Saving An Extra $500 A Month Without Feeling Horribly Restricted
In my pre-freelance life, restricting my spending would’ve sent me into fits
A few months ago, I wrote about reframing my lifestyle and streamlining my expenses to save up to $2,000 a month.
I started by doing a brutally-honest financial audit on my existing spending. I’m very ashamed to sheepishly confess that since my 30s, with a manager’s salary and unchecked lifestyle creep, my credit card bills were hitting $5,000 and more each month. Frequently more.
Since I’d decided to leave the corporate life for the freelancers, that was clearly no longer tenable.
For my expense audit, I found it easier to tackle my expenses by grouping them. Instead of creating categories by type (like food, transport, shopping, etc) I came up with five that worked for me, based on how integral they were to my life and how easily I’d be able to cut them out.
Starting from easiest to most difficult:
5. Things that I spend on out of convenience, but which I have little to no emotional ties to. I aimed to cut these out completely.
4. Things that I enjoy and want to continue spending on, but know I can easily find cheaper alternatives for.
