Hi, it's Chelsea from The Financial Diet. And today, I'm going to be talking about things that I have cut out of my budget that I don't miss at all.

One of the biggest things I've learned in the past two years with TFD is how much something can seem like a total necessity when you're spending on it that you really don't even notice when it's gone. Learning to differentiate between need and want and learning to cut where you're being excessive are two of the biggest things you can do to get good with money. And these just happened to be my spending vices. For you, they may seem totally obvious, or you may not spend on them already. But the point is that you be honest with yourself and what your budget looks like. For me, these are now 11 places where I save money and don't feel the pinch.

 Number one is fast fashion. Now, I've written about it before on the site. And I've talked about it here before in the channel. But long story short is that I used to shop a ton at fast fashion stores, like H&M, forever 21, Zara, et cetera. My clothes usually wouldn’t last for more than a season. And I ended up spending in the long runway more, because I would have to replace things so frequently. Over the past year and a half, I've been to a fast fashion store once for one thing. And other than that, I've avoided it completely. Sometimes I'll go to thrift stores. And sometimes I'll spend more upfront on investment items. But a lot of times I end up just going to places, like TJ Maxx and Marshalls where prices are similar, but quality is way higher. And most importantly, now, I religiously buy on sale. And obviously you can find some of the lower quality, less ethical stuff at these discount stores. But you also have the option of buying really high end stuff at a much lower price.

 Number two is red meat at home. So, I'm someone who loves a good steak. And I still indulge in what I jokingly refer to as my quarterly steak dinner. Well, I'll go to like a nice steak house. And I'll get a really beautiful piece of meat with some sides. But generally, I don't eat that much red meat. And I really do this for two reasons. One, buying red meat, even at the store, is quite expensive. And two, it's not super good for you. So, when you start treating meat as like this sort of rare, exciting thing, you focus a lot more on creating meals at home out of more affordable and obviously better free stuff, such as a lot of vegetables and starches.

 Number three is the obligatory drink with dinner. When you're over 21 and able to go out and get

 a drink at a restaurant, it sort of feels like a novelty at first. For the first couple of years after your 21st birthday, you're like, oh, my god. I can have a cocktail whenever I want. And people will give it to me legally. This is crazy. And then you're sort of like, well, if I'm going to be going out to a restaurant. I should have the restaurant experience. I guess you'll have a glass of wine with my dinner. I should really enjoy it, like an adult. But getting a drink with your dinner adds two things-- usually somewhere between $8 and$15, and somewhere between 100 and 300 calories. Also, sometimes have a drink when I go out to restaurants. But I certainly don't do it every time. And not feeling like I have to because I'm at a restaurant has saved me a ton of money.

 Number four is fancy gym memberships. I used to have this quasi-secret relationship with gyms where I thought that if I were to get the gym membership and pay a lot of money for it, I would magically become the kind of person who goes to the gym. Long story short, the answer to that is no. I've wasted hundreds of dollars on gym memberships I've barely used. And to this day, the only regular exercise I get is walking my dog. So, problem solved. It's zero dollars.

 

 Number five is novelty clothes. What I mean by novelty clothes is items of clothing that I bought knowing full well I was never going to wear this. But I felt like if I bought it, I would magically become the person who wears it. So, I imagine we can kind of see the pattern happening here. To give you a perfect example, I own a Robin's Egg Blue Coat with a white fox fur collar that I have worn precisely three times. And I love it. But it has to be the most rare and specific kind of weather/social engagement for me to wear it that the chance of me wearing it more than five times in my entire life is almost statistically impossible. But I bought it because I thought I needed to have it. And more importantly, I thought it would make me a fancier person. Long story short, I no longer buy clothes that I stand a very limited chance of actually wearing.

Number six is trendy neighborhood. I used to be paying about $800 too much on rent for what I had, because when I was moving to the city and didn't know what I was getting into, everyone told me that the neighborhood I was going into was where anyone who's anyone lives. And you have to be. I learned very quickly that being in the most hyped up neighborhood of the moment generally means two things-- one, everything is going to be overpriced, not just your rent. And two, you're probably going to be surrounded by assholes. Do yourself a favor, and when you're moving to a city, do the research to find out where real people live, such as teachers and students and people without man buns.

 

 Number seven is, “let's get drinks” friends. If you are a young urban professional, there are real chances that you have between about five and 25 friends that you don't know super well that you have no desire to become deep friends with. Yet, you managed to see several times per year. These are the people that I say are “let's get drinks” friends where you are constantly missing each other via email and saying, oh, we should definitely meet up some time. And it's half because of networking and half, because you're like, well, they're an acquaintance. So, I feel sort of obligated to them. And you never really get anything out of these meeting. If you're maintaining a half friendship with someone because you think that’s just what you do as an adult, chances are, you should probably save yourself the money and get to bed early that night.

Number eight is jewelry I never wear. I feel like all women have a fair amount of purchases they make when they first become adults that are, like, I guess this is what women are supposed to, like, wear or do or buy. For a lot of us, it's probably expensive perfume or things, like brutally painful high heels. For me, it took me a really long time to realize I'm just not that much of a jewelry person. This watch, as fancy as I get. And I inherited it from my grandmother. I have a fairly large jewelry box upstairs of, like, statement earrings and statement necklaces and cocktail rings and nice watches-- all these things that I bought that I was, like, I should have jewelry. That's the thing I should have that I never wear. If you're not a makeup person, don't buy makeup. If you're not a jewelry person, don't buy jewelry. It's as simple as that. A woman doesn't have to have anything in her closet.

 Number nine is breakfast. Now, I have been thoroughly yelled out about this on a separate video. But long story short is that I practice intermittent fasting. I've never been a breakfast person. But now, as a rule, I don't eat it and therefore, don't pay for it. I'll link you all in the description to the article that proves that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day mantra is a myth. But I very much accept that breakfast may be important to you. The point is that if there is a meal that you don't feel a need for, you can skip it and save the money without feeling guilty for only eating two meals a day, plus snacks. Even if it's just a morning coffee that you go out to with your co-workers because it's a social thing, if you don't need it, skip it.

 Number 10 is certain designer makeup item. I have learned one rule about makeup over the years. And that is if you are going to invest any kind of money in that makeup, you better have at least two weeks of sample use under your belt before you commit. I don't care if you have to go to three different Sephoras wearing a fake mustache in order to get all of your samples. Make sure that you have enough to test it with that you know it works. Almost every time that I've bought a designer makeup item without properly trying it first, I've regretted it.

 Number 11 is my email vices. This might be a hard core move for some of you guys. But shortly after

starting TFD, I hard unsubscribed from, like, every single, like, sponsored store newsletter thingy that I was getting. Basically, there was a direct correlation between me receiving a lot of emails from a store and me spending money that I regretted there. Like, I would get this alert that's like the J. Crew Outlet Store online 50% off. And it would be, like, my hair was on fire. And I'd be, like, oh, my god, I have to go buy shorts. I did not need the shorts. And even though sometimes it can be weirdly hard to unsubscribe from, like, an email mailing list for a store because they make it extremely complicated to do so-- [COUGHS] ModCloth [COUGHS]----you have to do it. The more you love a store, the less you should probably be on their mailing list, or, at least, that's what I found.

 So those are my big budget cuts that I do not miss at all. And I'm very curious about what yours are. So let me know what you guys cut out this year. And as always, thank you for watching and don't forget to hit the Subscribe button and to go to thefinancialdiet.com for more. Bye!