Quit Doing These 10 Things to Save Money!

“Wealth is the ability to truly experience life.”-Henry David Thoreau  

Coming back from an almost a month- long vacation in the Philippines a few months ago, I came to a realization that happiness does not lie in the mere possession of large amount of money nor expensive material things. It is about the feeling of joy and contentment of creating wonderful memories with the people who matters to us.

During our stay abroad, I have witnessed families living their everyday lives just merely getting by but that does not prevent them from being happy and content. I know this for a fact because I grew up there. I experienced hardship but I was happy. The simple things in life made me happy. I shared toys with my cousins. We built our own playhouses made of coconut leaves; we built our own toy cars made of empty can of sardines tied on a string. BUT WE WERE HAPPY.

It reminded me of the time and financial resources I have wasted trying to live my life according to the rules of society, to fit in and catch up with the people around me. I was trying to be normal. That’ s what I thought. But for the Financial Independence (FI) community, normal means being debt free.

What is Financial Independence?

It is a state in which an individual or household has sufficient wealth to live on without having to depend on income from some form of employment. (Thank you Wikipedia.org)

We decided to take a serious look at our finances and contemplate where we want to be and what we want to do in the future. And with this careful assessment, we came up to a resolution that we want to be retired early, set up adequate educational fund for our kids and travel the world with them. All these can only be achieved (in my opinion), by first achieving financial independence and freedom.

*This post contains affiliate links for your convenience and at no added cost to you. Please read the full disclaimer here.* 

Have you experienced having your money just vanished into thin air with absolutely no idea where it went?

One of the first things we did was to take a careful look at our finances and understand where our money is coming from and where it’ s going. We use Personal Capital to track our spending, calculate our net worth and monitor our investments. It’ s a FREE one stop shop for managing your financial life. Use my link HERE to get $20 when you sign up and download the App for Free.

“Our free financial software allows you to easily manage your entire financial life in one secure place – so you can reach your goals faster. Use Personal Capital’s software to develop your long-term financial strategy – calculate your net worth, set a budget, manage investment accounts, and plan for retirement. Our personal finance software puts you in the driver’s seat of your financial future. When you register for Personal Capital, you’ll have free access to these powerful tools plus our award-winning dashboard.”- Personal Capital

With all these being said, I decided to come up with a list of things to quit doing to build up savings and if your goal is to achieve financial independence. I am not talking about extreme, weird frugality here. It’ s about being smart with your money. Some things may not be applicable to you (or you have a good excuse all the time, like me sometimes) or you might not agree, but who knows? I might inspire you a little bit.

1. Buying from a vending machine

Unless you are dying of thirst or hunger, I think it’s not smart to buy from vending machines. They are extremely over priced. I used to occasionally do this while I was at work. My excuse? I got held over on a mandatory overtime and I did not bring enough water. That excuse has to go!

If I work 5 days a week and buy from the vending machine each time, that’s $50 month plus the added disadvantage of adding plastic bottles to earth and make this world so much smaller.

2. Buying bottled water regularly

 See number 1. If you save that amount of money per month and invest it in stocks with an annual rate of return of 10% like S&P500 and continue doing this for 10 years (that’ s when we want to quit our jobs, hopefully), your $50 dollars a month would become $10, 122.88 with the power of compounding interest. Check this Investment Calculator here.

Solution: Invest in a good water bottle that will last you a long time.

Savings: $50 a month.

*disclaimer: At the time you are reading this, the market situation may have already changed.

3. Spending on specialty coffees

I am so guilty. How do you think I achieved my Starbucks Gold Card if I haven’t been splurging on my favorite Grande Caramel Macchiato for $4.45 a cup? Thanks to their drive- thru services. Well, that was a history.

That’ s $4.45 per coffee and if you do it 5 days a week, kick yourself in the butt! Go ahead and calculate it with the link I mentioned above and see how much money you’ll earn by investing it.

Solution: Invest in a good quality but not unreasonably expensive coffee maker.

