Three Budgeting Hacks to Save You Money

We're still over here trying to work on our budget. We know that money can be an issue in marriage, and we are trying to manage it together, before it becomes an issue. Here are a few recent budget hacks from our adventures in life together:

1) Track your spending. It's annoying, but seriously, just do it. Start small, maybe just a category or two, and see what you spend, no judgement. We let our Costco membership expire a few months ago, but when we did, I committed to tracking potential savings. We didn't save the first month or so, but guess what? In the last few weeks, gas prices have skyrocketed. With Costco membership, I could have saved $3.00 a week on gas alone. And now we have two cars. So we renewed our membership and now know that we'll at least break even.

2) Look for discounts. We recently discovered that Verizon gives my employer a discount on cell phone plans. We save almost $20 a month by activating that offer. Now we are looking for other places our various affiliations might save us money.

3) Use grocery pickup. This might sound strange, but hear me out. I use the Wal-Mart grocery pickup app to order groceries each week. I use the app as a working grocery list throughout the week. I preload everything I want to buy, and then I look at the total. If I'm over the budget, I see what I can remove. This process has helped me realize how many times I overstock, or buy things when I really don't need them. Shopping via the app also helps reduce splurge buys.

Easy peasy? No. All these budget hacks take time, but they also save money. And time is money, so there's a trade off. Are these hacks right for you? I don't know. Maybe try them and see.

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Do you have any budget hacks to share? Please comment below.

We Let Our Costco Membership Expire.

Our Costco membership expired. We let it. That might surprise people, given that we are a couple focused on keeping a budget, and Costco is a budget friendly store. We actually let our membership expire because of the budget, however. Let me explain.

I started calculating the savings we gain using our Costco membership. Gas is the largest category for savings. We save an average of 10 cents per gallon of gas we buy. Multiplied by the approximate six gallons of gas I use to commute to work each month, that is 60 cents of savings, or $2.40. We save some money on products we buy, but we don't shop regularly enough for me to calculate them monthly. We also have another bulk store right next to Costco and shop there more often. We could save on eyeglasses and prescriptions at Costco, but for various reasons, we don't use Costco for those services. With Costco membership costing a minimum of $60 a year, we need to save an additional $2.60 a month to make the membership cost a wash. I'm not sure we're doing that.

Then there are the time and convenience factors. I learned about grocery pickup when COVID-19 hit, and have stuck with it since then. Costco doesn't have this service. Costco is also more difficult to enter and exit due to lines and extra precautions. Honestly, going to Costco lately has become more of a stressor that a stress reliever. I really like Costco products (think cheese, peanut butter, cocoa, cinnamon, etc.), but I wonder if my preference is really worth the costs to both our budget and our time. So we're letting our membership expire to see.

Will we likely renew our Costco membership at some point? I believe we will. Maybe in a few months. Maybe in a few years. Maybe never. If/when we go back, I want to make sure have a good rationale for doing so. I want to make sure it's worth it, and not just for budget reasons.