Money-Saving Tips For Paying Off Debt

hey guys welcome back to my channel so today's videos can be on the topic of money and I actually asked you guys on Instagram how you felt about that and pretty much it was unanimous most everyone wanted to see some videos on paying off debt saving thousands of dollars and working towards financial freedom so I figured I would start sharing that process with you guys you know kind of like how I budget and sort of different changes I've made over the years ok so here's some of our main money saving tips for paying off debt and this is specifically geared towards paying off debt or saving money so whatever you know like wherever you're at this is geared towards really cutting those costs really whittling them down so you make sure that you have money to get that debt knocked out or to get that savings account you know built up as quickly as possible so it might not apply to everyone but these are just our own personal tips okay my name's Damon tip number one is to write out a monthly budget and you want to write a fresh new budget for every single month that way you know if your expenses vary you know obviously if you're going to be paying off debts and your expenses are going to be changing and you want to kind of you know reallocate money to different areas maybe different categories but at least you'll know what expenses are coming at you that month and what your income is going to be or if you have an inconsistent income you can at least kind of have your projected average income I know it can be hard if like you work on like Commission base you know sales or something like that to know what your income is going to be sometimes it can be really high one month and then really low the next month but at least we'll give you kind of a grounding sort of idea for what expenses are going to be coming at you and what income you are probably going to have to work with so for example I like to do the zero based budget which I got that idea from Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruise I love watching them on YouTube and then listening to his radio station I think they are awesome they have such good advice for being able to pay off debt and really you know tackle it and get that out of there so you can become financially free and you don't have to have bills or loans hanging over your head my second tip is to look for any bills that you can eliminate so maybe there are some unnecessary bills you don't absolutely have to have and that's something that you want to look at you know everyone's gonna be a little bit different I know for me Michael and I used to have gym memberships and we cut that out another one would be like a landline phone if you already have a cell phone maybe you don't need to have both I know that that's something Michael and I did - was we eliminated our landline phone and so now we just we only have our cell phones another thing we did was several years ago we sold our second vehicle so we used to actually have two trucks like I take full responsibility for purchasing a brand new vehicle at a time in my life when I really shouldn't have because if I couldn't pay cash for it then I really couldn't afford it I could afford the monthly payments but I didn't need to buy like a twenty two thousand dollar truck you know at the time it was not a smart idea I will never purchase a brand-new vehicle off the lot again I will only buy used from now on and I'm only paid cash for that used vehicle but I do have you know a shock it's paid off I work really hard to pay it off that's the trick that we have right now the Toyota Tundra and Michael also had a truck before - he had another Toyota so we ended up selling his truck and only keeping mine okay tip number three is to cancel subscription so maybe you have you know some magazine subscriptions I know I used to have like Fitness Magazine shape what was the other one like oxygen magazine like the fitness magazines I was really into those like years ago so I would get those every once in a while I get a subscription to them and now I don't do that anymore because all the information is free online and if I'm already paying for internet then I don't really need like any of these magazines anymore so I quit any subscriptions I had cancelled any of those otherwise there might be other types of subscriptions like you know box samples I know here on YouTube you know the box sample like Beauty sample boxes are really popular and that's definitely an expense that if you're trying to pay off a debt you definitely don't need to have something like that hanging up your head either but yeah once again it just varies on your personal situation and your personal finances and where you're at and you know it just it's going to vary from person to person right so I'm not trying to take like as I'm going over these I'm like oh I'm not trying to like you know take the fun out of your life or anything because it's actually not it's actually quite the opposite like budgeting is so freeing and like cutting expenses and Bill's like oh it can really make you feel like empowered and just like so motivated to just really work towards that financial freedom and you can see it you can almost taste it and it's just like really exciting you okay the next step is to eat at home as often as possible instead of eating out and Michael and I used to go out eat once a week and then we ended up scaling back when we realized how much money we were spending doing that we scaled back to once a month or once every couple of months and we'll just go out to our favorite restaurant and even then we usually end up splitting whatever we're getting or just splitting a single meal and it really works out to be so much cheaper and save us so much more money yet we're still you know we're still not like restricting ourselves like you still get to go out and have fun it's just less often going and doing it out and pain you know like full retail price or restaurant prices and instead you know if you're doing like a date night or something you can always make a nice dinner at home and just do other things that are less expensive instead of going out to like a fancy restaurant or something and also if you work outside the home you can always pack your lunch and you know it's not possible in all cases depending what you do for a living but you know you can always pack your lunch at home it's possible and bring it to work with you Michael actually started doing that to for himself instead of going out to a cafe or something and by lunch out every day which can really add up at the end of the week okay money saving tip number five was a big one for me and that is to quit buying expensive beverages or lattes I used to go out and buy a latte every single day and that really adds up at the end of the month oh my goodness oh I know it can be a hard one for some people to let go of but it is so worth it too especially like sorry there's construction going on especially if you have debt that you're serious about paying off find a latte every day you know for four dollars or whatever it is is not a good priority to have you know like priorities are backwards if you're not paying after debt but you're going out and buying four or five dollar lattes so just something to consider watch out for those beverages it's not just the food it's you know this quick little beverage expenses drive-throughs whatever just watch out for those and this is actually still an area that Michaels trying to work on he's trying to work on cutting back you know find those out-and-about beverages and coffees so what I did instead