Immediate changes we can make

So as I outlined in my last post:

• Our monthly bills are £978.53
• We spend around £140 per month on food
• I'd like to pay off around £153.54 worth of debt per month for the next 13 months
• Our dual-income is around £1300 after tax right now
• I'd like to be debt-free by June 2016

It's all well and good making all these plans and having great intentions to be more thrifty and save money, but am I actually doing anything about it? As you can see from my sidebar, I like to plan to do things but never actually do them.

Well these are my immediate changes...

CANCELLING UNNECESSARY SUBSCRIPTIONS

• Netflix - rarely use it! Cancelled! That saves £5.99 per month
• Xbox Live - NEVER use it! Cancelled! That saves £5.99 per month
• Laughing Squid - use it all the time. This is the host for my business website so will be kept. I will do a blogpost on the best value/cheapest website hosts in future though and see if I can get any better deals - keeping £5.50 per month
• Audible - my partner uses it, it's really great. But it's an unnecessary expense right now. Cancelled! That saves £7.99 per month.
• Spotify - I do use this but can use regular Spotify or just stream music from YouTube for free. Cancelled! That saves £4.99 per month.
• Last.Fm - NEVER use it. Cancelled! That saves £3 per month.

Cancelling unnecessary subscriptions took half an hour of my evening (some places make it quite difficult to find where to unsubscribe -- Microsoft was particularly confusing) but will now save me £27.96 per month.

That's literally something I could sit down and do this evening to save immediate money. Other aspects take a little longer to figure out but I will still do them! Coming tomorrow => car insurance!


I also want to highlight one more immediate change which I've noticed:

Being completely honest with how much we are spending and how much we owe, and having that written down for anyone to see, is extremely freeing. I am much less worried now I know what the damage is and am making daily steps to change it. I sleep better at night knowing that eventually, with concentration and care, everything will be okay.

If, like me, you are/were having sleepless nights worrying about the finances I really urge you to change something now. Right now. Go cancel a subscription or clear out clothes you don't wear from your wardrobe. And most importantly write down EVERYTHING you spend per month and see where you can cut back. Then sleep well :)