7 Ways to Cut Expenses (& Carbon Footprint) That Simplify Your Life

Seeing that times are bad for most of us now. I think a post about ways to cut expenses could be useful for my lovely visitors.

When I was little, my mom used to give me $0.80 or $1 a day to buy food at the school canteen. I had no concept of saving at that time. So I spent all the pocket money on food, snacks, and a beverage. Sometimes I spent 20c buying cute tiny erasers that smelled sweet.

After several days of coming back with no money left, she told me about saving and not spending money on useless things.

Mom explained that useless things are things that you don’t need. Food is fine. Cold drinks aren’t (it’s a Chinese thing – cold drinks are bad for the lungs). Nothing was mentioned about snacks, I think.

That marked the first concept of saving and the beginning of watching my money like a little hawk. It’s a great lesson that would continue to help me throughout my adult years. To this day, I continued to watch what I spend on.

Now, I suck at making money, but I’m pretty good at cutting expenses. It’s all in how you see things.

Cutting Costs involves mindset shifts

1. Buy only what you need

Consider what my mom told me – don’t buy useless stuff. To be fair, useless has a different definition depending on what matters to you. A laptop is a necessity to me, but many people get by with just their smartphones.

Instead, consider these criteria to decide what a need is:

• Affordability: I can afford it
• Regular use: I’ll need it regularly
• Substitution: There’s nothing I have that serves a similar function
• Benefit: It adds value to my life
• A more extreme approach: Can I live without it?

The answer to the last question for most things with the exception of groceries is no. If nothing else, that’s a great indication to us that we don’t need much to live.

• Read about finding abundance in austerity

Putting the criteria to use, some examples:

• tools – we can all use a bread maker, food processor, drill, etc, but will we use it regularly? Can we borrow it, or make do without it?
• bottled water – unless you live in an area with polluted drinking water, you have the perfect substitute from your taps
• candies – I can always “use” candies but they’re not good for me
• magazines that don’t add value to your life – if all it makes you think about is your weight and appearance, maybe it’s time to cancel the subscription even if it’s affordable and you use it all the time
• books – go to the library, or buy eBooks that are cheaper but still supports the author
• drinks – do you need a Starbucks coffee a day when you can have coffee at a fraction of the cost and calories? A treat every now and then is fine, but if you’re on a budget, expensive coffee quickly adds up

2. Rethink what you need

Most humans used to only own a handful of outfits. Just two generations ago, my grandmother would mend her clothes with fabric cut out from her most worn piece of clothing. She had a set of better clothes for special occasions.

These days, our closets are more often than not bursting with clothes. Yet we tend to reach for the same old outfits anyway. Sometimes we wear shirts even when there are holes in them because they’re so comfy!

Comparing both generations, I think the common denominator is we have no use for a lot of clothes.

The same logic applies to almost everything else. Do you need that new rug or sheets that are on sale when you have a dozen in your closet?

The fact is, we don’t need to be as high-maintenance as we’ve become conditioned to think.

You can take this one step further by considering things like

• do I need to dye my hair? Who am I dyeing it for? Is self-care making myself look a certain way? Or accepting myself for how and who I am?
• do I need a bigger house? Or lesser clutter?
• is there a need to turn on the air-conditioning when it’s 80°F (27°C) out? Can I use a fan?
• do I need a new outfit for every wedding I go to?
• do I need to use hot water to wash my clothes? (Please don’t use hot water cycles.)
• you don’t need to lay an aluminum foil on baking sheets

3. Be creative

Make it yourself

I needed a laptop stand a while back because my neck was hurting. Being on a tight budget, I looked around for replacements. I came across this nectarine carton that was very sturdy. I cut its height in half diagonally, and it became a perfectly functional laptop stand.

Need a new mask? Grab a worn t-shirt, or one you no longer like, and make one by following one of the thousands of mask-making videos on YouTube! It may not be the best but it’s free and YOU MADE IT!

Since we’re talking about making things, making your own meals have to be the best way to cut costs and it’s healthier (often cleaner) too. Consider the money saved as your wage for making the meal.

If you’re willing to make your own, you can enjoy many things at a fraction of the price it’s sold at, especially for nut butter and plant-based milk.