going out and buying you know smoothies or lattes or something I just started making them at home and then you can pour it into whatever nice little glass or cup that you have you know to-go cup and then take it out with you and then you're all set you already have your beverage you don't have to spade a spade you don't have to spin pay that $5 bill to go get your latte out and about or something you know okay the next tip has to do with entertainment so any type of entertainment where you're going out and spending money on that entertainment for us it was going to the movies and so we actually stopped going to the movies entirely I can't remember the last time we went to the movie theater but that was a really expensive bill and I think that we used to go like gosh I don't know probably like once every two weeks or something so like twice a month at least we would end up going to the movie theater probably spending like $25 because the tickets I don't know what it is in other places but out here it's like you know 20 bucks almost for two people to go to the movie theater and then you tack on like any little snacks or beverage or something that you buy you know and then ulsan before you know you've spent like 2530 dollars just going to see one movie the last two hours and I can really add up so entertainment whatever your you know entertainment of choices out and about that's another area that you're able to you know like prioritize maybe trim that down a bit and see what you can do to eliminate those sort of expenses and then another one kind of falls into the same category that is no cable TV Michael I do not have any cable TV in fact we don't even own a TV at all so yeah especially if you're working on getting out of debt having a cable TV bill is not something that is necessary you can definitely eliminate that and nowadays there's Hulu there's Netflix there's Amazon you know in stream movies and TV shows on all of those and it would be so much cheaper you know than being for a cable TV bill okay the next money saving tip is very old-fashioned but it really does work just reducing utilities wherever possible so just kind of trimming those utilities down a bit because it's something that you do have to pay every single month you know you need your electricity and water but if you can reduce that bill by at least a little bit that can you know that's better than nothing right that's a little more money that you're able to take and put towards whatever debt you're trying to pay off so just remembering to do the basics like turning off lights when you leave a room you know even Michael and I we turn off the water heater during the day we just leave it off all day long until you know just before we're ready to take our showers you know an hour before we flip it on that way it's not you know heating water all day long when no one's even home you know so that's just a little thing that we do and that actually cuts our electric bill down like quite a bit and also we don't have a dryer and so that also cuts our electricity down you know quite a bit to even in the future if I do have a dryer I will still try to use it as little as possible if I do have a yard where I'm able to hang dry clothes out in the sunshine instead and another bill you might be able to reduce is your cell phone bill if you go talk to your carrier maybe you can get either a better plan a less expensive plan or maybe you know use less data there might be an option out there to help reduce your cellphone bill all right the next tip is making a food budget and that way you're able to stick to a certain amount of money every week for your food and not go over that and that's something that Mike and I started doing so I can always explain where that in another video though you know or budget video or something but yeah sticking to a food budget you know for your groceries can be huge because that is something that you are in control of and the cost can vary wildly you can definitely fluctuate in the food category and our number one beverage of choice is water we just drink you know we have our filters like on our tap and so we just drink that instead of like going out and purchasing you know juices or other types of beverages okay guys this next tip is definitely not for everyone but it's something that I've had to do and that is holding off on pets and I love pets so much I've had pets my entire life but right now I am holding off on having any pets because I know I have some bills I have to pay off I have a lot of dentistry work that I'm going to be paying on and as soon as my Invisalign is finished and I know that's going to be coming at me and I'm not in a position right now in my life where I'm able to own pets even though I would love to so badly I would love to have some little fuzzy animals you know they are kind of another expense and you do have to add them into your budget you know the dog food the cat food whatever type of little animal you think you have that does also have to be in your budget anyway so it's not something I'm able to have in my budget right now okay this next step is going to be really hard for some and really easy for others and that is no weekly shopping trips I used to be in the habit of you know if you watch me for a long time then you already know this but I used to either go buy makeup or clothes or something like every week I would go out you know shopping at a store or online or something you know buy myself something because I felt like I deserved because I worked hard all week and so I treat myself you know but I was treating myself all the freaking time and it was like it was not not good decision making of my part which I fully admit I love shopping and it was becoming too much of a hobby for me and I realized that and I realized that okay I'm not making smart decisions for my financial future and financial freedom for the future so I need to make a change and so I made that change change my behavior changed my habits changed my hobby from shopping to you know other sorts of hobbies that were much less expensive so anyway Ross t.j.maxx Target Sephora those were some of my favorite places to shop every single week and now I just had my book so and now I don't all right guys so those are our own personal tips that I want to share with you for this video so something else I want to mention is also the budgeting can be so much fun what you're starting to see progress and you're really motivated to either pay off your debt or to just build your savings all you need to do is see that little spark of progress and can really light a fire inside of you and if you're working you know on a budget with your partner or you know your husband or wife or whatever or you're working with your kids and you're trying to get them kind of involved in the budget just make it fun make it like a game like you know how little can you spend this month you know what little expenses can you cut this month and just make it fun and it can actually be really enjoyable you know sticking to a budget saving money seeing that little bit of progress so thank you guys so much for watching I love you and I will see you in the next video bye guys

Channel: Christine Kobzeff

Views: 187,489

Keywords: money saving tips, pay off debt, how to, paying off debt, how to pay off credit cards, pay off credit cards fast, how to save money fast, dave ramsey, how to budget, how to create a budget, monthly budget, how to lower utility bills, financial freedom, debt free, how to be debt free, maui, hawaii, rachel cruze

Id: byqlyO1bns8

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2016