Progress is slow - but it’s still happening

It’s been some time since I have posted here. And I feel bad for not doing so. Especially with the recent excitement around Mr Sun squiring the platform. I enjoy writing, but I seem to be consistently short on time lately.

At the moment, my sole focus is removing my debt. So not a lot of exciting things are happening in my life. However, I do frequently identify little strategies for saving extra money that I find entertaining. So you might find them entertaining or useful as well.

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Many little savings can lead to a big saving

For example, my wife decided to give me her gym membership some time ago since she was no longer making use of it but had locked herself into a minimum term contract. I reviewed the contract terms and negotiated with the gym to remove certain fees and charges. Gyms don’t normally allow this type of practice however I was quite forceful with them. And overall, I came out with a decent arrangement that is half the original cost. My membership is now $48 per month.

I also purchased a thermos which I fill with about 1 litre of coffee before I head out on my lengthy road trips to work. This means that I don’t need to buy coffee at the various petrol stations along the way. And saves me roughly $20 per week. The cost to make my 1 litre of coffee is quite insignificant. If I had to guess the cost per coffee it would be somewhere in the order of 20 or 30 cents per cup.

Also, after being told by my bank that certain fees were non-negotiable for a number of months, my bank finally caved and gave me an account that has zero fees for my business loan. This is saving me roughly $22 per month. While this isn’t a large saving, it’s still a saving. And proved to me that everything can be negotiated. Even when you’re repeatedly told that it can’t be.

And while I’m not happy to have done this, last month I cancelled my monthly donation to my favourite charity. I have donated $100 per month to this charity for 8 years as it’s one that I feel very passionate about. But getting my finances in order is incredibly important. Once I am back on my feet I’ll start donating again. I’m working on the concept of

paying myself before paying anyone else

and sadly this includes charities.

And next month, I’ll be handing my phone back to Telstra (an Australian communications provider) and simply using my work phone for everything. I have a terrible contract on my personal phone which is currently costing me $150 per month. I’ve spent many hours on the phone to Telstra throughout this contract, and even gained 3 months of free phone use as a result of these conversations. But they won’t budge on price so it’s time to end my use of a personal phone. Most importantly, my work phone is provided free of charge, so why the hell would I not take advantage of this opportunity?

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Thats a lot of little cost savings

All up, I’ve managed to save almost $400 per month through these little cost saving strategies. Which is impressive, and not at all difficult. And they certainly haven’t impacted on my quality of life.

The biggest saving of all, however, will come when I can refinance my loans, including an investment property loan. I expect that this refinancing will save me somewhere in the order of $1500 per month and will drastically speed up my mission to become debt free. I will be able to refinance my loans in about 2 months time but cannot wait time make this happen.

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What do you do when you can’t cut costs any further?

Cutting costs can only go so far. Eventually, cost cutting eats heavily into your quality of life, and things will then become miserable very quickly.

My next step is to create additional revenue streams. I have some ideas for this and will be testing one idea over the coming weeks.

I’ll report back on this little step towards financial freedom in a future post.

_{All images are from pixabay.com}