Think outside the box

Sometimes, we forget that things can have multiple uses. For instance, a bar of soap can be body wash, shampoo, hand soap, and shaving cream. You can even turn a bar of soap into laundry detergent.

Consider coconut oil. It can be used for cooking, baking, moisturizing, and removing makeup too.

Marketers want us to think that we need different products to do different things so that they can sell more items. But if we just get a little more creative, we can cut our expenses just by needing to buy fewer items.

4. Consider reusable and reusing

Reusable things are great money-savers. They’re things you only need to spend on once and not have to spend on again until they wear out.

Like cloth napkins. With the wide availability of washing machines, I don’t know why cloth handkerchiefs and napkins aren’t more widely used. We don’t even have to buy them. We can just cut up old towels into squares, put them in a jar or a box, and use them like tissue paper, paper towels, or napkins.

Do we need cling wraps? There are so many things we can use in place of cling wraps. If you want to cover a bowl of leftover salad, consider using a plate.

Glass jars and plastic take out containers are both great for storing things that we don’t have to pay extra for. We just need to wash it. If you have the money, invest in a beeswax wrap. But even that isn’t necessary.

If you used an aluminum foil to cover your lasagne, consider washing the foil and reusing it.

Cutting expenses don’t have to be difficult.

5. Buy quality/secondhand

Be it a new vacuum cleaner, a new coat, or a bar of soap, it may be tempting to buy the cheapest option you can get when you’re broke. Don’t give in to that temptation. If you decided you need a new item, choose the product with the best quality that you can afford.

Things with better quality last longer and give you better value – both in terms of user experience and financial sense. It also makes you feel more confident about owning less since you know that item won’t wear out as quickly. Quality items tend to look better and have higher resale value too.

A great way to buy high-quality items at a lower price is to buy secondhand! This is especially true when it comes to clothes. You can probably get a better wool coat secondhand than you can new with the same amount of money.

There’s no shame in using pre-loved items. It’s a great way to lower carbon footprint and cut expenses!

6. Take care of your things and wear them out

The last method of cutting costs doesn’t involve any effort at all. Sometimes, I think the best solutions are the simplest ones. We don’t need a tonne of stuff to live, but it’s inevitable to need stuff.

At this point, I’d like to urge you to pick up something you use, and think about the resources and efforts that has taken to bring the item to you. Be it a pair of socks, a sandwich bag, your smartphone, or a cookie.

Think about the raw material extractions, the manufacturing process, the raw materials used to make the machines, the water used in the entire process, the labor, the packaging, the material used for the packaging, transportation used to deliver the product to its place of sale and then to you.

Crazy amount of work, isn’t it?

I think the reason humans messed up so badly climate-wise is because we stopped thinking about the value of things.

When industrialization took over, we gained the ability to manufacture things in mass. We stopped thinking about what it takes to make something. When the price of things became affordable – we became more comfortable with wasting them.

So we stopped taking care of things or repairing them, using them up became too much work, and wearing something out took too long. When something doesn’t work the way we wanted it to, we get a new one.

Before we know it, we’re throwing things out before they’re used up or worn.

Well, we’d cut a lot of costs and carbon footprint if we all follow this old saying:

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

7. Know that the happiness a new item brings you will surely and quickly fade

I know, getting something new is fun. That’s the main reason we became avid consumers – there’s a surge of excitement when we buy something or receive a new package. A little like unwrapping presents under the Christmas tree.

With the exception of items that you really need or love, the joy with getting something new invariably fades. Whether it’s a new car or new shoes, it’ll become just another thing in your life. However, the money spent remains gone.

So, the next time you’re tempted to buy something that you don’t need, remember that whatever happiness it may bring you is short-lived. I suggest you keep the money instead.

In conclusion

I didn’t provide specifics in ways to cut expenses, since everyone’s expenses are different. These are mindset shifts we can all adopt to solve the overspending problem (if there’s one) at its root.

If you’ve read other posts on this blog – like one of my minimalist ones, you’ll see that there are overlaps. That’s because environmental-consciousness, frugality, and minimalism all share the common theme of conservation.

Environmental consciousness conserves resources, frugality conserves assets, while minimalism conserves attention and space.

I hope you’ve found this post useful. If you have, please share it! How do you cut expenses? Let me know in the comments!