4 Tips to Help Reduce Daily and Recurring Expenses

If you’re looking for ways to reduce your spending, a good place to start is by reviewing your daily or recurring expenses. The idea is to focus on making small changes over time rather than forcing big changes overnight, which can be unrealistic and hard to sustain.

Remember: Even small changes in your daily spending habits can make a big difference. And any potential savings you find could mean more dollars to put toward your financial goals.

Ahead, we’ll go over a few tips on how you could start chipping away at those recurring expenses.

1. Track your expenses

Before you decide which expenses to cut back, it helps to see where your money is going each month. There are many different ways to track your expenses. The key is finding a strategy that works best for you.

For instance, you might consider using a money management or budgeting app that’s connected to your credit cards or bank accounts to help you visualize your spending habits.

Some people may prefer to do it the old-fashioned way, reviewing all the charges on their credit card or bank statements and sorting them into different categories to see exactly where their money goes.

Once you start keeping track, you’ll notice that your spending can often be broken down into two main categories: fixed and variable expenses.

Fixed expenses usually cover your essentials, such as your rent/mortgage, insurance, loan payments, etc. Variable expenses, on the other hand, typically include your discretionary or nonessential spending (e.g., dining out, memberships, entertainment, etc.), which can change from month to month.

When it comes to reducing spending, the variable category is where you generally want to zoom in on to find saving opportunities.

2. Review your subscriptions

With subscriptions and memberships, you might not even be aware of how much you’re paying for those services if you have them set on autopay or auto renewal.

Examples of subscriptions can include streaming services, publications (like digital journals and newspapers), or monthly personal care kits (e.g., beauty, grooming, clothing, etc.)

Assessing your subscriptions can be eye-opening. For instance, you may find that there are trial subscriptions you forgot to cancel or services that you no longer use. Cutting them from your budget can free up those dollars for something else.

If you are actively using your subscriptions, however, keep them.

Being mindful of our spending isn’t about denying ourselves the things we enjoy. Rather, it’s about eliminating unnecessary expenses—services you rarely use or are no longer enjoying.

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 may be able to negotiate your rates on things like cable, cell phone, and home or auto insurance coverage.

But before you contact your providers, it’s a good idea to do a little price comparison or competition research. That way you have some data to give your provider when negotiating.

You may not always be able to land a better rate, but it’s worth a shot, especially if you’ve been a long-time customer and you see better prices from their competitors.

4. Cooking at home 

On average, US consumers spend about $3,786 annually on food away from home, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the annual average is higher for those who live in cities like New York ($4,471), Chicago ($4,258), and Washington, DC ($5,675).

For those who aren’t as tied to their dining-out or takeout rituals, replacing some restaurant meals with cooking at home could go a long way in helping to curtail spending. Packing your own lunch for work could also be another smart way to save.

With busy work and family schedules, cooking at home every night may not always be feasible. This is when planning ahead can be helpful. For instance, meal prepping over the weekend could mean less stress during a hectic week when you don’t have time to make dinner from scratch.

Knowing that you have meals ready to eat (or heat up) at home can help steer you away from takeouts.

Meal prepping could also help you save on groceries since you’ll know exactly what you need to buy for the week—no waste, no impulse buys.