“Manifest More Money Into Your Life in 7 Steps- Step 4 is part of a 7 week series that will run every Tuesday until September 28, 2010.The entire series can be found under Money Tips.
Step 4. Eliminate unnecessary expenses.
The next way to manifest more money into your life is cut out those expenses in your life that you don’t need, those that aren’t essential. The first step to this is identifying them. Take a pen and paper and write down each of your monthly expenses and anything else that you can think of that you spend money on. Do you buy coffee every morning at your local coffee shop? Do you eat out every week? These are questions you can ask yourself that will help you identify where you money is going.
Once you have your list, make a new list, writing down only those items that are absolute expenses; items like your electricity bill, your water bill, your heating bill, etc. These are things that you have pay for every month to meet your basic needs. Then make a second list of everything that is left over. The items on this list are those that you can trim down or get rid of all together. Think long and hard about each one and whether it actually adds happiness and fulfillment to your life. Remember, the goal here is to be financially free not unhappy and miserable. Write down your answer to this question next to each item. This will help you determine which of these expenses you can eliminate.
Next, eliminate them. Make a promise or vow to yourself that for the next month you won’t spend money on any of those things. At the end of the month, when you review your finances, you will see how much money you saved by eliminating those items. I can promise you that the feeling will be that of accomplishment and satisfaction and relief. You will now have money to put towards your current debt or into savings or the start of an emergency fund.
Still not sure what to eliminate? Here are some ways my husband and I have cut expenses in the last few months to save money:
I walk to and from work every day. I no longer have to pay for parking or fill my car as often. I also get the benefits of exercise, fresh air, and the satisfaction knowing that I am helping my environment. As a bonus, we even pay less to insure my car. In total, we save over $300 a month just with this one change.
Eat mainly plant based. We are not vegetarians. My husband still enjoys his meat now and again but we do make an effort to eat plant based meals most days of the week. Meat is one of the most expensive things to buy and by buying it less we save money. We also are getting additional nutrients by adding a greater variety of produce into our diet.
Work out at home. The last few months we have been working out at home. This has helped us save time as well as money on gas that we would spend driving to the gym. It also saves us money on our gym membership.
These are just a few things we have done that have helped us save money. There are many more that I have discussed in other posts. The bottom line is that if you take the time to think about each scenario, you are almost guaranteed to find ways that you can trim, cut, or eliminate costs. You just have sit down and do it. Once you do this, you are once again one step closer to manifesting more money into your life.
