I was recently asked by my friends over at Daily Trade Alert to put together a series of articles on how exactly I live so frugally. See, the secret behind my ability to be in a position to retire in my early 30s has been living well below my means. Can’t invest what you don’t have. And you can’t keep what you’re spending. The more you can save, the more you can invest. And the less you spend, the less passive income you need to cover your lifestyle.
This is the fourth article in the five-part series. The series focuses on real, actionable ideas to save money. And we’re going way beyond just cutting down on the daily latte here. I hope you enjoy!
I’ve lived extremely frugally for years now.
A thoughtful approach to spending has been a key component to the overall lifestyle that has allowed me to retire decades before most people.
If you’re not familiar with my story, I retired in six years on a $50k salary – going from below broke at 27 years old to retired at 33.
But nothing I did is off limits to you or anyone else.
Everything I did (and still do) to save money can be replicated by anyone.
To prove that point, I’m going to discuss five real-life changes I’ve made over the years to my own spending.
Image courtesy of: Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
I used to hang around with this couple. There cable bill was around $350.00 a month. Every single channel with a digital cable box. I asked them why it was so high and their response was “We like to have every single channel ” and that plus a PVR.
The also rented DVDs from an actual movie store too.
No matter how many channels people have, they still complain there is nothing on LOL.
I had cable for about 3 months in my life outside the family home. This cable was like $20 a month for 3 channels. I do not miss cable and only TV I watch, can be watch via internet.
IP,
$350 per month? Wow. That’s insane!
I guess I just couldn’t imagine liking television enough to pay that much for it. Plus, you can only watch one channel at a time anyway.
Now, the Internet is worth a lot of money to me. I’d easily pay two times what I do, if I had to. And if/when more people cut the cable cord, we might see cable companies increase the cost of their broadband services.
Enjoy the cord-free life. 🙂
Cheers!
My internet is $75.60 a month for 225 GB. The company Shaw Cable ( also a shareholder ) has Wi-Fi Hotspots all over the province and hundreds of locations in my city. I have internet access wherever these are located. These Wifi hotspots allow me to have faster internet on my phone or laptop then say McDonald’s own Wifi.
The next lower price is for 60GB, and I have been going over than by 15 GB on average.
Some of the communication companies have raised there prices on cable, telephone, cellphone, and internet a least 2 times within past 12 months.
My family used to spend so much time and money organizing cable tv. Here in Australia, it is quite expensive. I then came across Netflix, oh boy I wish I invested in them when I first heard of them. My investments would have paid for many years of cable let alone many, many years of Netflix. It’s always about being smart with your money.
BHL,
I’m actually not a huge fan of Netflix, although I know I’m in the minority. We have free access to it through a family member. It’s okay. A lot of TV shows on there. If you really like your shows, it’s great. I would say the movie selection is somewhat mediocre.
But, wow, what an investment that would have been a number of years ago. 🙂
Cheers!
I can totally understand what you mean. I do like my TV shows a little more than movies most of the time. The movie variety on Netflix is quite average. Cheers for the reply.
I have to admit I’m trying to guess what #5 is and I’m stumped.
Grant,
The next installment should be live soon! 🙂
Cheers.
Jason,
We’re on the same page re: Money-Saving Method #3: Stop Spending So Much On Television!
We have not had cable in years except for a 3 month period where we thought we would try it out when we switched from one internet/phone supplier to another. During this period we never watched enough TV to justify the expense. When I looked at the amount being spent from the perspective of how much we would need to earn pre-tax to cover the cost of cable service, we cancelled it.
I walk past neighbors’ homes at night when I take our dog for a walk at night. Their blinds are wide open for all to see inside! I see house after house after house where people are glued in front of their TV and think of all the time they are wasting…most likely watching mindless stuff.
Cheers!
Charles
Charles,
Indeed. The amount of money (and time and freedom) that a cable bill can compound into is never lost on me. In fact, it was one of the first changes I made. You can only watch one show at a time, so having dozens upon dozens of channels never made sense to me. To each their own, but I’ve never missed having access to all of these channels.
Cheers!
I have to admit I have a spouse that I just can’t get to come over to the FI side – – so it has been quite the challenge to aggressively save – – some comments on the below money saving methods.
Money-Saving Method #1: Stop Spending So Much On Food
Even with coupons and smart shopping, having a full nest makes the shopping bill quite high – – where I could see significant savings is limiting eating out and ordering in — as i don’t do the cooking, beggars can’t be choosers ;), so if the misses wants to eat out or order in, i haven’t really pushed back – – suppose i can learn a bit about cooking and step up on those nights when it’s just easier to pick up the phone.
Money-Saving Method #2: Stop Spending So Much On Transportation
I agree!! I have my car paid off, was a top priority – the misses likes a new car every three years, so a low mileage lease (!@#$), fortunately she works close, but this has been a big source of contention, trying to figure out how we get out of this lease and buy the car out right. Not good.
Money-Saving Method #3: Stop Spending So Much On Housing
I agree!! — refinanced a number of years ago reducing years of mortgage – aggressively paying down.
Money-Saving Method #4: Stop Spending So Much On Television
And on top of just the cost of cable, so easy to rent a movie for $5 a pop – just unbelievable what the monthly bill is for cable – – another source of contention, kids and the wife must have their shows.
so it goes, happy wife, happy life – – i’ll keep trying. and thanks for the series, good stuff.
FIscovery,
Happy wife, happy life. I hear that. 🙂
I guess I’m lucky in that Claudia and I have been able to meet in the middle most times. We both make compromises for one another in different areas. And we keep separate budgets, which makes things super easy. If she wants to spend, she can go for it. If I want to save, that’s my choice. Moreover, I think it’s important to pick a mate that’s naturally somewhat on the same page. I could never be with someone who wanted to spend a lot of money all the time, as it’s really not in line with my ethos. To each their own on that.
It sounds like learning how to cook might be in order for you if it allows you to claim a few victories here and there. Like I wrote about, it’s not hard to throw a few things in a slow cooker. It’s just amazing what you can do with one of those things. Plus, you can make big batches, which means you can “cook” once and eat for days. If you can buy and cook in bulk, your per-meal costs go way down.
Hope you’re enjoying the series and finding value in it!
Best regards.
Haven’t had cable in a year and half, don’t miss it, don’t care whats on. The kids missed on the beginning all their “Disney” channels, but Netflix/Hulu has everything that they watch plus a little extra. What scared is when I searched for Comcast on Mint and had over $9,000.00 gone to Comcast/DirecTV over the course of 4 years and I freaked out. The $150 extra that I was paying for TV every month goes to my investment account.
D4F,
That’s a nice move there. Just imagine what that $9,000 every four years is going to turn into when you put compounding on your side. It’s pretty incredible, especially when considering that you’re not really giving up much in exchange. I mean, content is all around us. Like I mentioned in another comment, the Internet is worth a lot of money to me. So I couldn’t give that up. But cable TV is really expensive for what you get, in my view. Just not a great value.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Waiting for the grand finale! Will it be this week?
Redwan,
I’m anxiously awaiting, too. Not totally sure when they’re going to publish it. I’m hoping within the next couple days. 🙂
Cheers!