I Cut The Cable Cord… & Other Things I Did To Save Money

Hi Friends! Happy Monday!

Earlier this year, I went on a trip to Vietnam to visit my family. In case you’re new here, my family travels to Vietnam every two years to visit our family over there. My grandmother lives there along with my aunts, uncles and a ton of cousins. It’s a long trip and it’s an expensive one which is why we only go every two years, but it’s an experience I look forward too and one I cherish.

But, like I said, it’s a very costly trip and when I left in January, my savings definitely took a hit. When we returned from vacation, my mom & I vowed to make 2020 our big year of saving money. Then the pandemic hit, followed by me being laid off and while it’s been tough, I’m lucky that my mom is incredibly smart and knowledgable when it comes to saving money. And while this year hasn’t played out the way I wanted it to, I’ve been able to save more money the past few months than I have in my adult career by making simple changes to my lifestyle. So today, I wanted to share why I cut the cable cord and other things I did to save money.

I Cut The Cable Cord… & Other Things I Did To Save Money

I Cut The Cable Cord…. Earlier this year when I was brainstorming ways to save money, I realized that my mom & I barely used our cable. We would turn cable T.V on just to have it play in the background, but my mom would be watching YouTube on her iPad and I would be streaming something on my iPad. Plus when I went through our cable bill and really itemized everything, we were paying for so many features we didn’t use and all these ridiculous taxes. So we decided to cut the cable cord!

And instead sign up for Hulu Live and honestly it’s been a great decision. We get all the channels that are important to us, except for the Hallmark Channel, but I’m working on a solution for the Holidays lol! But, it’s been a great decision for us, a great way to save money and we haven’t looked back!

Learn To Make Food At Home… When the pandemic started and everything was shut down, I really embraced trying to recreate all my favorite foods & drinks at home since I couldn’t just run out and pick them up. It took 100 burnt quesadillas, but I finally learned how to make a great quesadilla. I made a homemade green tea lemonade that I normally would have picked up from Starbucks. My mom learned how to make a delicious shrimp scampi. And overall we spent money to purchase groceries so that we could make several different homemade meals as opposed to spending money on just one meal.

With that being said, I know times are tough for a lot of businesses, specifically small businesses and so if you have the means to, I definitely recommend supporting those businesses and tipping well. Although, I’ve tried to save money by not eating out, Eddie & I try to order and support a local business at least once a week.

Learn How To Invest In Yourself… Earlier this year, I made a really tough decision to stop working with my SEO expert and my WordPress support team. While I respect both and absolutely would recommend them to anyone, it was just the right decision for myself. I needed to save money and I wasn’t blogging consistently enough to really invest in my blog. While I’m trying to return to a consistent schedule, I’m still trying to be frugal and make smart decisions and so I’ve been trying to invest in myself.

Instead of just washing my hands of SEO and going into it blind, I’ve been making an effort to learn more about it and how to master it myself. I’ve invested in Keysearch, which is about $11 a month and it allows me to search up different keywords so I can best optimize my page. And my boyfriend Eddie has been a great help when it comes to the backend support.

I would recommend just taking a look at any monthly subscriptions or costs you invest in and see what can be cut out. And with more time on our hands these days, taking a look at what you can be learning instead!

Buy In Bulk… I have to say when the madness of the pandemic first came over, my family was just running out to buy food in fear that we would be on a strict lockdown or that there would be a food shortage. Which honestly, in the the beginning the shelves were empty and the meat section was nonexistent. When we visited small grocery stores, we would pay ridiculous prices for certain products just because it was there.

As time went on, we invested in a BJ’s membership to instead be able to buy items in bulk so we wouldn’t have to buy them as frequently. For example, a single pack of chicken at a regular grocery store was coming out to like $10 whereas at BJ’s we were able to buy a pack that included 8 single packs of chicken for the same price. So if you have a BJ’s or a Costco near you, I definitely recommend investing in a membership and buying in bulk when you can!

Unsubscribe To Retail Mailing Lists OR Take Advantage Of Retail Mailing Lists… Does anyone else go through 100s of retail emails a day of sales and new arrivals? Sometimes they suck me in and sometimes I just flat out ignore them. I have two POVS when it comes to retail mailing lists.

The first being, if you’re really serious about saving money, unsubscribe to those lists! I promise a month from now you won’t remember that one pair of jeans or that one cardigan you passed up. My mom always says “something better will come along” or if something I want is sold out, she’ll say “if it’s meant for you then it will be there.” And it’s helped me make smarter decisions. And honestly those items that I swore I needed at the time, I don’t even remember them today.

But, on the other hand, if you are looking to pick up some new items, be sure to take advantage of those retail emails and watch out for sales and promotions. There are some brands that will only put the coupon code in the email and not on the site so you have to watch out. And I recommend picking up items that are versatile and that you know you know you won’t get tired of by next month. I personally ordered two pairs of my favorite Madewell jeans back in April because they were having a crazy sale that they normally don’t. I also ordered two Levi’s hoodies because they came out to the price of one.

I also once read an article of a girl who lived by the 3 day rule. She would walk away from something and if she was still thinking about it 3 days from now then she would go get it. I did that recently with some Abercrombie items that I really wanted and then the next day, they were having a huge sale! So definitely wait it out for those promotions!

Thank you so much for stopping by & reading!