# Cutting Back on Frivolous Spending



## Fisherman30 (Dec 5, 2018)

Hi Everyone,

My Wife and I have recently started budgeting, and we realized there are a lot of places to trim fat. I'm interested to hear some things you have all done to reduce frivolous spending. 

One thing I did that I was proud of was just simply phoning my internet provider and asking if they could extend my internet promotion....They extended my promotion by 6 extra months which will save me about $180 over 6 months.

I also started doing more of my own oil changes. My garage isn't heated, and I live in Winnipeg, so during the winter, I still pay someone else to do it. I also change my own tires. Also, car washes were starting to add up, so instead of the drive through touchless car wash, I wash the vehicles at the self serve car wash for about half the price.

I travel for work, and I was spending about $60/month on coffee. I started bringing a contego mug with me everywhere I go, with a ziploc bag full of tea bags, and I just get my mug filled up with hot water for free, and I make my tea. 

For meals, we cut back on the amount of beef we eat, and started eating more pork, and just generally cutting back on our meat intake. 

As someone stated in my other thread....tiny drops of water make up the mighty sea (along those lines).


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

I always felt that the best way to identify and cut out frivolous spending was to take away the money. Waste tends to come into your life when money becomes more abundant. You get lazy when the need to cut spending is not as pressing.

So, what I did when I was much younger is simply set up aggressive savings goals. Start out with some easy numbers that get directed to RRSPs, TFSAs, non-registered accounts, whatever, every month. Then, if you don't notice much pain in those missing dollars, increase it. So a few months later, move the savings number up. Keep doing this until you start to notice a little bit of pain, then leave it there until you acquire raises in income, etc. All raises go to savings. You can adjust this monthly savings amount, every 10 years or so for inflation or after every baby you have, etc., but if you are adjusting it from one month to the next, both down and up, it is not working.

Anyway, now that the excess money is gone you will work a little harder at cutting away the fat that crept into your life. Most people will live within their means. The only way those people get frivolous is when they have more money then they know what to do with. So get rid of it.


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## Jimmy (May 19, 2017)

You can save on clothes by buying towards the end of the season. I know for sporting /outdoor clothing the sales usually start at midseason to move the stock out. You can save 25-50% typically. Ex bought some golf shirts at Golf Town that were $85 regularly for $45-50 in mid July.


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## Onagoth (May 12, 2017)

This is exactly what we’ve done for the past 3-4 years and it has worked out well

Best way to not spend it, was to immediately remove it from our bank account, or by ensuring it never goes into the account in the first place (payroll contributions to savings plans)


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## lonewolf :) (Sep 13, 2016)

@ these high levels buying stocks would be frivolous spending


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Sounds like you're doing a lot of great things. I got in touch with the author of this book a few months ago, here are some of the tips he suggests:
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/easy-cashflow-cookbook-recipes-for-financial-wealth/


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## Longtimeago (Aug 8, 2018)

Umm, to cut back on frivolous spending, you must first have bee a frivolous spending kind of person to begin with. Which if you think about it, means you are insulting yourself. 
Maybe the use of the word 'frivolous' is not really what you should have used.

Paying to have oil changes and tire rotations done is not 'frivolous' in my book at least. Nor is eating a steak when I want to. They are indeed ways you can spend less but they aren't 'frivolous'. They are simply ways to spend less.

The only definition of 'frivolous' that would be applicable, would be something 'of little weight or importance.'
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frivolous Changing oil and tires would hardly be called frivolous, they are more like a necessity. 

There are countless ways to 'spend less' that someone who wants to save money can consider. I don't see any point in re-inventing the wheel here however. You can find plenty of lists with a simple Google search.

https://www.google.com/search?q=way.....69i57j0l5.6587j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Some suggestions will appeal to some people while others will find some ridiculous. Some in this list certainly strike me as ridiculous. 
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/lit...-saving-money-for-those-just-getting-started/

If you want to hang with the dogs that are really into spending less, then take yourself to the money mustache forum and see what they talk about doing.


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

Our experience was that our biggest payback was the review of ongoing expenses. A complete review of our investment and our banking fees yielded the most significant ongoing savings (and ongoing investment gains). 

We also periodically review and compare our insurance rates-home and car. Also our cell phone plans and home cable/internet fees. These, plus a careful annual review of our tax position. We have few opportunities to minimize tax but we do review this every year and read the blogs for suggestions/advice etc. We review of our premium credit cards as compared to the market at that time. The final thing we do, and have always done, is completely avoid consumer credit.

We service our vehicles as per the manual, paying particular attention to the various fluids. It is not worth our while to do our own oil changes, nor do I have the desire to do so. But, I do not bother with the fast lubes etc. We actually get a better oil change price from the dealer. They give us a heads up of other issues at the same time, hoping that we will use their services. Sometimes we do, most other times we review the list with our small independent who specializes in our vehicle make. I used to take my company leased vehicles to the mini lubes. More than once they offered to do ' suggested necessary work' on nearly new vehicles with less that 10 or 12K.


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