In the creation of your spending plan to this point you have assumed that your fixed expenses were just that, fixed. As you review your disposable cash and determine if you have enough available, you may need to consider if there are ways to reduce fixed expenses.
If you can reduce any of your fixed expenses, it provides more funds for the variable expenses and allows you to have the funds for what you really want. Maybe you can refinance loans to lower interest rates and reduce payments. Can you lower your cable or cell phone bill in order to increase your disposable cash? Have you shopped your insurance costs recently to see if you can lower those expenses?
You can elect to make minor changes or consider more drastic ones. For example, are your vacation, holiday and entertainment expenses important enough to you to consider reducing your housing expenses by downsizing, taking in a roommate or renting somewhere different? In some ways, this is what the tiny house movement is all about. Maybe your current house is your sanctuary and not something you are willing to give up. You need to decide what you are willing to sacrifice to allow your housing to not change.
Look at the big expenses and payments such as housing and vehicle to see if you can reduce them. Simultaneously, do not ignore the small expenses. Saving $10 a week on five expenses gives you an extra $50 to put somewhere. Even saving $3 on one expense can allow you to stop at the ice cream shop once a week if that is a treat you really love.
Again, this spending plan is yours. You get to decide what you want to prioritize and what you are willing to change to make sure your priorities are met. The key is remembering, these are your priorities, not what someone else says is best. If you need some ideas of how to reduce expenses, consider reviewing the blog topic we have started called “52 Weeks to Savings Money”.
No expense should be off limits, scrutinize all of them to see where you can save in order to have more cash available for what you most want. We do suggest, if you determine a way to reduce an expense, add 50% of the savings to the amount you have available for disposable cash. Take the other 50% of the savings and add it to a debt payment to get yourself unsaddled from paying off those “old expenses”. Every little bit helps if it gets you closer to what your desire in true spending plan.
To really make this successful and to help make sure that you are seeing the benefit, make sure that you designate where all savings are going. Giving up something and not making the connection to what it allows you to do that you enjoy more is likely to mean that you will not “give it up” for long.