Anonymous wrote:I'm cutting out Amazon because its way too easy to buy something I don't really need. Yes they have good deals on there, but I think the impulse purchases end up offsetting any savings for other things. I think the same thing about Costco.

Get some therapy to figure out why you need to buy things you don't need. It's probably something in your childhood that you are not even aware of.

You need to stop it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw

+1 for Automate savings directly from your paycheck.
Figure out the amount you need to save. Open a savings account and set up direct deposit from your paycheck.

Anonymous wrote:We have been cost cutting since August.

-Got rid of a bunch of subscriptions
-Renegotiated my verizon cell phone plan
-Stopped eating out at expensive places/ getting expensive takeout
-Paid attention to cost of groceries
-Stopped buying alcohol

We've been able to save close to $1000 a month.

Can you please elaborate?

We have been cost cutting since August.

-Got rid of a bunch of subscriptions
-Renegotiated my verizon cell phone plan
-Stopped eating out at expensive places/ getting expensive takeout
-Paid attention to cost of groceries
-Stopped buying alcohol

We've been able to save close to $1000 a month.

I think it is important to look at big expenses first. Such as housing. It is much more expensive/maintain to live in a larger home. Taxes, utilities, furnishing etc. buy the right size house. It saves alot of money. Same with Cars- buy nice reliable cars and drive them until they die. Public over private school. Groceries and eating in over carryout and dining out. Save on bringing lunch to work most days and go out infrequently as a treat. Hobbies, some are very expensive, like boating and golf. Make sure to automate retirement, emergency, and college savings.

Limit how often you go into stores and limit the stores you go to. Let yourself run out of things and make do with what you have. Know what’s cheapest at each store and what’s more expensive but you end up buying anyway since you’re there. There’s no point buying eggs at Costco to save $1 a dozen, if you’re spending $1-2 more per loaf of bread than you would at ALDI or Lidl.

I go to Costco and Wegmans once every two weeks, and fill in from Lidl for bread, milk and produce. I buy what’s cheapest at each store and, unless it’s something like baby formula, I make do if I run out of something too early. It encourages and rewards better planning.

Know your weaknesses and avoid them. Costco’s clothing section, or the Home Decor section at Target, or Walmart’s stationery aisle- if you go there while you’re doing your ordinary grocery shopping, you will find a deal. That’s because there’s always deals. My rule for myself is if I see something I have to have, I can’t buy it at that shopping trip. Non-grocery stuff, non-household needs stuff gets bought in a separate trip. Usually once I’m home, the urge has flamed out.

Anonymous wrote:Pay yourself first. That's the #1 thing that will make a difference.

If you're trying to stop mindless spending, delete your credit card info from your computer/Google pay and take your cards out of your wallet

If you're really scraping the wire to save every penny, the cash/envelope system for things like groceries and shopping works.

This. You have to automate savings, preferably directly from your paycheck, then only spend what is left over. There have been times where we've felt straight up poor, like we're living pay check to pay check and can't buy steaks or fish until the next check, even though we now have a lot money in retirement, 529 plans and our brokerage account. Now that we're older, this rarely happens anymore.

Do one of those no-spend challenges where you don’t buy anything but the absolute essentials for a given period of time: like 2-4 weeks. This will help you identify a lot of waste.

Know where your money is going now: use one of those free budget tools (Mint) to see how much you are spending on what. It's super easy to link it to your accounts and let it automatically categorize your spending (you can fuss with the categories if you want to be more precise).

"I can't believe we spent $2k on Amazon over the past 3 months."
"We're spending $250/month on subscriptions"
"It might not be worth it to spend $70k on a new electric car to save $250/month on gas for a car that is running just fine."
"Are we really spending more on clothes/shoes/hair than groceries? Yes, yes we are"

It all goes back to a college experiment where one of our profs challenged us to stack up our empty drink containers in our room for a semester.

When you look at the piles of what you drink/spend, it opens your eyes.

I'm cutting out Amazon because its way too easy to buy something I don't really need. Yes they have good deals on there, but I think the impulse purchases end up offsetting any savings for other things. I think the same thing about Costco.

I'm not sure that I see the objection to Amazon here. Sometimes, they legitimately have very good deals.

In addition to the above posts, I would point out that sometimes one needs to spend money in order to save money. Don't cheap out on car or home maintenance. Buy good-quality, long-lasting products, rather than cheap, disposable ones. Get good health care. Have good insurance. Buy in bulk when you can.

A commonly recommended idea that makes sense to me is to keep track of all of your expenses for a month. Then, go back and see which ones, if any, can be reduced or eliminated next month. Then, repeat this process the next month.

Also, less commonly mentioned but just as valid: increase your income. Look for a better-paying job, take on an additional part-time job, sell some of your junk on Ebay, or do all of these.

Pay yourself first. That's the #1 thing that will make a difference.

If you're trying to stop mindless spending, delete your credit card info from your computer/Google pay and take your cards out of your wallet

If you're really scraping the wire to save every penny, the cash/envelope system for things like groceries and shopping works.

Set a budget, a healthy and sustainable budget. It's kinda like losing weight, don't starve yourself, make it last.

Treat it like a bill and pay that bill first!

This year I am really trying to focus on saving as much money as possible. I am aiming to cut out all spending on Amazon and cancelling my Prime subscription, and I am aiming to do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi. What are some other easy to implement ideas that can help maximize savings?