Episode #58: 5 Things I've Stopped Spending Money On That Have Changed My Life
I’ve never been a big spender, mostly because I’ve never liked the feeling of spending lots of money, and I absolutely hate feeling like I’m surrounded by ‘stuff’. I’ve always been a fairly frugal person naturally, but I also do enjoy having fun experiences, treating my loved ones, and having nice things as much as the next person. If you’ve tuned into any of my other episodes you’ll know that while I do advocate for living within your means, I’m also very careful to say that you should spend money on things that you enjoy or that make your life easier! I spend a lot of time teaching about learning to spend money in alignment with your financial values, because I believe that the ultimate goal isn’t just to hoard your money, but to use your money to create a life that you actually enjoy living in.
I totally believe in what the founder of Ellevest ,Sally Krawcheck, preaches when she says ‘buy the damn latte’. So much personal finance information is skewed towards telling people that they just shouldn’t spend money if they want to have money, but in reality the best way to get better with your money is by learning personal finance skills like how the tax code works so you’re not spending all your money on taxes, or learning how diversifying your income streams works so you can actually start growing wealth for your future. Being good with your money doesn’t come down to how many times a week you buy a latte at the cute indie coffee shop down the street from you.
That being said, stepping off my soapbox thank you very much, there are a few things I’ve basically stopped spending money on in the last year that have made a big difference in my life. Yes, my bank account has a little more money in it and I can afford to increase my savings rate if I want to, but what I want to get at is that my life itself has improved drastically since I stopped spending money on these things. So, here are 5 expense categories I’ve identified that no longer fit with my financial values these days. I want to be spending my money in a way that feels like it’s adding to my life, and building an enjoyable existence, rather than detracting from it, and these 5 expenses just weren’t adding to my life anymore.
Expensive Drinks at Coffee Shops.
Sorry, Sally Krawcheck, as much as I believe in your slogan to ‘buy the damn latte’, for me personally one of the things I have stopped spending money on in recent months is drinks at coffee shops and I honestly don’t miss it at all. I didn’t do this because I felt like I needed to save more money, I did this because I was starting to feel like the amount of money I was paying for this luxury has started to exceed the enjoyment that I get out of it. I don’t know about you guys, but where I live, going out to get a latte at a nice coffee shop can easily run towards $7-8 these days!
I was fine with a latte for $3.50 - $4.00, but I just can’t do it anymore at the current prices. I will still go meet friends at a coffee shop if we’re sitting down and enjoying a visit over a cup of coffee because I do value that interaction, but I just wasn’t feeling like I was getting $7 worth of value out of my to-go coffee habit. So, the expensive coffee shop habit is out for the time being, and instead I just make delicious drinks at my home or at my studio depending on where I’m working each day.
Ordering in Food When I’m Tired or Lazy
The next thing I’ve basically cut out spending money on is ordering in food out of tiredness or laziness. This is something I started to rein in years ago when I realized just how much unhealthy food I was consuming by eating out, but really in the last 6 months or so I made the decision just to stop using being tired or lazy or uninspired as an excuse to eat out, and there were two things that triggered this.
First, I was hanging out with a friend, and we decided that instead of cooking something we were going to order dinner to be delivered, and we were trying not to spend too much and to choose something healthy so we ordered like two salads and a started to split, and all together that meal with all it’s little fees and extras, cost over $90.00 and I just realized that I couldn’t do it. The food wasn’t good, we didn’t have the nice experience of going out and sitting down on a lovely patio and eating together, THAT is something I’ll still happily pay for, but $90.00 for a pair of uncreative and not-so-fresh salads and semi warm risotto balls to eat sitting on the sofa together? We could have made grilled cheese sandwiches in less than 10 minutes and been just as happy with our meal.
Second, I realized that laziness isn’t an excuse for me to cheat myself out of eating good food. I’m self employed, I’m completely in charge of my own time, and it’s silly of me not to consistently prioritize good, healthy, homemade food. So now I have a list of easy go-to meals that can basically be made with whatever I almost always have on hand at home, and if I’m ever uninspired to make dinner I just pick something from the list. I still happily go out to a nice restaurant and enjoy the social experience or a good culinary experience, but I don’t at all miss those crappy takeout orders of food.
