Since the beginning of August, recent grad and current renter, Katya, has been participating in the WilliamPaid Challenge designed to help renters, like Katya, find extra cash in their budget. That extra cash can then help them save hundreds to thousands when put towards their student loans.
We have been following her progress over the past few months as she conquered small expenditures, unused memberships and eating out. This month she has been getting a little more creative with her saving methods from deal hunting while shopping to rethinking what exactly is a necessity.
For example, after using the WilliamPaid Simple Savings Calculator, Katya discovered that she could be saving over $300 a month in miscellaneous expenses. So she focused on her wardrobe first and found that two shopping trips could actually be better than one when it comes to hunting for deals. Her first trip was dedicated to price hunting and choosing pieces to purchase. A few days later she ventured out again once the sales had begun and was pleasantly surprised by the amount she saved.
In Katya’s words,
- “The amount I saved by waiting for sales could buy me a whole new wardrobe! A wardrobe that would have cost around $430 ended up being $275; four pairs of shoes that would have cost $90 rang up at $75. In just clothing and shoes, I saved $170 getting the exact same things I would have gotten prior to this challenge.”
Sounds like a pretty good deal to us, Katya - way to go!
Now she is turning her focus toward the “necessities”. Like many new renters, Katya signed up for a bundle including Internet, cable and a home phone as soon as she moved in. After all these are necessary services, right? Katya thought otherwise and found that without the home phone and cable, which she didn’t really use, she could save $97 a month.
Join Katya in this latest discovery to see how she is doing with her new budget adjustments. You can also try out the WilliamPaid Challenge yourself by taking a second look at your expenses using the Simple Savings Calculator and the Student Loan Reduction Calculator. What expenses would you change?
