4 Tips to Help Reduce Daily and Recurring Expenses

If you’re just looking to be more conscientious of your spending, a good place to start is by looking at your daily or recurring expenses.

As many of us may already know, those seemingly small expenditures can add up quickly. Sometimes, they may even take up more of our budget than any large one-time expenses. 

So let's go over a few tips on how you could start chipping away at those recurring expenses. Any potential savings you may find could mean more dollars for your other financial goals.

1. Track your expenses

This probably isn’t the groundbreaking tip you were expecting. But seriously, if you don’t already track your expenses, this can be the first step in reducing your spending.

There are multiple ways to track your expenses, and finding the strategy that works best for you will help ensure it becomes a habit, rather than a one-time excercise.

For example, you might consider using an expense-tracking app that’s connected to your credit card and bank accounts.

Some people may prefer to do it the old-fashioned way – by hand – going through all the charges on their monthly credit card or bank statements and sorting them into different categories to see exactly where their money went. 

Whatever your preferred method may be, you might be surprised at what you find – those various subscription services can add up quickly.

2. Take a closer look at any subscriptions you have

Now that you’ve seen where your money goes each month, we can start looking at areas where you can cut back.

Subscriptions and memberships are a natural place to start. If you've set up automatic payments for those subscriptions, you might not even be aware of all the money you’re shelling out on services.

Examples of subscriptions include streaming services, audiobook services, publications (like digital journals/ newspapers), and so on.

While some of these may have become a part of your daily life, doing an audit of all your active subscriptions might be eye-opening. You may end up keeping them but you may also find that you don’t use some subscriptions as much as you thought you would. If that’s the case, cancelling could free up some extra cash.

3. Try negotiating some of your bills

Think your bills are too high for certain utilities or services? Consider calling up your service providers and see if they can lower your rates.

Generally speaking, you could usually negotiate your rates on things like cable, cell phone and auto insurance coverage. 

Before you hop on the phone, start by checking out online comparison websites to size up the prices you’re currently paying in your area. That way you have some data to give your provider when negotiating.

You may not always be able to negotiate a better rate, but it's worth a shot – especially if you've been a loyal customer.