In August, Katya, a recent college grad saddled with significant student loans, signed on to the WilliamPaid Challenge, which helps renters find the cash they need to get ahead and save them hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. Katya was hoping to find some extra cash in her budget to pay down her loans faster.
During the first month, Katya focused on where she spends her money and where she could cut back. She found that brewing her own coffee saved her not only the cost of the coffee, but also the cost of the breakfast often bought to accompany said coffee.
This month, Katya focused on the cost of convenience vs. foolishness when it comes to memberships and recurring charges for unused services.
For example, Katya zeroed in on her movie subscription, which is $10 per month (auto-billed to a credit card). In looking at her subscription, she found that although she pays $10 per month for the convenience of having movies mailed to her home, she watched, on average, only one movie per month.
In Katya’s evaluation, “Convenience is setting up a monthly payment [for a movie service] on your credit card. Foolishness is when you allow the subscription to continue when you average $10 per movie.” So, she said goodbye to the subscription and found that she could rent her movies from a RedBox at $1 per movie per night, or even borrow from the library for free.
Katya also found a few other areas to save including gym memberships and haircuts. See how she saved here, and join the WilliamPaid Challenge to see how much you can save. Just use the Simple Savings Calculator to get started and find out how easy it is to find a little extra cash in your budget.
