first step was to look at my budgeting. I’ve been using an expense sheet since 2016 and I put in the numbers for all the bills and spending but it didn’t faze me still how much we were spending. I then took the budgeting and asked where we can cancel services that we did not need and unnecessary spending. We canceled our local theme park annual passes because we only went 2 times a year if we got lucky. We looked at switching internet providers to get a better price for a better bundle. You bet that I looked at anything and everything.
2019 was the year that we were going to make a change, a very big one! I think I’ve read almost every frugal and minimalist blog out there to help me gain control of my situation. It definitely helped and my husband and I were on the same page on our spending and to grow our savings. These are the steps that we did to take back our situation and put us in the driver’s seat instead of letting our money control us.
1. Using one person’s salary to pay for bills while the other goes directly to savings.
Thanks to one of our young couple friends who shared this with us. It made so much sense! Why are we combining both salaries when we can just use one to pay for all the bills? Gratefully, my husband made enough to cover more than just the bills so any leftover, we used that money for our other spending such as groceries, etc. I pulled out the extra cash we had so that we did not use any more than what we had. It’s a great discipline for sure because when you’re out of money, you’re done!
2. Limit our eating out to only once a month.
This wasn’t hard to do but cooking up a meal every day was a bit of a task. I don’t like to meal prep because I like my food fresh so I cook up a new meal every day. I even did a menu calendar for the month and that seemed to help me a lot with my grocery shopping list and budget.
3. Buying food in bulk.
This didn’t make sense to my husband and I at first because it was just us two. We always bought our groceries just as we needed them. That proved to be a big mistake for our budget. We got a Sam’s Club membership and I can tell you that we have saved money! We froze the meat that we were not going to be eating and that has been a lifesaver. Your freezer will become your best friend in this frugal lifestyle!
4. Paying down our debt.
We paid everything off besides our school loans and for me, I would die before they collected all my money from me. That was obviously bad thinking and most certainly dangerous because the interest I was paying on these loans would have already given them more than what I owed long before I was dead! It was time to get thinking on financial freedom. We didn’t do this until 2020. We tripled my husband’s school loan payment from $125 to $500 a month. With the projected payoff date, we will pay it off in a year. Once we are done paying his school loan off, we then take that $500 and add it to my school loan payment and within a year, that too will be paid off. That would mean no more debt and we can use all that extra money for other bills and things! It was very exciting just to think about and that we can achieve that in two years! This is what Dave Ramsey calls the “snowball effect”. He is very great to listen to when it comes to money, give him a listen!
5. PURGE, DECLUTTER, and ORGANIZE.
A lot of the steps above are geared more towards frugal than minimalism but this step is definitely minimalism. I got real with myself and all the items that I owned. Did they really bring me joy or was I just a hoarder? Our home was filled with so many things, no wonder our lives always seemed so busy. Our house played a huge role in that with all the items that we owned. How can you have peace and tranquility in your home when your house is cluttered with things that you don’t even use but just want? I gave myself a pep talk and got straight to it. First was my closet, it was no longer fun to have a “mall” in my closet. In total, after 2-3 purges, I can say I donated about 7-8 bags of clothes! It was so liberating and to see the fruits of my labor in my closet was all worth it. I now have gone from using four closets to just one. It is truly an amazing feeling. That was probably the bulk of it all, I tell you so once you get past that, everything else seems to go smoothly. We also donated a lot of our household items to our church yard sale and it was beneficial for my home and for my church. It’s so easy now for me to not purchase something because I “want” it. It’s been months since I’ve last gone shopping and bought anything. It’s actually harder for me to buy something than to not buy something because I ask myself if it will bring joy or clutter to my home. A good method to use on when to purge things is: have I used this in the past 90 days and/or will I use this in the next 90 days? If the answer is no to any of those questions, purge!
6. Remove all disposables and plastic to go eco-friendly.
One of our friends asked us if we recycle, I used to laugh it off and say, “no way”. It is embarrassing for me now to even think back on when I said that because it meant I didn’t have any regard to the Earth and that I didn’t care that I was being so wasteful. I started recycling all the plastic and metal in our home and started using a recycle bin. The things that couldn’t be recycled, I found other places and resources to donate to. One time use plastic and things no longer have a place in my home. My husband and I bought reusable grocery bags and put them in our trunks. We leave the store with no plastic bags or storage of any kind to hold our items. After all, it was just temporary storage. We try to buy consciously in regard to waste of any kind. This has improved our lives so much and it feels so great to be part of making a difference in the world. We live strictly by these rules so we can have a better Earth tomorrow.
7. What do we do differently now?
In regards to our credit cards, we use my Capital One card for all the bills such as internet, utilities, etc. and we use my husband’s card to all other spending. We feel this is more doable as you get to see how you spend on what you need versus what you want. When my 2019 Capital One annual spending report came, I was so happy to see that we cut 2018’s spending in half by spending $19,000. We still need to work on that number but we know it all went strictly to bills.
Tips that helped me:
1. Internet
I used to think that getting spam in our mailbox was bad but it wasn’t so bad after all. I would get ads from surrounding local internet service providers and I would use that as leverage with my current internet service provider and it seemed to work every time when I would call them and complain that my bill was too high. Sometimes I would even threaten leaving them for another service provider. They would knock off $10-$15 a month for a whole year and give me higher internet speed! I would have to call in again once that expired after a year or two but I say it’s definitely worth the efforts that is put into it!
2. Utilities
My husband and I were a bit torn on this because he didn’t think we needed to go lighter on our water and electricity usage. It took some convincing but he came onboard and we now open our window blinds for natural lighting until the sun goes down. We only use one light at a time to conserve energy and electricity. It has cut down our electricity bill by more than half! We also set our A/C to 76 during working hours and then to 74 when we go to bed at 10pm. It goes back up to 76 when we wake up at 6am. Our water usage has gotten better, I don’t turn the water faucet all the way up anymore. I do it just enough to get water for what I need and then turn it off. My husband has a habit of turning the faucet all the way up and water gets everywhere so we still need to work on that a bit. We need warm water for our Waterpik flosser so he gets it when I’m in the shower and fills it up for me too while I’m still in the shower. It helps save water by not turning on the faucet until it’s warm enough to collect.
3. Go to sleep early and wake up early.
We go to sleep early and wake up early. The early bird surely gets the worm! You feel more revived and less rushed. I used to get up and have just enough time to get ready and run out the door for work. I no longer do that now that I have more time in the morning to spend with my husband and dogs. There is no rush and my day is much calmer to start with. How you start your mornings is usually how the rest of your day goes. Take some time to appreciate life, your loved ones and start your day with a peaceful mind. Just to give you an idea of our sleep and wake up schedule, we try to sleep at 9pm-10pm and wake up at 6am-7am. Do what works for you and see if that changes anything in your daily life and schedule.
Most importantly, have fun and enjoy yourself. Don’t get too caught up in the process and forget about all the fun to be had. These are just some things that helped my husband and I live a more fulfilling lifestyle and save money for our new home. I hope this helped you, even if it’s just a little bit that you took away from this and feel free to share with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Melissa Lee