Chelsea: Hi I'm Chelsea

Lauren: And I'm Lauren

Chelsea: And we are...

Together: The Financial Diet! 

Lauren: And today we're going to be talking about how to find extra money in your budget by shaving off unnecessary expenses.

Chelsea: So no matter how tight you think your budget is it's really important to take a hard look at it and even talk to with friends and see the kind of choices their making because most of the time, even the tightest budget comes down to the individual choices you're making everyday. And almost everyone can fix something. 

Lauren: So to kick things off one of my favorite ways to kind of save money and stick to a more strict budget is to make big batches of cold brew coffee at home. Once the weather gets warmer it can be really tempting to go outside and get iced coffee pretty frequently and if you have cold brew in your fridge, it's a lot easier to make a cup of coffee at home and not be spending money out. 

Chelsea: So my biggest things when I'm looking to trim my budget is always starting by going through my statements and seeing what I'm still paying for that I'm not realizing and this is usually auto renewed subscriptions, it could be to a magazine. to a website, to a service that you no longer use, to a bill that goes to an old address, it could be any number of things, but I have found pretty much every time that I have looked through my budget that there was at least one automatic payment that I was making for something that I wasn't using anymore. 

Lauren: If you drive a car, one of the greatest places to save in your budget is on your car's gas bill. You can download an app like Gas Buddy, which allows you to easily compare prices at gas stations near you. And you should swap out your car's air filter, which will make your car more fuel efficient. 

Chelsea: So another easy way to make something you're already spending money on be more cost efficient is to start pre-ordering some of your groceries in bulk. And especially when it comes to things like cleaning products, toiletries, etc. you can order them on a regular basis. They'll just get delivered to you automatically from a website like amazon or soap or even perhaps your local grocery store has their own website. A lot of times you'll get better deals on these items and you won't find yourself running last minute to, you know, a drugstore to grab one thing where you'll pay a huge markup for it because it's always delivered on time. 

Lauren: Another great way to save a little bit of money per month is calling your student loans services and seeing if something like setting up auto payments will shave off any of your interest payments.

Chelsea: Another painless way to save money is to make sure that all of your subscriptions that can be shared are shared. Now this is especially relevant if you live with someone, a roommate, significant other, whatever, that you make sure that all of your things like Netflix, amazon prime, any newspaper, magazine, anything that is redundant, you split the costs of and only have one subscription for. 

Lauren: So another way to save money is by switching to the generic versions of medications that you take over the counter. In my experience they worked just as well. 

Chelsea: Another way to spend money that we've actually covered before is to go through your house and apartments and make sure that every light bulb you're using is an energy saving one. Now we may harp on this, but it's because it's such a painless way to save money every single month. 

Lauren: That being said you should always make sure that when you leave the house that the lights are off and you can also do things when you're at work, shut the ac or the heat off. 

Chelsea: And speaking of things like heat and ac, go through your house once per season and make sure that all of your insulation is where it needs to be and things like, if there's a little bit of an air leak in a window or something like that, close that up because all of your heating and cooling is going to be flying out the window along with your money. 

Lauren: So another great way to save money, which is especially effective if you live in a city is to stop subwaying it, cabbing it, and ubering it around. As an alternative, grab a friend and go for a long walk or grab a city bike and bike there. 

Chelsea: When spring and summer come in the city I personally challenge myself to walk basically everywhere, even really far distances because, let's be honest, that's like 95% of my exercise. Another strategy that might sound obvious, but for some reason is not popular with our generation is using coupons. Coupons are not just for crazy old ladies with eleven cats. And they really help you save money, we'll link to a few good couponing apps in the description so you can start using them to your advantage. In the end, everyone can go through their budget with a fine tooth comb and find at least one thing they're doing wrong no matter how pinched they might feel. And when it comes to preempting your future bad budget decisions, keep in mind that it's always an option to leave your credit card and things at home when you don't need it, so that you still be stopped from making those impulsive purchases that we all know tend to ruin even the best planned budget. 

Lauren: So thanks for watching and don't forget to hit the subscribe button and go to thefinancialdiet.com for more.

Together: Bye!