Why savings matter in January
One of the things I intend on focusing on this year is trimming out the fatty bits of my finances. Brian and I live pretty leanly already, but there’s always room for improvement! I want to make a big push towards financial independence this year and optimizing our finances is the first step. January is a great time to rack up some savings because it’s the start of a new year! Who doesn’t want to get a new year off to a good start, right?
Photo credit: kenteegardin via Flickr
I want to find the places where money is being wasted and redirect that money towards debts, savings, or even fun. This wasted money really bugs me because it’s not really going towards anything – even when I spend $5 on a roll of sushi, I will at least enjoy eating that sushi. Money that is spent on fees, extra bills or unnecessary services do not benefit me at all.
Here are a few areas I’ve identified:
- Bank fees have got to go. I admit, I had a bit of a rage when I discovered that Brian was leaking $10-15 in extra transaction fees the past few months. As far as I’m concerned, these fees go to nothing. It’s just a drain that eats away at our money. We’re restructuring how we pay bills and how we do transactions in order to minimize and hopefully eliminate these extra fees. In the long run, we plan on keeping enough in our chequing buffer to eliminate the monthly fees completely.
- Cell phone charges need to be reduced. Right now, I pay $70 a month for my cell phone – that’s talking and texting, voicemail, and 500MB of data. I never go over my plan, but it’s really ridiculous that I’m paying a premium for a data plan when I spend most of my days at home or at work – both places that have wifi! So I’m planning on downgrading my plan or even switching carriers in April when my contract expires. I’m considering going with Wind Mobile’s $25 plan – has anyone used this company before?
- Why do we have TV in the summer? Every year, I ponder the feasibility of getting rid of our cable for the summer months when there is no hockey to watch. (Not that there was hockey to watch the past four months…grr…) Even now, I don’t know when the last time I turned on my TV was. :/ I’m going to revisit this issue around May or June.
- We need to eat less. Eating on $200 a month for two people is just plain stupid. I think we can do better! Therefore… just kidding. :) I’m pretty happy with our $200 a month grocery budget and we’re not going to changing anything.
For us, our saved money will go right into debt payments. For others, opening a savings account and putting that money aside for a rainy day might be the best bet.
Have you cleaned your financial house this January and found areas that you could cut out in order to save some money? Any suggestions for other areas I could investigate?
21 Responses to “Why savings matter in January”
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We did this ourselves with our satellite and insurance plans recently. There really can be some “hidden” savings if you’re willing to do a little homework to find it.
Yes, insurance is another big one. We looked closely at our insurance last year, and found out that we were being charged a higher premium for the privilege of getting “eco-friendly” repairs.
We went with an over-the air antenna for both our televisions. Each antenna cost me $30, but I save $50 each month by just using the internet. I am impressed with your $200/month grocery budget. My wife and I have a $400/month, but we never hit that. I am going to try and keep it even with the baby.
We are able to cook at home for almost all of our meals, which helps a lot. When we do go out to eat, it is generally a social event, so it comes out of our entertainment budget instead.
I remember my family used to use antennas for our TV but I haven’t used one myself in over ten years. I wonder what channels I could get…
$15 a month in banking fees is outrageous! A friend of mine keeps paying for a cellphone plan because he is too lazy to cancel it, he doesn’t have the phone or the SIM card anymore… I wonder how many millions disappear like that. Anyway, I cleaned up a bit this year but live lean too so focusing on making more $$$!
I know!!! Hopefully we’ll be able to reduce it for next month. :S Laziness eats up so much money.
I also get hit with the stupid banking fees for making a lot of transactions. Its annoying cause I’m not making purchases but rather transferring money and paying bills. They have fees for everything!
That’s what got Brian too. He’d get paid, transfer money to different accounts and pay a few bills. But it added up! We’re closing one of his accounts to reduce unnecessary transfers.
I hope everyone who is not happy with bank fees has looked into Credit Unions … you will save!
Good time to look at things like this, but don’t stop after the calendar flips at the end of the month. Once you see the difference you can make, it will hopefully give you motivation to continue identifying ways to save throughout the year.
One thing you could consider doing with some of your savings, if you don’t have one already, is develop a fund for gifts for next holiday season. Then, when you go to shop, everything is already ‘paid for’, meaning one less expense (and a lot less worry) next January. Good one to start now because you can get twelve months of a head start!
We try to do that, but it was a bit more difficult for me this year since I was in classes for the first few months of the year. As a result, I had to scramble a bit more to make and save enough money for Christmas :p I think this year should be better though. We are going to try to put away $50 each per month.
You are right that January is a great time to do this before you run out of steam later in the year. I have been doing this looking for ways to increase my saving. So far the only thing that I can see is food. I spend way too much money on food for just one person me and sometimes I feel like there isn’t much to show for it. Am working on getting that grocery budget down, there are other things I would like to spend my money on.
A grocery budget is a must-have, I think. When I lived by myself, I liked to make large meals and have leftovers throughout the week. You can keep things like soups and stews frozen, while other dishes can generally keep well for a few days in the fridge. Good luck!
I definitely think that you should consider cancelling cable! We did and it’s a huge moneysaver and now we have more free time than ever.
Did you watch a lot of TV before cancelling cable? We don’t watch TV at all. It’s just the live sports that we’d be missing out on.
I just got a bunny ears antenna that gets all the local channels in HD and it works pretty well, you can also look into a leaf antenna. I didn’t even know you could still get channels over the air but you can!
You should also check out my latest article on walmart’s iphone/straight talk wireless new offering
I was uncertain whether you could still get channels over the air with the new TVs. Good to know!
I have been doing this kind of housekeeping as well. We are pretty lean too, but not for a one income family. I am slowly going through all the subscriptions and auto pay charges (they can really slip your mind) to reevaluate if they are really necessary. And I totally agree with you on the bank fees and extra cell phone charges. The way I am approaching this is cutting all our spending cold turkey. Only recurring charges go in the credit card, that gives me a clear picture leaving all the noise. Grocery and gas, we are paying with cash this month. I see that I am evaluating every purchase more if I pay with cash.
Yeah I have to be careful with subscriptions as well. Occasionally, I play video games online and I will sometimes forget to cancel my subscription before it auto-renews. Arg.
totally on board with all of those goals.. the bank fees were something that just totally destroying our budget a few years ago, when we had overdraws on a regular basis.
we were very successful at eliminating those last year, and it made a noticable difference.
It’s getting to be like airlines, with all the little charges and conditions that you have to adhere to! We’ve made a few changes so we’ll hopefully see a difference next month.