10 Things to Stop Paying For So You Can Save More Money

So a personal goal of mine is to help each of my money coaching clients FIND the money to be able to pay for my coaching services. On average, I help my clients save about $200-300 per month.

Sometimes I even help them save close to $1000 per month! Like Rob, who after just 2 coaching sessions started saving over $800. Or Jessica & her husband Casey who were able to pay off a personal loan after working together for 1 month!

Many times, after working 1:1 with a client, I have found that they are paying for things that are honestly just not necessary. So I want to share with you 10 things that you need to stop paying for based on things I have seen my clients pay for

10 Things to Stop Paying For

You probably already don’t spend money on some of these things. Because the reality is that you are a savvy person – so don’t get hung up on the things you already knew about, instead, find a few things you maybe didn’t know about yet and commit to eliminating at least one of these things in the next couple of months. And let me know in the comments which one you are going to try out! I’d love to hear how much you are able to save by eliminating one of them from your budget.

Books

Heather didn’t realize that she was getting close to spending $50 per month on books. Even though a lot of times she was buying books from thrift stores she was still buying enough to spend close to $50 per month.

We discussed alternative options of going and buying books, the main one being simply going to the library! Our library has most of the books I could ever want to read, plus, I’m a huge fan of audio books and our library offers a huge selection of audio books as well!

You can also find used books for great prices at ThriftBooks.com. You can even earn one free book using this referral link.

Movies

Similar to books, my husband and I get our movies from the library. Sure you have to wait a couple months after the movie is first released, but movie tickets are so expensive these days and there is no option to pause if you have to go to the bathroom! I personally enjoy just watching movies from the comforts of our own home.

The library is a great place to check for a movie, as well as places like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video if you have subscriptions to either of these already.

Beer & Hard Seltzer

So this next one is only for those 21 years or older and it requires a bit of creativity!

If you’re not familiar with the app FieldAgent yet, I’d highly recommend checking them out because not only can you earn money doing simple “undercover” tasks like taking pictures of deodorant displays at Target (something that I did actually earn money for once), but you can also get paid for trying products out.

For the past several months Field agent has been offering buy & try jobs for several different alcohol products including beers and hard seltzers!

Check out my blog post in the show notes below to learn how to use Field Agent to earn hundreds of dollars a year

Many times, after working 1:1 with a client, I have found that they are paying for things that are honestly just not necessary. So I want to share with you 10 things that you need to stop paying for based on things I have seen my clients pay for — PIN FOR LATER

Coffee

That also brings me to the next thing to stop paying for and that is coffee!

Chances are if you are a coffee drinker, you probably spend HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of dollars a year on coffee. If you went out for coffee every day and spent $5 on average, you’d have spent almost $2000 on coffee alone!!!

FieldAgent has offered a lot of coffee jobs in the past. I haven’t seen any recently, but in 2020, I got 2 jumbo sized coffee bags from Sam’s Club as well as tons of K-Cups!

Chances are you also probably have coffee at your office, your church, or even in your own home. But if you’re like me, you might enjoy going out for coffee. That’s why I have the Panera+ Coffee subscription! After taxes I pay less than $10/month for UNLIMITED coffee. That’s right! I can go grab a fresh cup of coffee every 2 hours.

You may be a Starbucks loyalist and feel like it’s impossible to not grab your venti iced mocha every afternoon, but try it out! You may be as surprised as my former client, Taylor, who now finds making coffee at home more enjoyable than spending that $5 at Starbucks!

Parking

I don’t personally pay for a lot of parking in the Suburbs of Denver, but when we go downtown, my husband likes to drive around to try to find free parking. Paying for parking may seem like the only option at times, but if you are able and willing to walk a few blocks, you can save a bunch of money.

Also, if you live in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, LA, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Phoenix or Salt Lake City You can get FREE Airport parking!

How?

Well the only catch is you have to be willing to share your vehicle with other travelers coming into the city. Avail is a newer form of car sharing where you can drop off your car at their parking lot at the airport, and also enjoy the opportunity to earn some money if the car is rented out!

I tried it out a couple times before my car had too many miles to qualify, and even though my car was never rented out, we enjoyed many vacations with free airport parking!

Check out my full review of Avail here.

Newest Generation Phone

Every year, major phone companies come out with a new generation of their smartphone and every year they get MORE EXPENSIVE. The newest iphone is up to $1000…. YIKES.

Phone companies hire super awesome marketers who are really really good at convincing you that their newest model is EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED. And they get you to trade in your last year’s model to earn a small discount off of the new phone. It may seem like a great deal to earn $800 off the newest phone, but in reality did you actually need a new phone? Was your old one obsolete?

I bought my iphone in 2019 for only $400 and it still works great. Sure it’s not as cool as the newest models, but hey, it does exactly what i need it to do.

The Money Taboo a weekly faith and finance devotional with Katie Jones

Cable

Do you still have cable?

The last time that I had cable was when I still lived with my parents, and I wasn’t even paying for it then. I’ve never had cable, but I’m not big into live television. However, I do love having Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Oh and have I mentioned how much I love the library? We’ve been watching all of Brooklyn 99 by renting the DVDs from the library! (Seriously, go to your local library)

Overdraft Fees

Overdraft fees are when your bank account hits $0 and then you go and pay for something else using that same account. It’s a common mistake but one that can easily be avoided with a bit of planning!

Keeping a simple budget is the easiest and most cost effective way to ensure you don’t incur any more overdraft fees. If you struggle with paying overdraft fees regularly, I recommend implementing a weekly budget, meaning that you plan out every paycheck by week in order to ensure you don’t use up all of your income right away.

If you don’t already have a budget, check out the very exact templates that I use with my clients as well as the same ones I personally use! They come with both monthly and weekly budget templates!

Nails

Okay gentlemen, this one is for the ladies out there.

Getting your nails done can be expensive. But I personally still love having professional looking nails. I invested in a nice UV Gel Nail Kit so that I could paint my nails and still have them looking professional. It took me a while to get good at it, but now I love using my UV gel nail kit to make fancy looking nails!

Expensive Cell Service

These days we can’t really get away with not having a cell phone, so we need to bite the bullet and pay for a good phone provider. In the past, it was common knowledge that if a cell phone provider was really cheap it was probably because they had terrible service. The good news is that cell service is pretty much the same across the board, sure there are certain providers that have better coverage in more rural areas, but if you live in or around a major town, chances are you can find good coverage with ANY provider these days.

My former client Rob and his family were paying over $300/month for their coverage (not including paying off their phones) after making the switch to my favorite phone provider they were paying only $120/mo for unlimited data for their family of 4!

That provider we love so much is Mint Mobile! My husband and I pay $40/mo and we both get 10GB of data, but their cheapest plan starts at $15/mo for one person. Check out my review of Mint Mobile here.

Your Challenge Is To Pick One of these Things To Stop Paying For and CUT IT!

I hope you found this list of things to stop paying for helpful. My challenge to you is to pick ONE of these things that you are currently paying for and see if you can either replace it with something more cost effective, or if you can completely eliminate it from your budget.

Let me know which thing you choose to cut as well as how much money it is saving you!

Oh and if there are any other things that you have totally stopped paying for drop them in the comments below. I’m always looking for new ways to help my clients save money and appreciate any recommendations.

Ready to transform your financial journey through faith-based guidance? Book an empowering call with Katie Jones, a Certified Christian Financial Counselor, today and pave the way for abundance and blessings in your life!