I made an important life decision half way through 2010 to reduce my daily spend and start living alot more frugally. Ofcourse this would take effort and a possible initial outlay cost which would eventually be made back. I also wanted to ensure that no value had been lost from moving to a more frugal lifestyle and that my quality of life would continue to improve.
Here is how I reduced 3 monthly expenses, saving an estimated $1364 a year and also gained value from 2 of the expenses by simply reassessing and make a conscious change.
Changed my mobile phone plan
The phone plan I was on was carried over from the G1 I bought when it was first released in Australia. I moved this over to a $30 per month pre-paid plan in November, 2010. Starting mid January, 2011, I will move this to a $10 monthly plan which will give me 350mb of data but no GSM outbound calls. I mainly use VoIP on my phone for incoming and outgoing calls so there is no value lost here. I’m still able to keep my mobile number for inbound calls and SMS. Every 6 months I do have to top up with $30 worth of prepaid credit to keep my mobile number.
Value gained or lost: No value gained or lost. I dont consider not being able to make outbound GSM calls a loss as I can continue making outbound calls using VoIP. Outlay cost: $12 for a G.729 codec which I can use on my phone VoIP client. This low bandwidth codec will improve VoIP quality over 3G. Effort spent: 30 minutes researching my Telco’s mobile plans. Estimated saving per year: $440.
Changed home DSL plan
I use to pay $92 per month for my home DSL which included line rental giving me a 60GB quota. In December 2010, I moved this to a $64.95 plan which includes line rental and also increased my quota to 120GB.
Value gained or lost: I gained an extra 60GB of quota per month. No value was lost. Outlay cost: $0. The new plan was with my current ISP so there was no disconnection or signup fees. Effort spent: 60 minutes researching ISP plans. 30 minutes signing up to the new plan. 20 minutes greeting and dealing with the Telco technician who arrived to light up the new DSL line. Estimated saving per year: $324.
Dropped my gym membership
My local gym charged $50 per month to access all the weights, treadmills and boxing gear. I let my membership lapse in September 2010. The problem I find with gyms, besides being rather expensive, is that their opening times determine when you can train.
I have continued running though have purchased an iPhone armband and a set of running headphones with a combined cost of $100. I’ve also spent $6 on runmeter but have just started testing runkeeper which you can purchase for free for the month of January, 2011. I bought 50 kgs of barbell weights for $120. I already had a set of barbells which I purchased several years ago. The weights coupled with a decline bench I also purchased several years ago allows me to continue light weight workouts.
Value gained or lost: Ive gained the freedom to be able to do a light weight workout when ever I want. No value was lost. Outlay cost: $120 for the weights. $100 for the iPhone running equipment and $6 for runmeter. Runkeeper was purchased for free in the month of January, 2011. Effort spent: 20 minutes in the Apple store purchasing the armband and headphones. 30 minutes researching runmeter and runkeeper. Estimated saving per year: $600
Im continuing to look at my recurring expenses trying to figure out where they can be reduced, the outlay cost and the effort required on my behalf.
