You may recall that my husband and I are trying to get out of debt. You can read about that more with the following posts:
Sliding Back into Non Frugal Ways
Saving Money on groceries
Financial Distress
But what I want to specifically talk about today is little expenses that really ADD up in a yearly budget. There are things that I spent money on in 2017 that do NOT need to be repeated in 2018.
The first thing is a Books a Million Card.
Oh My! I do love bookstores. But we have a library. A really great library. There really is no reason for me to pay $25 a year for an extra 10% off at BAM. I think it may come with a few other perks such as $5 off $25 purchase and free shipping, but bottom line is I'm spending extra money to save a little when I spend money I don't need to... Since 2018 is going to be the year of frugality to the max, I will not be resubscribing to their membership card. Maybe one day I'll be back- but so long for now.
#2 Sam's Club Business membership
I do love Sam's club. I have done some price comparisons ( which I need to share with you soon) and they do have some better deals on things I use compared to my local grocery store. The kids also like the samples there when we shop :) But last year I bought the $100 per year membership!!! It was the business membership and included the perk of getting $10 back per $500 spend. So that meant in order to get my money back I would have needed to have spent $5000 there last year- just to break even on the upgraded membership. That is probably doable for a real person that runs a business, but I had no business buying it. I earned a whopping $20 back.... They just asked me at the register one day if I wanted to upgrade my "regular" membership and said " sure". Ouch. That was a lesson learned. My membership expires on January 28th and I will be opting for the $45 regular membership once again ( with my $20 earned from last year going towards it).
#3 ProFlowers Celebration Club membership
Last year I had an aunt that was sick and I sent her flowers, and chocolates and cookies from 1800 Flowers- I thought I should go ahead and buy a membership for $29.99 so I get free shipping. Well first of all- with us owing so much money to my student loans ( among other folks) I really had no business purchasing as many items from there as I did- and I surely didn't need a $29.99 membership.
The good news here is that I saw the charge ( which apparently renews automatically each year) on my statement and called THAT day to ask for it to be removed and cancel my membership. They were very nice and cancelled it and thankfully refunded me.
#4 Magazine Subscriptions
There are a handful of magazines that I enjoy reading. I have purchased memberships to them in the past. This year when they expire they expire. I can either read something else, request them at my local library or just do without. I'll be fine and I spent over $45 last year alone on subscriptions.
A side note there is a site called RecycleBank ( free of course) where you can earn points to cash in for magazine subscriptions. I just cashed in for a subscription to Money Magazine and Country Living ( both for free using my points) this past week. So there is a way to earn free magazine subscriptions.
What things in your budget from last year can you get away with getting rid of this year? It all adds up!
No comments:
Post a Comment