Savings: $89/ month

4. New books and Magazine Subscription

You don’ t necessarily have to give up the things you love in order to improve your financial life but there are other alternatives if your goal is to become FI.

Solution:  Borrow and or buy books from the library. I have a collection of books by Sandra Brown and James Patterson and I am so proud to say that I have never, ever-paid full price on those. I bought them in a local library for 50 cents each. The rest, I bought it from the thrift store.

5. Gym Membership

As a nurse, I advocate for healthy and active lifestyle but it does not have to cost you an average of $40/ month just to stay fit. There are other alternatives. You can invest in exercise equipment and do your workout in the comforts of your own home. But remember, do not pay full price on those equipment. Today’s mantra. “ There is always an alternative”.

I think running is better than going to the gym. Why?

• It won’t cost you gas to commute to the gym.
• You won’t have to buy expensive gym equipment.
• No gym membership fee.
• You get fresh air.
• Get rid of that belly fat faster
• You burn more calories.
• Free daily vitamin D dose.
• You can run anywhere and anytime.
• And Bonus: You can take your kids or dog with you.

6. Purchasing new furniture

If you are a homeowner, you will likely to spend thousand of dollars over the years. Before we moved in to our new home, one of my friends told me, I might need to spend AT LEAST $50, 000 on my furniture and I strongly disagreed right away. Why? Because I already knew what do do. I already had a plan. Remember today’ s mantra.

Most of our furniture was purchased second- hand and we did a lot of furniture make- overs. Some I sold and made 30%- 50% more than the purchase price.

Like our China Cabinet here

Solution: Buy Second- hand

Savings: Hundreds and thousands of dollars.

7. Buying expensive accessories.

Stop buying things just to impress others. If you buy it because it adds a LONGTERM happiness and value to your life, please go ahead and do that. You deserve it. But if you buy it just to keep up with the Joneses, forget it. Because what you don’ t know, the Joneses are broke!

Remember that every time you buy something, it’ s always a trade-off. How many hours of your life and quality time you have to give up in order to make that amount of money?

Again, this might not apply to you but like I mentioned in the About Me page, I am sharing the lessons we learn as we grow.

8. Pay full price

There’ s a lot of amazing ways to get discounts and cash backs for FREE. If you really need to buy something, at least get something back. Get paid to shop!

Solution: Ebates is still the best choice when it comes to cash back. You can get up to 10% cash back from over 2,500 stores online. You can also use it when you book your travel and vacation. All you have to do is to sign up for free, log- in to your Ebates account and search for your favorite store . You will also get $10 as a gift when you use my link to sign up.

Ibotta is also a great way to get paid when you shop. Sign up, download the app, and send them your receipt. You can receive a $10 bonus using my referral code ( dcvtfdk) when you redeem your first offer within 14 days of signing up.

9.Getting the latest cellphone every time it comes out

 It could also be upgrading your phone every time your contract is up.

I’m not going lie! I used to love doing this.

My phone is doing just fine even with its broken screen, thanks to my 3 toddlers. Unless it’ s a matter of life and death, I think it would be insane to upgrade to a new one.

Solution: Be happy and content.

Savings: Hundreds of dollars!

10. Paying full price for movie tickets

 We love watching movies. It’ s our “bonding time”. There’ s a lot of options when it comes to movies. Netflix, Hulu, Roku, etc. All in the comforts of your own home with your feet up and your favorite blanket wrapped around you.

It’ s nice to go out on a date night to the movies but be sure to check your local Movie Theater deals.

Solution: Check your local deals. Some Century Theaters have $5 Tuesdays.

I do not claim that we have the best financial life. We are actually just starting our journey to FI. My goal today, by sharing with you some of our small steps to financial independence is to inspire you to do the same. Do not be discouraged by the negative interpretations and opinions of others because they are the same people who do not have control over their lives and finances but rather, their money has control over them.

Being frugal doesn’t mean you need to deprive yourself of the things you love. It just means making financially astute decisions in order to achieve your goals.

Do you have any suggestions and addition to the list I made? Please let us know in order to help others become FI. x-o-x-o