TV Subscription Services
The next thing I’ve cut out is any online subscriptions to different TV streaming services. During the pandemic years we let ourselves get sucked into the pattern of getting Amazon Prime to watch a show, and then switching to netflix to binge another one, then trying disney and stars because someone told us about another show that they’d enjoyed. I don’t regret this money spent for us during that time of life because we were bored, and talking about shows provided a level of connection with people who were also bored, but now there are just so many other things that I want to do and I’m very aware of how limited my hours are in the day.
During any given day, my priorities are working, preparing healthy meals, exercising, and making sure my dog has his needs met, but then there are so many other things I want to do that there just isn’t time for if I dedicate even one hour of my day to watching tv! Yes it has saved some money in streaming fees, and yes these fees do add up over time, but it’s more about the value of the time that it’s freed up because now I get outside to do the things I love. I spend more evenings with friends, I bought a piano and have picked up playing again in the evenings, I’ve used the time to learn and research for my businesses, plan the garden I grow every year, and more. It’s amazing how much time you get back in your day by not having access to 3 different streaming services to watch a tonne of different shows on when we’re tired after work.
Alcohol
This next expense category that I’ve cut out is a big one, and that’s alcohol. Oh my god you guys, I cannot tell you what a massive difference this has made in my life! I’ve never been a big drinker, but again, during the pandemic I started drinking more than I should. If people came over to hangout in the backyard I’d have a couple beers with them. If I was bored and cooking dinner at home alone I’d have a glass of wine while I was cooking to make it more fun. If I was tired and needed a break after finishing the work day we’d make negronis and sit down in the backyard to watch the sun set. I went from drinking on very rare occasions to having several drinks a week without even realizing it. The effect that it had on my health, my motivation to be active, and my mental health was huge but I didn’t realize it until I stopped.
All of a sudden I was able to get out of bed at 6 am again and not feel exhausted, I was able to start running again in the mornings without feeling like I wanted to die, my anxiety which I’d been experiencing (that I’d chalked up to stress from the state of the world) turns out that was alcohol induced and has almost completely disappeared. I was happy again, I could focus during the work day, and I started filling my time with things that I actually enjoyed again. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to spending money on this, because now that I’ve stepped back I’m actually shocked by how much money I let myself spend on a habit that was actively making my life worse. This one blew my mind how much it improved my quality of life and how much money it saved.
New Clothing
The final expense that I’ve largely cut out is spending money on new clothing. Yes I still buy some of my staples and basics new, I’m not jumping on the used hiking socks bandwagon, but for a brief while I’d started to rely on places like aritzia for my style staples and two things happened a) I got bored of seeing everybody wearing the exact same thing, and b) I got sick of paying so much money for something with terrible quality. I used to love shopping at thrift stores, and in the last year two really great thrift stores have moved into my area, so I’ve gone back to my old habit of going to a thrift shop first when I want to add a new item to my closet, and I love it. First, it’s fun and you find pieces that are so unique, and second it’s allowed me to buy some beautiful brand name pieces that I would never let myself buy new at their full price because brand name prices these days are obscene. So I’ve ended up paying less money for much higher quality and timeless pieces that I can actually say I’ll have for years. I actually enjoy going shopping for clothes again because, I don’t know about you guys, but I hate the experience of walking into an Aritzia store now, it gives me the biggest ick, and online shopping just doesn’t do it for me.
Overall none of these changes to my spending habits were made out of a need to save more money. Instead I started to change my habits because I realized my financial values were shifting, and I wasn’t feeling good about how my spending habits were contributing to the life that I wanted to be living. Yes it’s great to have more money saved to either put towards my savings or to put towards other expenses that I enjoy now, but more importantly I’ve moved back to feeling good about what I spend my money on, and how it supports my health, my hobbies, and helps me build a life that I actually enjoy instead of just continuing on in autopilot.
I teach an entire course about expense tracking and values based spending, so if you want to learn more about how to identify and start spending in alignment with your financial values, make sure you check it out!
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