I would say that the most pivotal point of personal finance is to spend less than you earn. After all, as long as you follow that cardinal rule you will technically never go broke. Too many people fall into a rut by thinking that they can only save more money if they get a raise or a second job. Sometimes it is much easier than that to save a few extra bucks. All you really need to do is take a closer look at your monthly spending and cut down on those needless expenses.
Cable/Internet
I’m definitely a fan of cable and high speed internet, however, there are so many tiers of service these days there isn’t a reason why you need to overspend on such services. First of all, analyze what types of channels you are actually watching, you may not need the movie lovers package or the complete MLB season package. High speed internet is great, but the super fast turbo booster internet might be a bit overkill, and it costs quite a bit more! Also, do you really need to have a landline included? Personally I have managed to survive with a cell phone over the past decade, and I’m sure you could too.
Daily Latte
I love my coffee as much, if not more, than the next person. However, is it necessary to spend $3.00 a day on coffee? Odds are that it isn’t. I pick up quite a cheap package of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee from Costco that lasts me several months for $10.00. At this price point you simply can’t beat the quality or the quantity of such a deal. Too many people fall victim to sheer laziness. Make a little more of an effort and your pocketbook will thank you for it.
Smart Phone
I’m titling this section as “smart phone” since cell phone simply doesn’t cover it anymore. If we simply purchased a $40 monthly package for talk and text we would all be saving ourselves significant amounts of money. However, that is just not a realistic goal anymore. First of all, check with your human resources department to see if your company provides discounts with service providers. I actually enjoy a nice 21% discount off of my bill and over a year’s period that really adds up. Also, guage how much data and text you actually use. You might not need unlimited for each of those, and you could save yourself a ton of money right there alone.